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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 9, 2014 22:23:18 GMT
Hello! One of my cats is a small Turkish Angora, Carlotta. I recently weighed her and found she has gone down to 2kg from 3kg (after about 6 months). She eats quite a bit and exercises a lot, and hasn't shown any signs of being under weight, it's just 2kg seems tiny, she super light to pick up.
She does have one of those belly pouch things that makes her look overweight when she's not. I did a cat BMI thing but annoying I can't find a chart to see if she's underweight! The best I've found is that a cat with 45 or over is overweight. It didn't say if it was inches or cm, so Carlotta is BMI40 with cm and 14.07 with inches.
Is there any other way of finding out if she's an okay weight without taking her to the vet (she hates that haha!)? Or does anyone know of a cat BMI thing with an actual graph?
Turkish angoras aren't meant to weigh less than 3kg, but I think that's the American ones which are practically a different breed from the actual Turkish ones who are from random bred street cats and have a lot of variety. Carlotta is the Turkish kind. What I mean is, the breed standard might not take into account the actual original TA cats.
Thanks!
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Post by tonib on Mar 9, 2014 22:56:20 GMT
Hi smilesbetter, I'm no way an expert on cat weights or pedigree breeds but I must admit 2Kg does sound light for a cat and a third of body weight does seem a bit excessive unless you had put her on a diet, but how old is Carlotta? In other words is she fully grown? I've not seen BMI measurements for cats but www.hillspet.com/cat-breeds/turkish-angora.htmlhad some weight ranges for the breed.
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 10, 2014 6:27:25 GMT
Hiya tonib thanks for the reply! She's 6 - 7 years old so fully grown, never been on a diet but fed exactly the right amount for a 3kg cat according to the manufacturers instructions on her food. She can only eat one type of food as everything else makes her sick, and even then she is sometimes still sick. The vet just says "change her food" when I ask which makes her worse. The previous owner (we got her last summer) did say she was sick a lot, I think it might be why they got rid of her. We sent the previous owners a picture of her about 6 months ago and they said "have you got her fat?!" (When she was 3kg), so I don't know if it's normal for her. I know the Turkish Angora weights usually say 3kg+, but they are usually for the American ones (I think also the ones in UK might come from American ones) which I think are bigger and look very different. The actual Turkish ones (same name so hard to find details on) have a huge breeding "stock" and often still come from the random bred street cats, so there isn't really a breed standard for them so much. In America they have been made into a full breed by the limited amount of the cats. She is a very small cat, and she always let's is know when she's hungry and never tries to steal food, it just seems so tiny :S
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Post by lotsofcats on Mar 10, 2014 9:46:43 GMT
2kg seems really small for a cat. All of mine are 5kg+. As Carlotta has lost 1kg I would suggest taking her to the vet for a check up as that is a lot of weight to lose when the cat was only 3kg to start with.
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 10, 2014 11:38:28 GMT
Going to the vet on Friday so will ask about it then. Hopefully get the woman as the man doesn't seem to know what he's talking about.
My other cat is 5kg but very overweight according to the vet. They're both very small cats. The weird thing is, when I do the running my hands along her ribs thing, I can't feel them, I have to push in a little to make out her ribs (the 2kg cat).
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Post by tonib on Mar 10, 2014 12:49:33 GMT
As Carlotta is fully grown I would agree with lotsofcats in that the weight loss to such a low value should be referred to a vet. 5Kg is quite a lot for a small cat ours are 4Kg & under the 2 big boys are around 5.6Kg. Penny reached 5Kg but she had to lose at least 1Kg which she has done (a couple of times!) and now maintains a healthy weight for her size of 3.8-4Kg. Lexie is 3.75 Kg. Good luck at the vets on Friday.
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 10, 2014 13:57:37 GMT
Thanks! Taking my puppy in for her second vaccinations so can easily take Carlotta in too, gonna have to get a taxi anyway haha as the puppy will be huge by then!
The vet says the other cat should be around 3kg and she is bigger than Carlotta, but we'll see. I'm wanting to change them onto raw diet but I'd rather find out if Carlotta is okay first haha.
It's so confusing, she eats more than she used to and as I say she has fat over her ribs. She does have this health problem, I can't remember what it's called. Her back twitches a lot which gives her a fright and makes her run around like a maniac. It's very rare, and not much is known about it. It's not been so bad over winter though, was very regular in summer. I can't see how that would affect her weight though.
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Post by lotsofcats on Mar 10, 2014 15:22:26 GMT
Good luck at the vets for Friday.
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 10, 2014 16:17:39 GMT
Thanks!
It's weird, she honestly feels a little on the big side around the stomach if anything :S
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Post by tonib on Mar 10, 2014 16:47:14 GMT
It may seem a silly question - are the scales you've weighed her on accurate?
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Post by heartpawprints on Mar 11, 2014 20:29:34 GMT
Is she up to date with worming?
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 11, 2014 22:33:34 GMT
Yup scales are accurate, and her worming is up to date, yes, as is her fleas and vacs (all of which she'd never had before we got her).
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 13, 2014 17:38:08 GMT
Hello! Vet appointment is tomorrow so hopefully I'll find out if she is actually just incredibly small or if there is a possibly medical problem (she hasn't changed any eating habits or anything). Here is a wee pic of her this morning: And one of her snuggled up with Mieze (woohoo friends at last!!), as you can see they look a similar size there but actually Mieze is 3kg more in weight than Carlotta. Both have that stomach flab stuff which I think makes Carlotta look a bit chubby, hence how her weight loss wasn't noticed (plus I see her every single day).
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Post by tonib on Mar 13, 2014 17:58:14 GMT
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 14, 2014 9:21:29 GMT
Hits! Thanks for all the info!! Had the vets this morning, Carlotta is a bit more than 2kg, our scales don't show between so she's nearer 3 and the vet things she's absolutely fine weight wise. She has however done an allergy test as Carlotta can hardly eat any types of cat food without vomiting. We can only feed her certain types of food on one brand haha. She also recommends putting Carlotta on the raw diet which is good as we wanted to anyway. I've been stalling trying as I don't want all the vomiting to start again but the vet thinks it's best Thanks so much for all the info! Such a relief to know she's okay and also to know what to check for while we do the raw changeover just incase she starts losing more weight on it.
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