So you have been casually petting your fluffy friend every now and then but one day, you suddenly realize: "I can feel my cat's spine". Similar to human, the spine of ordinary cats could not be felt unless there are substantial losses of body mass. Therefore, once people are able to detect the spine of their pet with relative ease, something must have gone wrong. Hoping to improve the situation, inexperienced owners tend to experiment with a variety of diet changes as well as medications. Needless to say, without having a firm grasp on the cause, actions like that could further deteriorate the cat health.
"I can feel my cat's spine, what's going on?", "Should I take my cat to the local veterinary clinic?", "Is there any chance that this condition would improve on its own without human interventions?", … In the case you are searching around for answers to questions like that, you have come to the right place. Down below, you would be provided with every piece of information you should keep in mind about the unexpected appearance of your cat's spine. Generally speaking, as long as you got the basics, things would likely turn out to be fine at the end. So all you have to do is to take a look at the following details and put them to practice.
What Happen To My Pet
"The fact that I can feel my cat's spine indicate he/she is suffering from malnutrition and poor diets have to be the cause". A lot of people often conclude like that after they pet their cat and see the prominence of the spine. Sure, it's true that lack of calorie could indeed lead to losses of body mass and make the spine more noticeable compared to usual. Nonetheless, there are a couple of different causes too and incorrect treatments could easily worsen the situation in a heartbeat. While ascertaining the condition, remember to consider these potential culprits.
Insufficient Calorie Intake
It's obvious that if your cat doesn't receive enough calorie, it would steadily lose weight and the spine should show up before long. In term of solutions, simply adjust the daily diet and your cat would regain its body mass without much difficulty. If needed, you could ask for advice from vets in order to put together a sound diet for your cat. However, in the case, your cat already takes in enough foods and it's eating well, the fault might not lie with the calorie intake. Go over other probable causes if you are certain that the current diet of your cat is more than adequate.
Intestinal Parasites (Worms)
Roundworms, tapeworms, hookworms and other parasites like them would steal the nutrition of the host and weight loss is inevitable. Overall, if you see that your cat is eating normally but the loss of body mass persists, intestinal parasites would be among the prime suspects. To determine whether your cat is infected with such parasites or not, check out the feces in the litter box. In the case, you see grain-like dots, which are actually egg-filed segments of intestinal worms, get your cat some quality dewormers at once. Ask a vet to perform a feces examination to make sure that your cat is completely free of intestinal parasites.
Hyperthyroidism
As cats age, they tend to experience metabolism difficulties and hyperthyroidism happen to be a common disease in senior pets. Caused by an enlarged thyroid gland that releases excessive amounts of thyroid hormones, hyperthyroidism affects multiple organs and weight loss is among the secondary problems. So if the "I can feel my cat's spine" issue occur to an old cat, there is a good chance that hyperthyroidism is at work. Unfortunately, there is no way for cat owners to diagnose and treat cat hyperthyroidism on their own without vet assistance. Visit a veterinary clinic and let the professionals take over.
Examining And Inspecting The Body Weight Of Your Fluffy Friend
Aside from feeling the spine, there are a couple of ways to tell if your cat is underweight or overweight. It's of utmost importance that cat owners know how to determine that their cat is in the ideal shape and apply adjustment if needed. Down below are several places on the body of your cat that you could checks and reach a proper conclusion.
See thorough weight analysis for 10-week-old and 6-month-old cat.
Waist
The waist of a cat is quite sensitive so move your hand slowly and don't use too much force. Get a feel of the waistline along with the hip of the cat as you move your hand through it. In the best scenarios, you would notice that there is an hourglass shape while running your finger around the place. An overweight cat should not have that kind of shape. Since the region is often well hidden behind the fur, you need to use your hand to check things thoroughly. Observation alone is not enough.
Ribs
Gently yet firmly run your fingers right along the ribcage of your cat then see the way things turn out. For most of the time, you should be able to barely feel the ribs without having to push too hard. If you see that bones are virtually jutting out from the body, you could say that your cat is underweight. On the other hand, if you have to use some pressure in order to get a feel of the ribcage, your cat seems to overweight. Generally speaking, the ribcage of the average cats would not show through their fluffy coat. However, depending on the fur layout, you might be able to recognize a thin outline.
Tummy
Many cats don't like people to touch their tummy so if your cat expresses hostile signs, just walk away. Assuming that your fluffy friend does tolerate your action, you could start looking for a soft patch on the tummy. In the case there is nothing out of the ordinary with the patch on the tummy then all is good. Nonetheless, if the tummy patch hangs down and sways sideways, your cat is probably overweight.
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