Obesity

The obesity is the more important nutricional disease of the cat of this aim of century. One calculates that they have have this condition between 20 and 30% of the cats that live like domestic mascots.

According to my clinical observations this disease will have an increase maintained in the next years because the causal conditions will stay and increase.

Basically this disease takes place by the combination of three factors:

• To live in departments, which restricts mobility still more worsening with the castration. As consequence the cat makes very little loss of energy.
• The balanced food use of high power value and high palatabilidad, produces an increase in the consumption of such.
• Badly nutricional handling on the part of the proprietor, who in general provides an excess of food.

In order to understand to that calls obesity we are going to begin to define it, one considers the individual obese that maintains an overweight of more of 20 or 30% in relation to the considered weight normal. In general we have for the means races so large the female weighs between 3 and 4 kg and the male between 4 and 5 kg, therefore we considered a cat obese when the female is with more than 5 kg and the male with more than 6 kg Obvious this is not applicable for the heavy races.

A fundamental concept is to understand that an obese cat is an ill cat. This condition reduces to the quality and amount of life of our cat, and it is related to many diseases like the enumerated ones next:

1 - Diabetes mellitus
2 - Hepáticas diseases (hepática lipidosis)
3 - Predisposition to Feline the Urológico Syndrome
4 - Alterations cardiocirculatorias
5 - Alterations you will articulate
6 - Greater susceptibility to infections
7 - Dermatológicas alterations
8 - Respiratory difficulty
9 - Predisposition to the heat blow
10 - Reproductive upheavals
11 - Greater anesthetic-surgical risk
12 - Constipación
13 - Visual problems

It is to make notice that although alterations exist endócrinas that could produce a clinical picture of obesity, these do not surpass 5% of the cases, therefore the most important cause of this pathology is an excess of food consumption.

Although most of the cats they autoregulan his nutritional consumption seems that there is a percentage that is incapable to do it, or acquire behavior vices that break that regulation.

He is showy as most of the proprietors of fat cats they do not become aware of the disease of his cat, including many they are proud of beautiful gatazo that have managed to obtain by force of giving them to eat practically day and night. Often it happens that they have malcriado as much to his cats that have transformed them into than little less addict to the food, thus the cat or has a pathological behavior front to the same one, these are the cats which they demand food moaning or attacking his proprietor, which immediately fulfills desires of the feline and account does not occur that has created him a conditional reflection where the cat understands that to eat it must moan or attack.

In my experience the greater problem to treat the disease is to make him become aware from the same one to the proprietor of the patient, in general the cat that lives in a department does not have the control of the food, that is that cannot be served single what wants, but that is due to serve its proprietor, therefore this one is the only person in charge of the initiation and maintenance of this pathology.

Treatment

The handling of the obesity is based on fundamentally on a restricted diet, exercise, changes of behavior and in some cases medication and surgery. The Veterinary Doctor will have to make the corresponding analyses to evaluate the state of health of the kitten, and will plan the level of energy consumption that will consume through time, and soon the corresponding periodic controls will be made, specially of the corporal weight.

We have seen that much people begin by her account to use foods of type light or low calories, but does not obtain that its cat loses weight. This happens because in general the cat consumes an energy level which it does not cover the necessities with maintenance, with which it does not increase of weight, but lowers either, that is stays stable, and in these cases the objective is that it loses weight, thus the amount of consumed energy must be inferior to the one of maintenance, and in addition these values must weekly be modified.

An important data is that the cat cannot lose more of 1 or 2% of its weight per week, that is a cat of 8 kg does not have to lose more than 160 gr. in the first week, thus it is necessary that it is controlled by his attending physician.

Finally we must consider that the obesity can begin from very early stages of the life, like in the man the youthful overweight prearranges to the obesity in the adult stage, therefore after first months of life is due to control the amount of food that provides to the kitten following the instructions of the manufacturer of food and in the case of observing an overweight, to immediately consult the Veterinary Doctor.

Gentility: Association Argentina de Feline Medicina

Author: Dr Rubén Mario Gatti

Gattiedo@teletel.com.ar

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