4 High Health Risks For Overweight Cats
Do you love chubby cats? I think you do. They have soft hair, pitiful eyes, mellow and full body. They are so cute that anyone would like to pat them at first sight.
However, behind cuteness, there is a very serious problem that cat owners often ignore. That is obesity, which is probably the biggest health problem that cats suffer from.
This article will talk about 4 high health risks for obesity.
RISK ONE: CAUSING A VARIETY OF DISEASES
Obesity is the source of all diseases. The more obese they are, the more prone to kinds of diseases. As far as we know, obesity in cats may lead to the following diseases.
1、Liver disease: Excessive intake of fat will increase the burden on the liver and make it easier to develop fatty liver.
2、Joint lesions: Obesity increases the burden on joints. The most common is that cats’ spines get excessive pressure, making the vertebral joints are easily injured. What’s more, if your cat is calcium deficient, it will make him more prone to have Vertebral arthritis, which may lead to deformity of the cat’s spine.
3、Diabetes: Obesity in cats can cause insulin secretion imbalance, leading to diabetes. In the early stage of obesity, the insulin secretion in cats can barely maintain the normal range. However long-term overwork of the pancreas will fatigue the organs, which will not be able to maintain the normal level of glucose in the blood, leading to diabetes.
4、Heart disease: With the increase of the cat’s weight, it will bring a certain burden to the heart, resulting in the cat’s heart dysfunction and heart disease.
5、Constipation: Obesity can also bring gastrointestinal problems to cats, especially constipation. The intestinal peristalsis will be affected if the cat’s body fat content is high, and in this situation, it’s a good choice for the owner to feed the cat some probiotics to promote defecation.
RISK TWO: EXERCISE INTOLERANCE
A large amount of fat will inhibit the cat’s exercise capacity and breathing, thus making obese cats become more reluctant to exercise. At the same time, it makes the cat feel very tired when exercising. Instead of wandering around, they would rather lie in bed and have a good dream, and this will make cats fall into a dead cycle.
RISK THREE: CAN’T SUPPORT THE BODY
If the cat is excessively fat, it will be difficult for him to support his body by himself. Sometimes his legs will sway even if a little bit movements, let alone do some complex exercise such as climbing up and down.
RISK FOUR: SHORTEN CATS LIFE
Obesity brings a series of ailments to cats, which conversely shorten their life span. For cats of the same breed, normal-weight cats live much longer than overweight cats.
Well, if you ask the reasons for obesity and how to determine whether cats are obese, here is the answer.
In addition to pathologic and age factors, in most cases, obesity is caused by an unhealthy diet. For example, if your cat eats too much food that contains lots of calories and fat, it will be more prone for him to get obese. When your cat’s weight exceeds 20% of his normal weight, you have to be careful that your cat is already obese.
If your cat is really fat, there are still three tips to help you to control your cat’s weight.
Tip one: Control the cat’s diet
It’s better for you to remove those high-fat and high-calorie foods and add more vitamin-rich foods such as vegetables. Besides, the cat’s diet can be appropriately restricted every day, from 3 meals a day to 2 meals a day. It is necessary to keep your cat with enough fresh water to drink every day.
Tip two: More exercise
While rationally managing the cat’s diet, you should also urge your cat to exercise more. Running and walking on the grass outdoors or climbing up and down, anything is ok. All you have to do is to make sure that your cat has enough exercise every day to consume excess body fat.
Tip three: Check the cat’s body
This situation applies to cats that are particularly obese. You have no role in the cat’s diet and exercise management, or the cat does not adapt to your weight loss methods. The best way to do is to look for help from a veterinarian, which would tell you the real reason why your cat gets obese. All you have to do is give your cat weight loss on the advice of the vet.
Thanks for reading…..
