Why is my cat losing weight, has skin lesions, and painful claw trims?

Poor Lorelei! Sounds like she s has had a bit of a rough go at things recently. As far as the unkempt, greasy coat this could be due to her not feeling well and subsequently not grooming herself well. Alternatively she could also be dealing with an ongoing flea or food sensitivity. I worry about her weight loss and her decreased appetite though. This makes me worried she could be dealing with an underlying health issue such as an intestinal issue such (eg inflammatory bowel disease) or even some infectious disease (eg fip, felv) or even a kidney issue. I would have her evaluated by a veterinarian. They may suggest some blood work to look at her overall health to start and even test her for viral illnesses such as felv/fiv. They may also discuss other tests down the line such as an x-ray or abdominal ultrasound. I hope you get some answers soon and she is feeling better !!

Hi. Im sorry Miyu is losing weight. There are alot of reasons this could happen. High thyroid, parasites, irritable bowel disease, cancer, and some metabolic or endocrine diseases. If the labwork was normal, the tooth was fixed, and she is eating well, i would recommend the following...fecal test, thyroid check, addominal ultrasound and chest xrays. There is a lot of things that won't show up on labs, so these are the next steps. Good luck

Hello, thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. So sorry your cat is having this issue. I suggest you get him to your vet for a check up and some blood testing. Thyroid disease is very common in older cats as is kidney disease and diabetes. All of these things can cause similar symptoms and all are easily diagnosed with simple blood testing. You need to realize that at 17 years old he is about 85 in human years. At this age, things start to fail and go wrong. You need to find out what is wrong so you know how to best treat him. Some things are very easily treated with daily medications. I don't think this is something you are going to be able treat at home without knowing what the underlying cause is. Hope this helps. Best wishes!

Hi and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Hair loss can have many causes in cats- skin infection such as a bacterial infection, allergy such as to food or a flea allergy (especially if Simba is not on any flea preventative) or fungal infection like ringworm can all be causes. Sometimes anxiety can cause cats to lick off their fur but this is typically a diagnosis that is made after all other health conditions are ruled out first. The weight loss could be due to due to simply eating less (this would be a good thing if Simba was previously overweight). Of course, weight loss can also be caused by many different underlying health condition such as certain infections, hyperthyroidism, liver, kidney disease, certain cancers and other endocrine disease. I would recommend Simba see his veterinarian soon for an evaluation. Your veterinary may take a skin scraping and hair sample from the area of hair loss and may recommend running blood work or other diagnostics as necessary. I hope this helps!

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Based on these lab results, I would suspect renal disease. BUN, Amylase, magnesium and CPK all can become altered with renal impairment. The weight loss may be due to muscle wastage due to chronic renal disease or something else may be going on. I would consider having Tigger's urine specific gravity checked and also send out an SDMA test to see if the kidney's are the main problem. At 14.5 years of age, renal disease would be high on my list of causes of these symptoms. Other problems such as cancer and inflammatory diseases may be the cause of the symptoms as well. I would recommend having your vet pursue additional testing to get more of a definitive answer on whether or not the kidneys are impaired and if not, coming up with further recommendations on diagnostics and treatment. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

I would recommend the bloodwork if possible. Many of the symptoms your describe could be due to hyperthyroidism which can often be managed with diet or medication. Renal disease diabetes are also concerns. Speak with your vet to determine what they suspect is most likely and find out if it is possible to test for one thing at a time instead of running a full panel at once. The vet will suggest the best options but often if you explain financial constraints we can work with owners. If unable to do the diagnostic testing then euthanasia is a reasonable option to prevent her from suffering. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach

I'm sorry that you're having this problem with Meliu! Weight loss, or difficulty gaining weight, can be caused by a number of different things. You didn't mention Meliu's age or whether she is having any other symptoms, so it's hard to make any specific guesses as to exactly what might be causing this. In general, some possibilities would include intestinal parasites, chronic pancreatitis or inflammatory bowel disease, a food allergy or intolerance to something in her diet, chronic liver or kidney disease, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or even cancer. As you can see, it's a very long list! Treatment will depend on what the underlying problem is, so I would recommend taking Meliu to the vet for an exam as soon as you are able to. He/she can do some diagnostic testing to help determine what is causing her weight loss, and get her started on appropriate treatment depending on what is found.