dear shirley

my thought is that the way a cat responds to petting might just be a personality issue, not disease-related. it would depend on the circumstances [if altered responses were to accompany troubling symptoms]

homoeopathic medicine is no substitute for love. but many cats have a much harder life, and there are so many without a home at all.

dear chacha,

it's not clear to me that this cat must have an assimilation problem to be so fat - it is explicable in terms of intake and lack of exercise.
and the behavioral problems might also be related to situation [as kitkat inferred] rather than to disease.

i dunno, but the replies were appreciated.

I do agree that the right homeopathic remedy will probably help tremendously.

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Shirley Reischman

I'd like to add one more thing. While the right remedy can do wonders, if there are 'maintaining causes', such as feeding, grooming and lack of love, they need to be addressed.

My mother's aid had a cat which I did not like particularly. The aid had to go out of town for a few weeks for a family emergency and I volunteered to care for her cat while she was gone. Wanting to do a good job, I did spend some time several times a day playing/exercising the cat and grooming her. In the process, I got to know her and by the time the three weeks were up, I realized that I really liked the cat because I had gotten to know her. Because I was caring for her, she become more affectionate toward me and I responded to that. So maybe the owners would bond with the cat if they took more time to care for it.

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Shirley Reischman

Hi Anna,

If any fat accumulates--on us, as well as other animals--then there is ALWAYS some problem with assimilation by the body. You could spend your life trying to figure out whether the cause is that the body can't assimilate a nutrient like calcium (Kent was quite clever to make that connection with that particular remedy's effect and the body's extravasation of the symptom); or wonder if the problem's on a deeper level, eg. the minute cell's ability to assimilate and utilize something as seemingly inconsequential as chromium. Either instance would cause the body to seek out more nutrients (so our patient would eat more and more, and need to eat more and more) and store nutrients (the body only stores them as fat) more efficiently.

Obesity and weight gain is a [/b]symptom[/b] of a deeper problem, usually physiologically as well as emotionally. It is not something that is treated by dietary change alone--in fact, diets have proven themselves to be quite suppressive...and since the real problem has only been suppressed by the diet, the body simply stores nutrients even more quickly than before, no matter what is eaten or not eaten. Most often the diet just forces a decrease in the rate of metabolisation--which ends up compounding the problem further. So even though attention must be paid to kind of foods this animal is being fed, it must be stressed that a diet is simply not going to make the pet healthier--just temporarily thinner. Allopathic medicine likes to make the assumption that thinner people are healthier people--but we all know from experience that this is not true.

It is quite sad that the dynamic between the pet and the human companions is poor--however, it is possible that some changes can take effect even on that level once the cat becomes healthier all around. That is why I encourage you to treat the cat homeopathically. When we treat human beings with remedies, they undergo changes which are so subtle but also so powerful that they demand a changed response from others involved in their lives--so we should never assume this won't happen with the animals we treat, as well. Who knows? Maybe this kitty's life will improve as well as her health, and maybe it won't improve unless her health is made better. At the very least, you may alleviate some of her fears, take away any physical pain she may be feeling, and allow her to begin to enjoy the possibilities of her life rather than simply experience its limitations.

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Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.<br />C.G.Jung

Just a note to add on this topic

If the cat is to go on a weight-reducing diet it should be only very gradually introduced & not 'severe'.
Sudden reduction in food-intake in cats can ( as well as many other animals) be bad for them especially so is very inadvisable.

Cats increase self-grooming for many reasons including skin irritation, as well as stress as is quite rightly pointed out here.
The biting could be part of what is described as a 'displacement activity' to alleviate stress.
It may be worthwhile knowing if any new cats are known to be coming into the cat's territory ( which can be very hard to ascertain I Know) & also if the cat does venture outside does he have a very exposed garden / area as cats prefer to have 'cover' and prefer not to directly meet other cats .
There could be a new animal coming into their 'patch' which is stressing this cat.
I post this just in case his outside environment could be contributing very subtly.

Best wishes

Moira

Anna,
Please tell your clients to quit with the program injections. We had 35 doses donated to our shelter several years ago because of an out of control flea problem one summer. We were assured that it was safe but after what happened next, I don't believe it is (although truthfully I could find no studies on it). From 35 cats injected, 10 had severe site reactions. 5 became critically ill within a months time. 2 of the critical developed FIP and died, 2 were on IV for over a week with no clear indication of the problem (what was going on) (1 of which developed severe IBS, that took over a year to get under control) and the last died of some undetermined illness with possible liver involvement. This happened within 3 months of the injections and of course no one would even "explore" the possibility of a problem with the product; if we hadn't gone broke trying to treat the ill we may have been able to afford proper post mortums on all. I have refused to go near any of these injectable products since and if I have to pick a pesticide, I would always go for external application which the body is better equiped to defend against the toxins.
With regards to the tail, I assume the cat has been neutered and "stud tail" is not a possibility. Perhaps Moira could tell us if the glands may be a problem? Heavy, oily secretion causing drying of the skin and itchiness?
And yes a caution about taking weight off too quickly, I have treated more than my fair share of "fatty liver" cases in obese cats that have suddenly been starved (most willingly, due to depression of being abandoned).
A lot of cats today look like "beach balls" instead of cats, due from the bloating and inadequate nutrition derived from grains. Carnivours are meat-eating species -they do not graze corn or wheat fields.