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(If you have a special story you would like to share with us about your pets, please feel free to call us at 507-524-3748 e-mail us at allpets@hickorytech.net.)

Fuzzy Before Diet

The New Slim, Sleak Fuzzy After Diet

FUZZY!!!

Fuzzy is an orange tabby cat with – believe it or not – a weight problem. He was born in August of 1998, and I first met him and his owner Pam Rhiger of Mapleton in March of 2005. At that time he was happily weighing in at 20.8 pounds. Fuzzy really is a happy guy, and no matter what happens at our clinic he still thinks we are all pals. Pam and I talked about the fact that he was probably a 10 to 12 pound cat inside a 20 pound body, and we talked about some ways to help him loose weight. I didn’t see him again for two years, on March 19th, 2007 he had gained weight – he was now at 22 pounds!

So Pam decided to get serious about helping Fuzzy. She could see that his quality of life was not what it could be – his tummy never growled in hunger but he could not climb up on things like he used to and he even had some challenges with bending enough to keep himself clean. We discussed the idea of measuring how much food he got and very slowly decreasing how much he was fed, and trying to get him under 12 pounds – which seemed an impossible goal at the time. The goal was not a crash diet but one that occurred so slowly that he did not even know what was happening. I told her she was welcome to stop in the clinic and weigh him whenever she wanted.

Suddenly there Pam was, every few months, weighing Fuzzy. Below are the weigh-in results:
3/19/07 – 22 pounds
4/9/07 – 21.1 pounds
7/20/07 – 18 pounds
12/13/07 – 15.6 pounds
1/11/08 – 14.5 pounds
3/29/08 – 14.4 pounds
6/18/08 – 13.5 pounds
8/15/08 – 13.1 pounds
9/26/08 – 13.3 pounds (Oh Oh!)
12/26/08 – 12.6 pounds
4/7/09 – 11.9 pounds (Hurray!!!)

As you can see by his pictures Fuzzy is now a lean tawny machine, able to leap onto the tallest perch in the house with a single bound! His coat is impeccably clean and shiny from his grooming. He is almost 11 years old and enjoying life like a youngster, and his Senior Blood Profile came back normal in all areas this year. His story is an amazing one because over 50% of the pets I see are over-weight enough to affect their quality of life, and less than 5% of those pets come back to a weight that allows them to fully enjoy the finest that life has to offer. Since this was certainly a team effort, Fuzzy owes a big “thank you” to his owner Pam, who never gave up and helped Fuzzy achieve an accomplishment that I think deserves the place as April Pet of the Month!

Dr. Tim Klein

Our Hours
Monday – Thursday 7:15-12:00 and 1:00-5:30
Friday 7:15-12:00 1:00-5:00
Every other Saturday 8:00-12:00

All Pets Medicine, Surgery and Rehabilitation Clinic, PA
106 Hwy 22 South
P.O. Box 477
Mapleton, MN 56065
507-524-3748

After-Hours Emergency
(507) 524-3748