How can I fatten up my old cat?

Question

I took my nearly 13 year old cat to the vet because we were concerned about his weight and muscle wasting. The vet did labs and called back to say that the labs were okay but we should try to get him to eat more. We had started giving him canned food in addition to the dry we've always free fed him. He does eat it but obviously not enough. He loves fish, but I've always been leery about giving him too much because we had cats that got -- uric acid crystals? or something when I was a kid, and my understanding was that one should avoid fish. So do I figure now that he needs the food more than he needs to avoid fish? Are there fish that are better than others? Any other advice related to getting him to eat well is welcome but there doesn't seem to be an underlying condition. Thanks in advance.

Update:

We had started giving him canned food before we took him to the vet so this isn't the panacea we had hoped it would be.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

You can also get weight-gain food from your vet. We had a cat that had cancer, and maintaining weight was always a problem. The vet sold us "Hill's Prescription Diet" in cans. It costs about a buck a can, and our sick cat ate about 1/2 a can a day. A healthy cat would probably eat twice that.

There are several varieties, the "weight gain" one is called "a/d" - I don't know what the letters stand for. I'm sure there are other brands, as well. Since the sick cat died, we've fed the leftover cans to our remaining cats occasionally as a treat -- they love the stuff more than tuna (or for that matter, anything else).

Our vet has also recommended (dry) kitten food for weight gain; it's higher in protein and calories, supposedly, but our sick cat wouldn't eat it.

Anonymous · Answer

Please don't try to make your cat fat,overweight & obese cats are in no manner healthy,infact obesity lower's a cat's life expectancy.

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How can I fatten up my old cat?

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