by Vic
(Livonia, MI)

QUESTION

We have a 2 year old female cat who has a small growth on the side of her rectum. The growth is on both sides of the rectum. There are no signs of bleeding or of illness. Any idea?

Also, our cat weighs around 15.5 pounds. I feed her about two tablespoons of low fat skim milk every day - could this cause the weight gain or is it the canned food (is dry food better?).

Thank you.

Vic




Hi, Vic,

It sounds like what you are describing as growths are actually the anal sacs. If so, they are normally there and could be more prominent if they are full and she needs them expressed by a vet. However, it could just be that you've never noticed them before.

As to diet, cats are just like us. Their weight is dependent on genes, metabolism, exercise, and intake of calories. As far as the calorie part of it goes, canned food, dry food, milk, treats, or anything that has calories is going to contribute to her daily intake and therefore her weight. You can check calories on the variety of things you feed her and see what you'd like to cut back on. You could give less canned or cut out the milk or switch to a combination of canned and dry or cut back on everything but don't cut out anything. There's an article under Nutrition about weight loss in cats that might interest you called How Much To Feed A Cat .