My senior cat has high calcium and is losing weight. What's wrong?

High calcium is not very commonly found in cats on well-balanced cat foods. Potential causes for hypercalcemia in cats include lab error or lipemic blood sample, cancer, kidney failure, bone disease, hyperthyroidism, toxic exposure, supplements, among a few others. I would recommend that you follow-up with your vet about these possible concerns. The vet may recommend additional testing, including an ionized Calcium level, which more accurately evaluates the calcium in the body than total calcium on most in-house blood panels.

I'm sorry to hear that your cat isn't doing terribly well. There are several different possibilities here. One is that his weight loss is completely unrelated to the masses. As cats get older, they're more likely to develop conditions like hyperthyroidism or kidney disease, which can lead to weight loss. While neither of these conditions can be "cured," both can be managed to some degree with certain medications or diet. The other possibility is, as you mentioned, that these masses could be cancerous. I completely understand not wanting to pursue extensive treatment for cancer, but before making the assumption that it is cancer, I'd try to get some more information. For starters, I think it's perfectly reasonable to take your cat to the vet for an exam and some bloodwork to check his organ function. There's a chance that your vet may find something that's not terribly difficult to manage, but you don't know unless you look. I would expect that your vet would recommend trying to diagnose the masses in order to be thorough, but if you are clear that you don't want to look into them further, it shouldn't be an issue. At the end of the day, you own your cat and are responsible for making choices for him. Your vet's job is to present those choices to you and help you to find the approach that works best for you and your cat. I hope this helps and that everything goes well.

When an senior cat is eating more frequently yet losing weight, this can be a sign of hyperthyroidism. With hyperthyroidism, the thyroid gland is secreting too much hormone which causes an increase in the pets metabolism and subsequent weight loss. Have your vet check Hopes T4 levels to see if she is hyperthyroid and in need of medication to help stabilize her hormones so that she doesn't continue to waste away. This is easily diagnosed and treated with medication (i.e. Methimazole). Your vet will also want to run baseline bloodwork on your pet to make sure no other disease processes are there.

According to the PetHealth network, testing involves: Complete blood count to look at the white and red blood cells and platelets Chemistry panel to look at the kidney and liver function Electrolytes to look at the calcium, phosphorous, and salt balance (e.g., sodium, potassium, etc.) Urinalysis to look for the presence of an underlying infection, crystals, or appropriate urine concentration Urine culture to rule out an underlying urinary tract infection Feline leukemia (FELV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) X-rays to rule out underlying cancer, bladder stones, or evidence of mineralization of tissue (secondary to hypercalcemia) Ultrasound to rule out underlying cancer, bladder stones, or inappropriate mineralization Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and PTH-rP concentration (parathyroid hormone related protein) levels. With hyperparathyroidism, the PTH levels are typically normal to high. With hypercalcemia of malignancy, PTH-rP concentrations are typically elevated. With idiopathic hypercalcemia in cats, PTH levels and PTH-rP levels are typically low. This can be expensive, but necessary to get to the cause. I would speak to Sammy's vet to discuss what tests should be done first. Best of luck.

Older cats like your kitty often get an overactive thyroid which will show weight loss, a really fast heart rate, sometimes vomiting, and more vocalisation than usual. Some cats get skittish as well. Hyperthyroidism can actually cause heart problems and mask kidney disease. Hyperthyroidism is easily diagnosed with a clinical exam and a little blood test and there are various treatments available, varying from Methimazole transdermal ointment or tablets to slow down thyroid hormone production, surgery to remove the overactive thyroid gland or radiotherapy. If your kitty is suffering from hyperthyroidism your vet will discuss the various options. I suggest you make an appointment tomorrow.

These are indeed an unusual set of symptoms, thyroid disease and diabetes would be the first suspects for a cat with increasing appetite and weight loss. A specialist ultrasound scan of the abdomen may be worth while to investigate difficulties with food digestion and absorption or even tumours using up the calories

I recommend to have her examined. Certainly something like cancer is possible but there are some other conditions that are common in older cats like renal disease and hyperthyroidism that generally respond very nicely to treatment but this does depend on the severity. If renal disease is caught before things get too bad, cats require a special diet, sometimes a medication, sometimes subcutaneous fluids and the average time of quality life after diagnosis is 2 years. https://www.petcoach.co/article/how-to-care-for-a-cat-with-kidney-disease/ Hyperthyroidism can be controlled with a special diet, with medications or with a permanent solution like radioactive iodine treatment. Many cats with this condition will live normal live expediencies as long as they are medicated. https://www.petcoach.co/article/hyperthyroidism-in-cats/ It's always best to know whats happening. That way you can made an educated decision and prevent any suffering. Bloodwork and a urinanalysis will give you and the doctor a good idea of what is happening inside Natasha's body and then you can make an appropriate decision once you know what your options are. I recommend to get this done within the next day or two since both of these conditions will respond best to earlier intervention. I hope this helps.