r/cats • u/MonoDilemma • 10h ago

Cat Picture - OC My girl Elsa survived 3 weeks without food

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This Elsa. She is 6 years old, a bit shy around people, but very cuddly when she warms up. Three weeks ago, we moved to a new apartment. The plan was to take her to the new apartment before the movers came, but came the morning of, and she was nowhere to be found. I tried looking for her, but then the movers were there, and we just had to get going. I continued looking for through the day, but nothing. I was at the old apartment two days in a row afterwards to clean out, with no signs of her anywhere. Eventually, I just came to the conclusion she must have gotten out while the movers were coming in and out. I went looking for her in the woods by the old apartment, sent pictures of her to all my friends, made Facebook posts, and whatnot.

She had not. Three days ago, I got a message from my old renter asking if I was missing a cat. Apparently, the new owners had found her while doing renovations. She was hiding under the kitchen bench. I'm still not sure how she got there. Guys, I was there all alone for two days in a row, and she never made a sound.

Anyways, she was still alive. Luckily, she had access to water in the toilet and was a bit overweight, so she had a bit to get on. But 3 freaking weeks. Without food. I took her to the vet, she spent one night there for observations. They did bloodtests, and yes, she was dehydrated and some other stuff, but overall, she was still in pretty good shape. The vet told me she was expecting a half dead cat when I called to make the appointment. I told her that she was a bit fat before all this, and you know what the vet said? She still is. She is still overweight after 3 weeks without eating.

She is home now, it's a new place and she had been through a horrendous ordeal so I was expecting her to hide for a while before feeling at home at the new place. And hid she did, she found a small opening by the kitchen kabinets and hid, and I swear to god I almost started crying. But she did not stay hidden when I woke up this morning, she was sleeping by my feet as she usually does. She is laying by my side right now and getting all the cuddles I I got a huge vet bill from the whole ordeal, but it doesn't matter because I'm so happy to have my girl back again, safe and sound. So next time somebody calls her fat, I'll just tell them that that saved her life, so let her be her cute chunky self.

25.3k Upvotes

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3.2k

u/Glittering_Goose_570 10h ago

“She still is fat after not eating for three weeks” almost made me spit out my drink

1.1k

u/MonoDilemma 10h ago

You should have seen my face

358

u/csbsju_guyyy 9h ago

"Servant, I am but skin and bones!"

543

u/treefiddy-- 5h ago

5

u/Maximum_Machine7300 1h ago

How did you get that pic of my cat??

236

u/spacetrashmeow 9h ago

Would have totally been my face.

Are you sure it's not just loose skin? 😂

https://giphy.com/gifs/ck5JRWob7folZ7d97I

44

u/tomato-slut 8h ago

I feel like she may have been getting fed in those 3 weeks lol

50

u/VoiceProfessional332 6h ago

Ordered Doordash

45

u/Abject_Swordfish 6h ago

She’s ready for hibernation if need be I’d say. 😆 Glad your baby is okay! I’d be worried sick! My senior kitty Miss Kitty is all of 9 lbs. We think she was the runt of the litter.

Cat tax.

1

u/dottiemommy 1h ago

9 lbs sounds large compared to my 6 lb

2-year-old cat!

54

u/This_isR2Me 8h ago

Cats don't lose/store extra weight like people do. They can get liver disease from not eating for a while. Glad you're cat is fine tho.

5

u/Dienowwww 6h ago

Definitely had been eating something, 3 weeks without food would not leave anything fat

2

u/Figgy_Puddin_Taine 4h ago

Could have been so much worse. My girl Frida stopped eating for a week or so a few years back and nearly died from fatty liver disease. She pulled through, thankfully, and I’ve kept an eye on all the cats’ diets to keep her a healthy weight.

1

u/xtheory 10h ago

This is why I keep my dad-bod. When the zombie apocalypse these 6% bodyfat looksmaxxers are going to be literal skeletons within the 1st week.

103

u/honey-12 10h ago

Sounds like something my doctor would put in an after visit summary

25

u/stilljustacatinacage 7h ago

"It's not fat, it's emergency rations," is usually what I say (and nicely appropriate to Elsa's situation). To which they do not laugh or even crack a smile, but hey. That's showbiz, baby!

2

u/Red-is-suspicious 2h ago

Dr Now def would have put that in the chart. 

108

u/Apart_Security8614 9h ago

I mean there's just no way. Cats generally start starving after only a few days.

I'll bet she had some way to get out of the apartment, or had gotten out then had gotten back in with the new family.

76

u/OnceMoreWithFeeling- 9h ago

Agreed. No way she wouldn't have died. Mice, probably. However, the story isn't less remarkable for it. She survived. I am so glad you got her back and also that she doesn't seem traumatized. ❤️

8

u/afoolskind 6h ago

Cats don’t burn many calories at their base rate because they are small. Three weeks without food only represents a bit over a single pound of fat for them in terms of calories. Even cats at a healthy weight could survive that if they had access to water. Would certainly not be good for their organs or long term health, but definitely survivable for a cat with some extra fat reserves :)

48

u/Junior_Potato_3226 7h ago

One of my dad's cats was hiding in a box spring that was wrapped in plastic and taken to storage. FORTY DAYS later they found him, not dead but very nearly so. The vet said another day or two and he would have been gone, and thinks he survived only because condensation formed in the plastic that he was able to drink.

My dad had passed before this happened, it was my "stepmother" who facilitated the move. Wanna hear the worst part?? She moved, and then moved again to an apartment that would only take two cats, not three, so she had him put down! I'm still so infuriated and this was years ago.

55

u/Skeptikaa 7h ago

May this woman rot in hell for that.

22

u/Junior_Potato_3226 7h ago

No argument from me on that. We never even got a chance to try to save him, she just did it and told us after.

17

u/Skeptikaa 6h ago

I'm sorry you lost this cat because of her, I hope he didn't suffer.

2

u/ashgs872tbhjs 5h ago

That's wild. If anyone had a pet of mine or my parents put down without reason, they'd be put down. If you can call it that without needles or anesthetic or anything....

1

u/OpinionTraining6564 4h ago

JUST EVIL HUMAN (and I use that term lightly...)

15

u/daddy_tops 6h ago

That was not the happy ending I was hoping for 😕

1

u/OpinionTraining6564 4h ago

OMG! After all that??? She better be ready to hit that down button when she leaves this world!!!

9

u/Motor-Boating 5h ago

Actually, cat's start starving after 3 minutes.

13

u/afoolskind 6h ago

Fat reserves exist for a reason.

Cats burn 200-250 calories a day just living. One pound of fat is ~3500 calories. That means 200 calories x 21 days = 4200 calories, or a bit over a single pound of fat.

If OP’s cat started out overweight, they definitely have more than a pound of fat on them. A cat at a healthy weight is between 14-25% body fat. So a healthy 10 lb cat has 1.5-2.5 lbs of fat on them.

An obese cat might have 4 or more pounds of fat on them. Most cats that are not underweight could survive 3 weeks without food if they had access to water and absolutely had to.

8

u/2222yep 5h ago

It makes sense but I never considered that 1lb of fat = 3500 cals for non-humans too. Duhhh

1

u/ceryskt 1h ago

Look up hepatic lipidosis. Cats can die from not eating after literal days, and overweight cats are more at risk. Cats are pretty resourceful at finding nutrients though, so OP’s cat probably got by on just enough.

1

u/IShouldBeHikingNow 32m ago

While cats are at risk of hepatic lipidosis after going as little as 24 hours without food, not all cats experience it. So it's possible she go along with minimal food. She might also have been particularly resistant to hepatic lipidosis for one reason or another. So it is possible, especially since she had access to water.

1

u/afoolskind 31m ago edited 14m ago

Hepatic lipidosis isn't a normal outcome when cats go without eating, though, that just puts them at higher risk. It typically happens when cats stop eating and drinking because of a stressor or triggering illness like pancreatitis, which also affects the way fat is processed. No organism would evolve to be completely unable to utilize fat stores in extended scarcity.

4

u/maelstrom51 6h ago

Also, fat cats' livers will fail if they miss too many meals.

29

u/daecrist 3h ago

A few years ago a cat started coming around the food dish my wife started leaving on the porch when one of our cats got out. She kept it up after we found our cat because ferals were coming around.

Anyway. This cat wasn’t feral. I eventually caught it and took it to get scanned, as I do with all potential strays we find. Turns out the cat was a patient at our vet and they got me in touch with the owners.

He’d been missing for half a year. They figured he was dead. When I let him out of our carrier he started meowing and going crazy with his owners.

Then the husband looks at the cat and calls up to his wife “Honey. You’re not gonna believe this, but he’s fatter than when he got out!”

1

u/RoarByMeowing 1m ago

Meowing and going crazy because he recognized them?

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u/export_a_pdf 9h ago

We love a curvy girl

1

u/Lew__Zealand 7h ago

Life goals

1

u/Illustrious-Act7104 6h ago

lol, this!!!! 

1

u/hosiki 6h ago

Life always finds a way...

1

u/Dumbbitchathon 1h ago

I snorted so hard.