Pet obesity awareness: Murphy’s story

While it’s far more common for us at SPCA to see underweight animals coming into our Centres, the health consequences for obese pets can be just as serious.

Sadly, as pets get bigger, their lives get shorter – obesity can shorten an animal’s life expectancy by 25%.

Many pet owners may not realise the extent to which their furry friends are overweight. Sometimes it can be difficult to judge, if the change is happening slowly with overfeeding, and without frequent visits to the vet!

Murphy’s story is a little different.

This boy was brought into the care of our Māngere Centre by a member of the public who had been frequently visited by this inquisitive cat.

No owner could be located, though it was clear that he had been well-fed – in fact, he was so overweight that our team thought it likely that he was being fed by multiple people.

“He’d been seen visiting many different properties, so we think people were looking out for Murphy by providing him with meals,” said our team. “He was even spotted catching and eating koi fish out of an outdoor pond!”

The team had to think outside the box when it came to moving Murphy around the Centre for his vet check ups. He was too large for the standard cat carry-cages, so an extra-large crate was used and put on wheels – Murphy’s Motorhome was created (with the number plate ‘KOIBOI’ affectionately added to the back).

At his first weigh-in at the Centre, he was tipping the scales at around 8.4kg – very heavy considering he was a homeless stray cat.

With his welfare and health at risk, our vet team knew they needed to get Murphy’s eating under control quickly before he got any heavier. Thankfully, SPCA receives amazing support from the team at Purina, who donate over 100,000kg of pet food to SPCA every year.

Murphy went onto a new diet of Purina PRO PLAN Obesity Management cat food, and slowly but surely his weight started to come down.

With the new diet in place, Murphy dropped down to 7.97kg and was listed as available for adoption.

Wanting to ensure Murphy’s success continued, we ensured that his new family were aware of his weightloss journey and that there was still work to be done.

Adopter Julie was more than happy to take on the challenge, and shared a lovely update on how Murphy has settled in and progressed.

“We’ve continued his weight loss journey, and he’s down under the seven kilo mark now and in a much healthier range,” Julie said. “When we adopted him, he still couldn’t jump over a fence and he couldn’t clean himself very well because he couldn’t reach past his belly!”

“He now does this easily – though he’s still a bit of a food pest. Otherwise he’s doing great, and has settled in amazingly. He is a very affectionate cat now. His favourite spot to curl up on is on the bean bag most nights.”

We’re so pleased for Murphy, and happy to hear that his weightloss journey has been a success.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Purina for supplying our Centres with nutritious food for animals in need, and to Julie and her family for providing Murphy with such a caring forever home.

If you think your pet might be overweight, we encourage you to reach out to your local vet for guidance.