She looks a lot like my Taffy, a ginger tabby neutered male, he looks thin to me, but he's very muscular and high energy. At the last vet visit he weighed ten pounds, but really does not look it.
Taffy is an in/outdoor cat, eats well and, as I stated, is very high energy. Vet says he's just perfect as far as his physical make-up goes.

I have had three orange cats (one currently who looks a lot like yours), and none of them did well on grocery-store brands of dry pet food.

They had been hyper and nervous, but after I started feeding them the healthier pet-store brands, they calmed down. It made a big difference.

I have read that this is a common problem. I suspect it is the preservatives and the red and yellow food coloring, which can also be a problem for hyperactive children.

It sounds like your vet is not real worried about her. Who knows what will happen now that the worms have been addressed.

My orange tabby is deceptively heavy- he looks a lot lighter than he actually is. When he was young (he's 14 now), he looked like a gangly teenager. People would comment on what a little thing he was, but then were surprised by how heavy he was when they picked him up.

Now that he's older, he looks like a big, solid cat, but I don't think he looks particularly fat. At the vet's a few weeks back, his weight indicates that he's kind of large for a cat, but to me he looks like an average-large cat.

I wouldn't worry too much if the vet isn't.

To tell if she is too thin, you need to feel her back. If you can easily feel her spine, she is too thin.

Can't tell from the picture, but you should be able to feel ribs without a lot of work in a healthy animal. Most cats are over weight, so seeing one that is a healthy size looks wrong to us. If your vet says she is a good weight, then I am sure she is...

Meghane, what about the spine? I was led to believe that if you can easily feel the spine, they are too thin. Am I wrong about that?

Thanks.

(BTW, my cat Sofie fails both tests! She's been snacking on kitten food and I can feel no bones :( )

I am curious -- how can in indoor-only cat get worms?

My cat has NEVER been outside. The other day I was vacuuming and behind the chair I saw three teeny, tiny worms - two were dead but one was moving. They were slightly larger than a grain of rice. These can't be from my cat can they???!!!

I have no house plants so I don't know where they could have came from.

They get taperworms - that is what they sound like, the segments of tapeworms - from fleas. Fleas are vectors, and when a cat or dog eats the flea, the tapeworm larvae are ingested and grow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tapes

Some cats are just thin, and as Meg mentioned, most cats are overweight, so our "eye" is trained to accept heavy cats as "healthy weight". I have had my fat cats on diets for a year now. It's interesting how my perception is changing as they lose weight. For instance, when Sweet Sweet got below 10 lbs, he looked terribly thin to me. In fact, I think he actually was too thin because his body had lost the weight unevenly. His spine and hip bones were prominent for a while. Then after a few more months, his weight distribution evened out again. He regained some tissue mass around his spine and hips, but his weight stayed steady. Now, at just under 10 lbs, he is looking good. Maybe he could even lose a few more ounces.

It's happening the same way with the other cats, as well. They are going through periods where their weight distribution is all funky. Spines and hip bones protrude, but too much weight lingers down below. In time, their bodies will all get rebalanced, and my eye will learn to appreciate the long, lean look of a healthy feline body.

One of my 15 feline kids is very thin by nature. He is a very active boy who prefers to spend his time patroling my farm all day. He usually comes in once or twice a day for quick meals, and of course spends the nights in so that he gets dinner and breakfast, but he still doesn't take in enough calories to sustain his active lifestyle. During the winter months when he is housebound, I can put a pound or two on him and get some meat over his bones, but during the summer months he is one boney baby. Interestingly, he is also a ginger tabby.

Laurie

I have no idea how Daisy got tapeworm. She came from a rescue organization, so maybe there, but I would think she would have been tested. She hasn't put on any observable weight since the tapeworm shots.

Daisy weighs almost 7 lbs. I'll feel her ribs and spine when I see her again. She's at a friend's to be cared for while we are away.

Thanks everyone. I'm not going to worry about her. Maybe when she settles into middle age she'll pick up some weight.

Unlike other internal parasites, there is no test for tapeworms. Cats are treated for tapes when those little white, rice-like segments show up stuck to the fur around the base of their tails.

Laurie

Laurie, you can see tapeworm eggs in a direct smear fecal under certain power microscope, but as with most internal parasites, they do not always throw eggs. So it is a safe bet to assume that if a cat was outside or exposed to fleas, it will be positive for tapeworm and other worms, and should be treated anyway, especially if there are other animals or children in the house. Tapes can be spread by ingesting the segments found expelled from the anus. (Lovely.)

I never heard of a tapeworm shot. I think the common med used is drontal. Meghane will know.

Socks, When I saw the picture of Daisy, I thought it was my Clancy...He too is, what I thought, skinny, but he is muscular...He's also an eater, will eat his dish and if the other's leave anything, he claims it...The vet said he's a healthy fellow, so I don't worry any longer...

My youngest kitty (nine years old) has always been slender. She's healthy, but more active than her mother. She looks about the same body fat ratio as your kitty. If the vet is not concerned, I wouldn't be! Beautiful cat, incidentally.

If the vet is not concerned, I wouldn't be!

I don't agree. Our Ragdoll Lily has been pooping on the floor outside her litterbox for a few years. We took her to the vet thinking it was a kidney problem, the vet said she was fine. Three weeks ago she started losing weight rapidly, we took her back to the vet and she is in renal failure and had kidney stones. The hospital we took her to said the stones had been there for a long time, and her left kidney was dead. This was an ongoing process, something I should have gotten a second opinion on two years ago.

YOU know your cat, if something doesn't seem right it probably isn't. Some cats are naturally thin, Lily has always weighed between 8lbs 4oz and 8lbs 7ozs; we were always amazed that she held her weight so perfectly, but she lost over 2 lbs in less than two weeks. Lily seemed fine other than the litterbox use, but in my heart and gut I always knew she wasn't 100%. In the past two weeks Lily has had surgery to remove the stones and flush her kidneys, has had 4 ultrasounds, will be on subcutaneous fluids for a long time if not forever (I had to learn to insert the needle and give her the fluids), and all this would probably have been prevented if I had followed my gut feeling and taken her to another vet.

Get a second opinion.

In the picture, I think she looks fine. She doesn't even look thin to me. She just looks like a lean cat. As others have stated, we're all used to seeing fat cats all the time, so our eyes are trained to think that's what cats should look like.

One of mine self-regulates very well. She's ten and weighs about 10lb. She's a fairly good-sized Siamese and is still very lean. My other cat aspires to be obese, so we can't free-feed. That cat (much smaller frame) should weigh about 6-7lb. She ballooned up to 11lb - yikes! She was really fat. After we figured out she was stealing the ferrets' food and corrected that issue, she has lost a lot of weight and is starting to look like a normal cat again.

I'm going to defer to your vet on the weight issue. She's two. She hasn't suffered a big weight loss. Even with the worm issue, she doesn't seem to be a likely candidate for some major health problem. Consider yourself lucky. Some of us are living in maximum security households in our attempts to keep little pudgy black cats from turning into obese waddling monsters.

Cats come in all shapes and sizes, its what they are,as is, I have a 2 year old cat that stays around 8 lbs, no matter how much he eats, he's always thiner then my other cat. you really want to change to a better food by the way, fancy feast is among the lowest of the low, I'd try Innova EVO, Ziwi peak,wellness grain free or instincts,

My oldest Lily is nine and weighs 6 or 7 pounds and always has. She never walks across the room but races around. She had upper respiratory when I adopted her, but since then has been healthy. On the other end I have two, Henry and Annie, who vie for top fat cat..each around 18 pounds!!

My cat Basil is a very active, long and lean male. I always worry that he seems thin, especially next to his rolly-polly sister, but my vet always compliments Basil on his great body shape. As some have said above, so many cats are overweight we hardly recognize a normal one.

Looks like a very healthy cat to me. I agree with an above poster that most house cats are too fat. It is refreshing to see a cat in good shape.

Our cats are outdoors/indoors and both have nice sleek bodies because they get adequate exercise.

That is how my 3 yr old is built too. My previous two cats were a little overweight so I can see how a thin, healthy cat can seem too thin. This is what I thought of Ripple also but snapped back to reality realizing the others were overweight. They were indoor cats. This one I let outside and seems happier for it. I think I have him trained to stay in the backyard which is about 1/2 acre. Cute cat, btw.

See my post recently about Bindi's tapeworm. I too was shocked! Part of the reasons I keep my kitties indoors is to avoid this problem. But fleas can be tracked in or can be on mice in the attic - basically no house is guaranteed flea free (live and learn - I sure learned a lot lately).

In hindsight the signs were there. Little sesame seed looking things in the chairs and kitty condo where they napped. You could also spy the little white things on their anus after a BM.

Anyway, Meghane - LOVE your comment. With pets, we are so used to seeing them a little on the fluffy side, that 'normal' looks 'thin'.

And also interesting about the DYES!! My daughter and I are allergic to Yellow Dye #5 and #6 but I NEVER thought that pet food could have dyes. DUH! If it's not good for us, it's not good for Fluffy and Fido.

pretty much all rescue pets have something wrong with them, thats why they are called 'rescued', tinted either by abuse,worms,too young,no home, all these issues can make it difficult but do not give up, rescues can make great pets once you get through the beginning.