I came across a perplexing December 11, 2025 headline in Smithsonian Magazine via my feed reader: Can GLP-1s Help Fat Cats Lose Weight? The First Clinical Trial Testing the Drugs for Weight Loss in Felines Has Begun. It appears that the drug companies are working on Ozempicat, Whiskgovny, and/or Trulikitty. But I fear the headline may be meowing up the wrong tree insofar as it asks can and not should.
The article, which is authored by Margherita Bassi, quotes Carolyn McDaniel, who it describes as a “lecturer in clinical sciences at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine,” for the troubling statistic that “[p]robably 50 percent of cats seen at veterinary clinics these days are overweight, if not obese.” I have heard from the corpulent kitties and they want to correct the record. They are simply “big boned,” “muscular,” “fluffy,”or if all else fails, “healthy at every size.”
(Aside: Has anyone done a study on whether there is a relationship between pet owner weight and pet weight?)
Some cat owners may find themselves persuaded by their cats’ justifications. But for those infected by the virulent mind virus of fat negativity, help for managing the weight of their corpulent kitties is on the way. That help is coming from San Francisco (oh no). I quote from the Smithsonian article:
San Francisco-based pharmaceutical company OKAVA is working toward a potential solution. Last week, OKAVA announced that it had kicked off a clinical trial for OKV-119, a tiny implant that slowly releases a GLP-1 medication to manage weight in cats. The first kitty in the study has been successfully dosed, according to a press release.
Thank goodness.
Now one might suggest that there are non-pharmaceutical ways to prevent feline obesity. For example, not feeding your cat as much or as often. But Michael Klotsman, the CEO of OKAVA who has no personal stake in the matter, suggests that not feeding the cat as much and as frequently is easier said than done:
[C]aloric restriction, or fasting, is one of the most well-established interventions for extending lifespan and improving metabolic health in cats. But it’s also one of the hardest to maintain…
One cat owner quoted in the article (see original report) may agree with Mr. Klotsman:
I think that if my vet came to me and was like, ‘He’s diabetic. We’ve tried everything else. We should consider that [implant]’—then most definitely.
This is a fair point. Restricting the diet of a morbidly obese diabetic cat is not the solution. Properly fed cats that want more are known to use their opposable thumbs to not only fetch a can of cat food, but also adroitly flip the tab or operate a can opener to free the food within from its aluminum prison. Is dried food safe from feline intrusion? Not likely. Being clean animals, cats are known to neatly take a bag of dried cat food and pour it into the bowl. For those who prefer feeding their cats milk, it should suffice to say that the refrigerator door is no impediment to a properly-motivated dexterous cat.
(I have heard rumors that Fluffy McFluffles has mastered speaking and reading and can now place Instacart orders, but I can neither confirm nor deny.)
The article concludes by informing us that Mr. Klotsman is targeting 2027 or 2028 for seeking FDA approval for feline Ozempic, otherwise known as OKV-119 (Obese Kitty Voluminous-119?). The author concludes by noting that the San Francisco geniuses beyond this great leap in veterinary science aim “to keep the out-of-pocket costs for cat parents at about $100 per month” (which is about one-sixth the price of some of the new kitty litterboxes.) I did a double-take on “out-of-pocket costs” before remembering that pet insurance is apparently a thing now. As I noted in The Emu Café Social, Mars (the company best known for candy) controls nearly half of all corporate-owned pet clinics in the United States and, perhaps relatedly, the average vet bill was (as of February 2025) about 60% more expensive than in 2014.
But was anyone working on fat cat implants in 2014?
(All jokes aside, being a pet owner is a responsibility and part of that responsibility should include not feeding pet cats until they cannot jump on the couch. I venture no medical opinion on whether there may be scenarios where Ozempicat is the best solution to a problem, but I venture as a matter of logic that the ideal solution is to not reach the Ozempicat stage in the first place.)
