Tubby cat Moses walks through water during weight lose treatment at Warwickshire vets

MOSES is walking through water.

However, the water is not parting for the overweight cat, and the exercise is helping him shed some weight.

The nine-year-old feline is being given hydrotherapy treatment at Avonvale Veterinary Centres in Wellesbourne, which said Moses is bucking the trend of cats disliking water.

However, it wasn’t always plain sailing for the cat and the team looking after him, who described Moses as an extremely reluctant patient to begin with.

Veterinary hydrotherapist Olivia Stokes said: “When he first came to us, Moses was nearly 10kg in weight. His owner said he had been on diets and been encouraged to exercise before but had still not able to lose weight. So, we decided to try a different approach with hydrotherapy.

“It’s a very unusual approach in caring for cats. I have been in the industry for five years and a qualified hydrotherapist for almost two years and I have never experienced hydro with a cat before, so Moses was a first for me. That is because cats don’t usually like water and, sure enough, on his first taster session Moses was not impressed at all. He needed a lot of encouragement as he resisted the treatment.”

Olivia tried various techniques to get Moses used to the water treatment, eventually hitting on the right formula.

She added: “Moses now sits in the tank as I increase the water level, then knows exactly what to do.”

After walking on the submerged treadmill for 13 minutes, more water is added so Moses gets a swim and full body workout.

Moses at his last weigh-in was 9.1kg.

“That’s a loss in body weight of almost four per cent in about six weeks, which is perfect as we don't want to lose the weight too quickly,” Olivia added.

Moses’ owner Jenna Joshi, from Banbury, who is clinical nursing manager at Avonvale, said she was thrilled with her pet’s progress