How will getting older impact the health of a cat?
Well, unfortunately, as we all get older and your cat gets older, they are more predisposed to senior feline health diseases. Because aging in your cat is going to make them more predisposed to acquired diseases, we as veterinarians really want to see your older feline ideally every single year, sometimes every six months, so that we can keep a really extra close eye on them as they age.
Dr. Noel Lucas
Blue Oasis Pet Hospital
How do a cat's nutritional needs change as they age?
Senior feline cats often are just a little bit more sedentary, so they're a little bit more predisposed to weight gain, and as they are gaining some more weight, they're putting more stress on their orthopedic system and their hearts. So really, as a cat ages, we're going to be more mindful of their weight gain, and so we might want to start reducing their calories. They might have some GI distress or GI disorders that might be acquired as they get older, so we might want to change their diet to maybe having more fiber. So really, it just kind of depends on how your individual cat is aging and what nutritional needs they may have.
What are some signs and symptoms that your cat is probably slowing down with age?
Cats are really sedentary already. However, as cats are slowing down, they often aren't grooming themselves as well. One of the things that you may notice first is just, we call it that unkept hair coat. It just looks a little bit more matted together, not as smooth and silky. That can indicate that your cat is having a hard time just maneuvering its little body to groom and lick itself. You may have noticed that your cat could maybe jump up to a higher surface when they were younger, and you've kind of slowly forgotten that they could make that jump earlier in their lives, but as they've aged, you start putting maybe a little side table up next to it. Now they're jumping on the side table to get up to the countertop, so they're taking more levels to get to the place that they want to get to. Just slowing down. You might see them going up and down steps, but instead of doing a real quick trot up and a real quick trot down, which is normal, now they're just taking one step at a time, and it's just a little bit more labored, and it takes them more time to move. So, you know, jumping concerns, grooming concerns, maybe they're not making it all the way into the litter box. Maybe they're making it to the litter box, but they just go potty on the outside and soil around the litter box. It can indicate they're having trouble actually getting in and out of the box. If you suspect that your cat is maybe having some unkept hair coat, or just not able to just get into the places they used to without having to take lots of levels, or maybe they're missing some of their litter box potty times, you probably should be talking to your veterinarian.
What are some common health complications and diseases that senior cats get?
Senior cats, we know that as they age, they're just going to potentially develop one of those senior feline cat diseases. Absolutely number one would be chronic kidney disease, or we call it CKD. So, kidney health starts declining, and we can detect that through blood work. We see thyroid disorders happening, so cats always get high thyroid, so hyperthyroidism. They get little goiters, or little nodules of their thyroid glands, and their thyroid hormone goes up, and so we will see that in older cats. Diabetes, they do get diabetes, and we'll see that as a senior feline disease. We talk about feline heart disease, or cardiology concerns, so acquired heart murmurs, because the valves start to age. We'll get electrical abnormalities sometimes. We'll get gastrointestinal diseases, like inflammatory bowel disease, or maybe even some cancers, like lymphoma, in the gastrointestinal tract, or just cancers in general are more likely in the senior feline. So, I'm just trying to run down my big cat diseases. Those are the most common that we'll start to see, and then finally, don't forget musculoskeletal diseases, like osteoarthritis, so just arthritic bone.
What kind of preventive care can extend the life and health of a cat?
If you have a cat that's getting older, we want to get their weight down, or at least weight appropriate. We're going to try to keep their muscle mass strong, so preventative measures could be just dietary calorie restriction to maintain a leaner body mass. We know cats need to keep their muscles just like we do as we get older, so doing more, you know, play with them, and just laser lights, and little fishing poles, and, you know, little interactive toys to keep their mind sharp and their muscles moving is a good idea. You know, brushing them more, potentially, if they're having some problems grooming themselves, so just having, I know, that routine grooming behavior, and get good brushes. So, some of these things can just help keep your cat's hair coat good, keep them up and moving, keep their weight in check. Oftentimes, just nutritionally, I'll start maybe switching some older cats over from maybe dry diets into canned foods if they'll eat it. Canned nutrition has less calorie density, so just by making that one simple change from primarily dry diet into a canned diet drops their calories down, and they'll start to maybe even lose a little bit of weight because they're eating more water density in that canned food and dropping weight. So, by far, the most important test that your cat, your senior cat needs is an exam by your veterinarian. Hands, eyes, and ears, when we listen and listen to hearts, and we touch your cat, and we look at them, that's by far one of the most diagnostic tests that we can do as veterinarians, and then that's a good outside check, I call it, and then the blood work that we want to recommend or run a run on your older cat is so we can kind of look at those internal organ functions, and look at those kidneys, and look at that blood sugar, and look at the liver, and look at the thyroid, look at their urine, look at their cardiac enzyme. So, we're taking a pulse or a check on all those things internally. So, your veterinarian's absolutely going to run it, want to run some blood work on your senior cat.
So, I guess, what age do they become a senior?
That's a good starting point. Generally, cats are known to start their senior years, it's kind of a sliding scale, maybe eight to ten-ish, that's kind of my senior time, where they'll kind of transition from adult to senior. By the age of ten, they're truly a senior, and then, you know, maybe till they're age 14, 15, we're starting to get into their geriatric years. So, as we transition into that later part of their life, they still should be very active. I had a cat to live to be 22, and she had a very happy, healthy life up until about 20, and then it started to get a little bit, age-related changes started to be known. But, your senior cat needs to, most important, see their veterinarian at least once a year, because we're going to find those things that they like to hide. Cats are very secretive about their diseases, and we know they're more prone to get senior feline diseases at the age of 10 and older. So, we really encourage you to come see your veterinarian with your senior cat at least once a year, getting them a good physical exam, getting them some blood work. We're going to be able to find some of those diseases early, so that we have the most opportunity to change their diet, or partner with you to find some additional tests, so that we're able to slow the disease down, and that's, or cure it, since thyroid disease is curable. So, we, as veterinarians, really train hard to help you with your senior cat. We love them. They are near and dear to your hearts, as my senior cat has been to me. So, please see your veterinarian with your senior cat, so that we can partner with you to let them live a long and healthy life. Thanks so much.
If you still have other questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (615) 975-2583 , or you can email us at [email protected]. But please do reach out, and we'll get back to you as fast as we can. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram
Cat Wellness - FAQs 1
Dr. Noel Lucas
Blue Oasis Pet Hospital
What are some things I can do to make my aging cat more comfortable?
Ah, well, they love a heating blanket, right? So, having maybe some lower pet beds to have them not have to jump as high. Maybe their favorite perch was way up top in their cat tower, but now they're not quite getting all the way up there anymore. So, maybe bring more comfortable heating pads down on the second level or even up along a windowsill. I call these heating pads just because they really just like to sit on warm surfaces that you see them in the sun. Getting their mats taken care of. Senior felines sometimes have more arthritic disease, can't groom themselves as well, so they're more prone to matting. So, keeping them brushed or going to a groomer more regularly to get their little mats or even a lion cut to keep their hair cut short. Those are just a couple of things I think of right away on how to maybe adapt to your senior feline's needs.
How do I know if my senior cat is in pain?
So, cats, again, very secretive about their diseases, including pain. We can find some very, very serious painful conditions in cats with their dental disease that becomes more advanced. We can find really bad cavities in there that are painful, and they aren't going to tell you a thing. Except if they have more advanced dental disease, what you might notice is around their bowl, their little crunchy kibbles, instead of being able to get them in their mouth and then chew them and swallow them, they'll take them in their mouth, hit an ouchy tooth, they'll either drop the whole piece or they'll crunch it and they'll just be broken pieces of kibble around their bowl. That can indicate dental disease that's uncomfortable for them. Cats usually will not cry out or yell out with any kind of pain unless it's acute trauma, and that's completely different, but we're not talking about that really. We're talking about painful conditions like osteoarthritis, disc disease in their older little discs or in their hips or their elbows. In those cases, cats don't usually cry out. You might see some lameness. Maybe they're just not moving the same. Maybe they're slower. You see them maybe walking down the hallway and they've got a little gait limp. They're not crying out or telling you they're in pain, but that's actually a sign of pain. So we're just having you watch for those little subtle signs that something's just not quite right. I call it your intuition. If you feel something's not quite right with your cat, that's a big indication that you need to bring them into your veterinarian because I bet you something's not right.
How do I know if my senior cat has a decent quality of life?
So that's a good question. How do you know if they have a good quality of life? I kind of look to see what is kind of their favorite things to do. Like if they like to get up and wake you up at 3 a.m. and that's something that they've always done throughout their life and they're not doing that anymore, that might be an indication something's wrong. Of course, we have some cats that get real picky as they get older, but that pickiness is not necessarily just the food that you're offering that they don't like. There actually could be something going on internally with their kidneys or maybe their gastrointestinal system that they need a diagnosis. So how are they eating? Are they going about their day in their normal routines? Are they interacting with you like they used to? Are they more reclusive and hiding in the closets and not really coming out to greet you when you come home? Maybe they're not hearing as well and really they're still doing quite well and got good mobility, but they just don't hear you come in. So these are just sort of things to think about as your cat's getting older. And if you feel like something's just a little bit off about just their everyday life, I encourage you to talk with your veterinarian and see if there's something that we can uncover causing that symptom that you're noticing.
Why does my senior cat sometimes yowl at night?
We call them the night yowlers. So night yowling in cats can be predatory behavior, right? So they can find a favorite toy and just do some really loud vocalizations because they're actually playing. But we're more likely talking about sort of abnormal night yowling sounds that are not something you normally hear at night with your cat. There are two sort of diseases that we associate with night yowlers. One being hyperthyroidism. So they just have a thyroid that's just getting hyperfunctional and it's causing their thyroid hormone to go up and they're feeling very energized and they'll start doing night yowling at night. And then we have high blood pressure. So hypertension causes night yowling. You're like, why is that? We think it's headaches and cats can't articulate they're having headaches. So they'll do some really loud vocalizations or yowling at night. That's the two things we think about, high blood pressure and hypertension. One more thing, I guess a subtle three might be vision loss. So ocular changes or vision loss. So they might get a little bit more lost or not quite know where they are or they're getting a little bit senile because they're getting older. So cognitive health decline can also cause some night yowling. So those are the kind of the primary things that I think about with night yowlers.
If you still have other questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (615) 975-2583 , or you can email us at [email protected]. But please do reach out, and we'll get back to you as fast as we can. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram
Cat Wellness - FAQs 2
Dr. Noel Lucas
Blue Oasis Pet Hospital
What are the signs that my cat is dying?
So as your cat continues to age and may develop some unfortunate life-threatening disease that we are either managing or we just can't and we know that they're starting to suffer. Some of the most common signs that your cat is just really sort of declining in its overall health would be really just not wanting to interact with you anymore, the family, so they kind of disappear we call it. They go into parts of the house that they're not used to being in, going underneath beds they're not used to laying under, going into closets and staying for unreasonable amounts of time and not really wanting to come out. When you do come and find them or they do finally come out, usually they're walking really slowly, seem really fatigued, maybe they'll eat but it's not a lot. Maybe you're feeding them multiple times a day or offering them lots of different foods just to encourage them to want to eat because their appetites have very much declined. Maybe they're starting to change the way they're breathing and they're doing more much more labored or efforted breathing. Maybe they just can't jump up onto any surface or it's a real big effort for them to go up and down the stairs or they go in by their litter box and they're just exhausted and they just lay by their litter or sometimes even lay in their litter. Just really extremely odd behavior that you can pick up that either something's very, you'll know, something's very seriously wrong or we've been talking about these things and you're just seeing that decline in their health over time.
What is the difference between palliative care and hospice care for my senior cat?
Yeah, so they're not entirely different. Palliative care means, for example, maybe we have a cat that has cancer and maybe there are specialists in the area that we can send your cat to and we can do maybe chemotherapy for cancer, maybe there's a surgery, but you elect not to move forward with those more advanced diagnostics or specialists and that's okay. But we still have a cat that might be doing, you know, pretty good and so we're gonna maybe do something to intervene with pain management, maybe some appetite stimulants, some just palliative care to just kind of continue on their life that maybe they're having a pretty okay life and we just want to continue that as long as we can with some palliative care.
Hospice care is slightly different in the sense that yes, you know, maybe we've gone through specialists, maybe they've had a particular procedure, maybe we know what's going on, but we've just come to the end of being able to do a whole lot for them. So we will put these kids in hospice care, kind of similar to what people go through where we know that they're dying, we don't have very much time left for them to be with you and your family, but we don't want them to suffer greatly during those last days so maybe we'll prescribe them some narcotic pain relievers or we'll still do maybe some palliative care with it, some appetite stimulants, but we're in a much, much more limited period of time where we're pretty much at the end of their life.
How do veterinarians support the human-animal bond during the end-of-life stage?
So veterinarians take an oath to end pain and suffering and support that human-animal bond. So we kind of run in that gray zone, we want to support that human-animal bond that you have with your pet, as your cat is obviously very close and near and dear to you as they've been with you all those years, usually in a senior cat, they could be 18, 19, 20 years old and you've had them since a kitten, so we really understand that human-animal bond that you have with that cat. We also know that suffering is suffering and cats do it quietly, they do it pretty gracefully, but they can be suffering very, very greatly during that time where they are in that transition time of their life. A veterinarian will help talk you through sort of what their concerns are with what they're seeing and what you're telling them and we're going to most likely advocate to let that cat go. We don't want them to suffer, I don't think you do either, but sometimes you need to hear it from us as your veterinarian and your partner in care to help make that decision with you. It is pretty hard for me as a veterinarian to know that a cat is suffering and to see that cat go home to continue to suffer and just die at home. That doesn't feel right to a lot of us because we know that cat is just suffering to suffer and so we're oftentimes going to want to end that pain and suffering.
It's a pretty serious topic of the natural progression of your cat's life into their hopefully ripe old geriatric senior years, so partnering with your veterinarian can be a really rewarding experience to help you guide the waters of your senior feline health concerns and also to be a shoulder to cry on when it does come that time that you need to say goodbye. So if you want to talk about your cat's senior health concerns, we'd love to see you here at Blue Oasis Pet Hospital. Thank you so much.
If you still have other questions and you'd like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (615) 975-2583 , or you can email us at [email protected]. But please do reach out, and we'll get back to you as fast as we can. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram