Caring For The Older Cat

Ageing is not a disease but a natural normal life process. It is however, accompanied by wear and tear on the body. Today with the improvements in nutrition, vaccination and our own understanding of excellence in pet ownership and medical care, our cats are living longer.

When is my cat likely to be considered old?

Life expectancy in cats ranges from breed to breed, genetic influences, lifestyle and surprisingly; we should start to manage the ageing process in our cats earlier than we once thought. As described above, wear and tear and the bodies deceasing ability to repair itself, accompany ageing. However it is not all bad news, because we now understand when the ageing process starts to affect our cat’s health, we can start to minimize the progressive deterioration and maintain or improve our cat’s quality of life.

As a general rule an elderly preventative medicine regime could begin at the age of 7 for cats.

What can I do to help my ageing cat?

Fortunately, we can assist our cat through his golden years in many ways, and it is much easier to care for the older cat than the older human. Below is a list of tips you may wish to follow for your older cat:

Respect, by all members of the family including other pets and children, do not allow them to bother your older cat, her patience may be wearing thin and she could become less tolerant as she gets older.

If your cats sight and hearing is deteriorating, do stick to her normal routine, do not move furniture around and keep her feeding routine to a regular time and place each day.

Regular exercise is important to maintain bone strength and muscle tone, however your cat may have a locomotive problem such as arthritis, degenerative joint disease or just have difficulty on standing up, if this is the case you may have to adjust limit her access outside. Speak to your vet, who will advise you.

Be understanding of them if they do fail to respond to you, hear you, or have little accidents.
Keep their bedding comfortable or warm, if they are used to sleeping outside on hard concrete surfaces, consider bringing them indoors on softer bedding, they are more prone to developing sores, or hard callous on their joints such as elbows or hocks, these can become extremely painful or ulcerated.

Keep them clean and groomed more regularly, as they may have difficulties in grooming themselves. It is also an ideal time to notice any changes or abnormalities.
Keep their nails; trimmed short, you may have to have them clipped more regularly.