My lovely old boy has skin and joint problems, any ideas?

[PrettyVacant1]

He's getting on a bit , we think he's about 14 and in the past few months his back legs have gone weak.
He's having trouble squatting and keeps missing his litter tray , although when he hears a pouch being opened he suddenly has a great turn of speed.
We took him to the vets and he gave him a shot of NSAIDs as steroids may exacerbate the skin condition he has.
(He pulls out his fur sporadically)
Just wondering if anyone has experience of this or any advice about what to do about the litter tray problems.
The vet gave us a joint tonic to try and said to see how he is after a month.
He also gave me the names of 2 drugs ;Nutraquin and Synoquin.
Anyone tried these ?
He doesn't seem in pain but he's stiff and unable to groom himself.

Tia.

Sounds like arthritis, OP. My senior boy has that (although he's a bit older than yours) and the symptoms were much the same - apart only from the pulling out fur. He's now on a mild laxative (twice daily) and arthritis meds (once daily). All sorted - he's using his tray fine again and even grooming some bits he wasn't doing before. (I still have to help him groom just a little but at his age, a little help is to be expected?)

Cozietoesie, thanks for your reply.
What is the medication called?
Is your cat improved much?
Vet mentioned muscle wastage as he didn't seem to be in pain when he messed about with his legs.
Poor pud.

The pet shop near me has fish oils for cats I know the guy in there and he says they work miracles HTH.My 2 are getting on a bit I might try them.They are good for skin hair and joints so would cover all bases for you x

You need to invest in a shallow litter tray no higher than 5cm sides most commonly the sides of the litter tray to high and they are so exhausted once in the just squat rather than position properly. Worth also putting children's toilet steps by the furniture your cat loves to sleep on to help the cat. Acupuncture has also proved really useful in these cats.

Oh yes cats show pain in very different ways they withdraw and do less so pain is very difficult to assess in cats. I was a clinician on the original cat watch trail that first looked at arthritis in cats. We extensively videoed elderly cats before starting metacam and a month afterwards. Yes there are issues with NSAIDs kidneys and old cats and I always discuss this with my clients, but universally they choose the happy life that maybe a bit shorter. I had my own old lady on metacam for four years until I lost her to kidney disease last week. The metacam may have accelerated this, but she had 4 comfortable years rather than maybe 6 miserable years.

Lonecat I'm so sorry to hear you lost your lovely cat.
Thank you for your reply and advice.
The vet mentioned Metacam but said it may exacerbate his skin and talked about putting him through possibly stressful procedures with further tests.
We do have a low litter tray and he prefers to sleep under the dining room table on an old towel.
(piles of cat beds in the loft!)
I got a tonic to pour on his food too Noddyholder.

Good news is, this morning, for the first time in weeks we've not had to mop up pee.

Gosh I have used metacam a lot and as I said was on the original study for metacam in cats never ever heard of it making skin problems worse. Unless of course you are using steroids which will have to stop if you start metacam.

Well the arthritis meds my old boy is on are a metacam bioequivalent and he's doing just fine. Luckily, he'd had a full blood work up 7 months or so before starting (before a big GA procedure) and he's going to have to have another one around Xmas because of the potential for kidney damage, long term - extensively discussed with me by the vet - but he's a happy lad right now where beforehand he wasn't. And at close to 18, his kidneys could pop any moment, meds or no meds. So I'll just be keeping on with the potions, I think.