Help me track my elderly cat's progress...

[something2say]

Hiya,

I have a cat aged 16.5. He's a British Blue.

His coat is still gorgeous and soft, but underneath he is skin and bones. I mean you can even feel the spine going into the skull.

He hasn't been able to jump on the bed for years so I've arranged steps which help, but increasingly he has difficulty balancing. At times he falls off and scrambles on the wooden floor for his feet, which I hate to see. He can't make the sofa very often or falls back.

He's had blood tests and nothing apart from reduced kidney function so he's on special food for that. He also has bad arthritis. Two of his front canines have fallen out, the last one only a few weeks ago. That worried me.

I did some research into what happens as they age and he's got all the things but one, and all of the things to help have been in place. But this one time he went to bite me for touching his back legs as he lay down. He was struggling to lie down on the floor with his arthritis and he went to bite me for touching. That's the only time he's ever done a thing like that.

We also have poo on the floor incidents pretty much every day now, as he stands in it as he gets out of the tray. Luckily I have wooden flooring.

I know he can't have long. I am keeping a very close eye on him. He loves the kidney food biscuits but doesn't eat too much wet meat now, but always gets food from my plate, chicken and fish and such, and always has that. Because he is so thin, my partner said to give him his own share of the fish from the plate, just so he eats enough. And recently I've taken to giving him loads of the treat biscuits as he adores them and why not? Is that a good idea?

But the most marked recent change is that nowadays he is absolutely all over me. He came to me seven years ago or so and he wasn't a lap cat at all, but I have loved and kissed him so much he enjoys being cuddled and always comes up for a twenty minute hello session first thing, and when I get home at night. But it's got markedly more intense. He now gets on me and wants to stay on all the time. That was the last thing in the list of behavioral changes, being clingy. What do people think?

He purrs, eats, drinks, sleeps a lot. Can't jump, is skin and bones but rubs faces and licks and all that. Not ready yet right?

What pain meds does he receive? And has he a dental scheduled?

Neither....maybe a trip to the vet you think?

My dearly loved old boy had to be PTS age 24 this year. The vet told me quality of life was tge main reason for keeping going or not.

My old boy ate and drank well, purred and slept. The day I woke and heard him gasping for breath was the day I knew it wasn't any life anymore. I took him to the vet who said his heart was failing, but I knew it was time.

You will know x

Aww bless him. X

I don't think my fella will make 24.

He should be on pain relief for his arthritis at the very least, poor old chap.

They do seem to get a personality change when they are old, become more cuddly. Could you maybe get a machine washable rug to help him get upright. Something cheap and cheerful that you can wash if there are accidents. I'd take him to the vet to be checked out to be honest. Get him a heat pad if he doesn't have one already.

We think our old man is about 17-18 (former rescue cat) He too has a lovely coat but also is a bag of bones. He appears otherwise well and in fairness is happier than he has ever been. He is sometimes sick and has trouble keeping his bum in the litter tray whilst pooing. He's more social than he ever has been (especially with me).

I know this isn't particularly helpful but I'd been toying for a while with posting about his weight loss, so I'm glad to have read your post. Hope your fella is OK and sticks around for a while longer

I'd vet him, myself.

I groom Seniorboy these days - apart from his 'personal toilette' which he can manage himself - and also trim his claws. He simply can't manage, physically, to do the heavy work himself. (And he rather likes the attention of the grooming.)

Please do visit a vet. My old girl couldn't tolerate metacam but had tramadol for arthritis. Made such a difference.
A shallow tray will help with poo incidents.
We also got a whelping pad. AKA heated butt warmer for old girl.

Your whelping pad sounds very good. And Yes - it doesn't absolutely have to be meloxicam.

She loved it. She was 19. She would sit hunched up on the back of the sofa. We would switch on the electric butt warmer and you could see her go "aaaahhhhh" and uncurl!

Cats seem to like warmth at the best of times but it really appears to ease old bones.

OP my cat sounds almost the same as yours although he's only 9. He's been to the vets and he has a tooth out which has helped with eating. He's also falling over to the right all the time.

I didn't know they could have pain medication for arthritis though so will ask about that.

My heart is slowly breaking everyday watching him, I feel his time might be coming, but it's not here just quite yet. I thought we'd have him for so much longer too.

I'd say a visit to the vet would be useful. Worth checking about FIV too as that's what my vet has suggested as a possibility with similar symptoms.

Cozie I am impressed that Seniorboy let's you trim his claws. My 19 year old girl is a biter so had to see the vet nurse for that. She can still jump on and off the sofa so I don't think arthritis is bothering her too much.

He actively enjoys the grooming. The claw trimming he .......permits. (It's more difficult these days, because his claws are becoming thickened and gnarled with age - like an old man's toenails. It has to be done though because he hasn't the muscles to properly do front claws nor the teeth to chew at his back ones. )

We manage.

The 'falling over' is a little concerning in such a young (to me) cat, adorno.

Yes. It's been going on since half term. Getting worse. Vets have seen him (a few) but nobody can say for certain what's going on. Latest is leukemia or FIV.