Is it just me or are elderly cats really hard work ?

[peridito]

I love my cats very much but I'm worn out !

The food issues ,the numerous litter trays ,the cleaning up after missing the litter trays .

I'm mean aren't I ? Or possibly v v lazy .

Btw, those who have cats on regular medication, do you buy it online. Just ordered ours again today and it's a massive saving. Costs me £8 for the prescription but I get it for 150 tablets and if memory serves me right, save about 90p per tablet!

I might try leaving more lights on tonight and see if that works. Normally it's just a lamp

Doh! Meant to post pic

raspberry according to the original owners neighbours, our old man was always a roamer (not surprising as he wasn't neutered) and the owners moved and left him behind, and then denied he was ever theirs. Despite owning him from being a kitten. So before he decided this was his permanent retirement home, for a few years he was joint ownership between a few of us that took him on. Even though he's now decided he's exclusively mine, I will definitely be discussing it when the time comes, although as we all have the same opinion on better a day too early, it won't really be a discussion. The fuckwits that abandoned him won't be informed.

Trainspotting blimey ppl can be awful ,lucky boy to find you .

How was the night Autumn ?

So many things my elderly girl does too from reading all your posts! She especially loves getting outside to drink rainwater (usually from the patio) 😂

I haven’t experienced the litter tray issues yet but I did with a previous elderly boy as he used to poo over the edge of it! 🤦🏼‍♀️

I’ve found it really hard work dealing with the emotional side of caring for my elderly girl, so it’s good to share experiences on here - makes me feel less alone so to speak. You just don’t think about this time when you first get them do you and then sooner than you expect they’re suddenly elderly and developing health problems! 😣😫

@Autumnchill Yes, I bought Vidalta online and saved oodles! Although I had to stop giving it to her in the end as she got depressed and fearful over being tableted and stopped eating and interacting. I won’t hesitate in buying online again should I need to, it’s worth it for the savings alone when medicines are so expensive anyway.

When do you think she was active 🐯

Gosh Autumn just after 1am looks particularly painful .

peridito tbf, if he hadn't honoured us as his retirement home, any of the other co- owners would have had him just as happily. Just a shame his 'owners' didn't fuck off sooner so he could have had a real home earlier.

Autumn I really feel for you. They're SO loud aren't they. I've bought a bumper pack of ear plugs which has helped. I did consider putting some kind of sound proofing on the utility room door but I think it would just make it hard to open the door. My old lady will now sleep ALL day on my bloody bed and the evil part of me wants to go and yowl in her ear but of course she needs her rest and I'm not THAT evil. 😂

I will admit to poking her on a weekend to wake her up so she'll sleep through the night more 😁

It's been bliss this week! Husband went searching for shallow litter tray as the hallway was starting to smell from her tearing up the puppy pads and peeing on the floor.

He found this! A puppy pad holder and Zoflora cat pee cleaner. She's crying less in the night.

I took her to the vet yesterday, nobody could believe she is 20- she was the talk of the surgery!
The vet hopes the lump is a cyst and has given me anti inflammatory medicine to give her for 10 days. If it grows or starts to bother her then it is probably a tumour And we will look at next steps. I asked if they would remove it with her being so old but she said they operate on cats half her age with more health problems. She gave her stomach a good feel and said there were no masses.

She has lost a little weight since her last visit though, any tips for a bit of weight gain?

Is she eating? Well done for taking her.

What a great thread. I've never thought of buying the tablets online but will take a look, my old girl (19) has hyperthyroidism and high blood pressure. I think she's completely deaf, which has actually made her life far less stressful, she used to hide when the bin men, delivery men, window cleaners etc came but is now blissfully unaware! She's long haired and doesn't groom at all anymore so I have to clean her bottom almost every day. She keeps draping her tail through the tray as she gets out, we call it her poo paint brush - she likes to paint the wall with it given half the chance. She still eats like a horse and is great company when I'm working from home - I'll miss her dreadfully when she goes.

Natures Miracle (Amazon) is great for neutralising cat pee smells - expensive but worth it. I used to use it in a cat shelter. Also - you can buy high calorie paste (it’s a bit like a marmite texture) that you can squirt in their food or let them lick off your finger / a spoon. It’s very palatable - Nutrical.

Autumn - a puppy pad holder! genius!

Altho I've just thought ,you could use the lid of a plastic storage box ..

in feeding news - I thought I'd made a great discovery earlier this week (yes Weds morning and the cats have already changed their minds ) when in an attempt to recreate the flavour of the incredibly expensive tinned food I made a lovely glutinous sauce to add to home cooked fish and chicken .

It was a teaspoon of rice flour with a little water and microwaved for 3 mins .They do love the sauce it produces but will, after initial enthusiasim ,lick it off and leave the food .

I'm mentioning it here in case it helps someone ,but it would be great if someone knowledgeable ( @ThePawtriachy ? ) could comment on it's use ? I'm a bit worried that too much would fill them up and only provide empty calories .

Fingers crossed @Shetlandponyranger.

She has lost a little weight since her last visit though, any tips for a bit of weight gain?

My vet suggested putting our two Senior Boys back on kitten food, ShetlandPonyRanger, as it is more calorie-rich than adult cat food.

They've been on kitten food for about two months now and SB2's weight has stabilised. He is no longer losing weight and his fur looks better. SB1 is a bit more problematic as he has hyperthyroidism but his medication dosage has just been increased so I'm hoping that this plus the extra calories will help.

@peridito the good thing with the holder is it clips the corners down so no matter how hard she tries to dig, it doesn't move 😁

Thank you for the food tips, will give them a go.

@peridito I’m not sure but eating something is better than eating nothing and sometimes it’s just getting them going. We used to warm up chicken baby food jars (disgusting! Don’t know if they make it any more!) and stir in nutrical. The combination of the smell and, erm, tastiness was often a winner!

Ditto the kitten food. The old boy isn't that bad for maintaining weight as he's always been greedy, he just has kitten biscuits mixed in with meat because of his teeth. But one of the girls is naturally slender, active and not a big eater, and whenever she is looking a bit too slim we swop her onto kitten meat for a while.

I've also found chicken stock, preferably the proper home made variety is good for tempting them. I say home made because it smells more authentic, and if you do it quite thick you can coat the food, rather than turning it into a thin soup that fills them before they've ate the actual food. The likelits are also a favourite with all of mine, and a dollop of salmon flavour particularly on top of dinner seems to work if ever any of them need tempting to eat.

Old boy also likes the little cartons of cat milk, but might be counter productive if they are easily filled.

This evening he threw delicately removed some jelly that clearly wasn't mixed in to his standards. Then moved a few feet away from his bowl to yowl that he hadn't been fed, until I picked up the bowl and passed it him, because he couldn't possibly put his mud, leaf and hay encrusted self in the mess of jelly surrounding his food. Although I should be grateful, because at least jelly isn't amongst the filth he's now removed onto what was previously a nice shirt belonging to dp.

Sadly we said goodbye to our beautiful 18 year old boy today. Yesterday he fell trying to get on the sofa earlier, and later his back legs almost gave up. For the first time ever he made no attempt to move across from his cushion to a lap and he could hardly shift his own position.
DH spent the night sleeping on the sofa with our boy on his lap in case he tried to get up, and the poor boy didn’t move all night.
He has never wee’d indoors, never had an accident and we worried he would try to get outside.
This morning we failed to get a home visit so wrapped him in a blanket and cuddled him all the way to the vets, then sat with him in the car until we could carry him directly through to a room. I held him the whole time and fortunately everything went as smoothly and quickly as it could for him.
My DD, SIL and DGS are staying and it was heartbreaking having GS, aged 2 saying goodbye to him as his parents took him out for the morning. First question he asked when he came back was “where is Dcat?”
I will miss him so much.
Cuddle your old boys tonight x