Cat walking as if she’s stiff.

[RedRed9]

My eleven year old cat is walking like she’s stiff. At first I thought it was a limp/injury but she’s a very sedentary indoor cat so I don’t think this is likely.

Is there anything I can do to help her? I’m definitely not ruling out the vets but she gets so incredibly distressed there that I want to check there’s nothing I could do for her as a first option.

I know that 11 is senior but surely it’s not that old?

She sounds like she is in pain, there are a lot of causes. She needs to see a vet

Most cats over 7 have some degree of arthritis. If she's stiff and sleeping lots it's likely she does too.

A vet check and anti inflammatories would probably be best - make sure she has a blanket in her cage and leave it out for a few days, sprinkled with dreamies or similar to try and encourage her inside.

Joint supplements such as glucosamine chondroitin or a joint specific diet might help too

Urinary infection. This happened to my beloved old cat Smudge a couple of months ago. Thought he had a stiff leg as he was always fighting. Only noticed it 2 days before i had to have him put down because the infection had caused the toxins in his body to build up and give him heart failure. Please take your cat to the vet and dont let the same horrible situation happen again x

I’ll call the vets in the morning.

Dont I am so so sorry. What an awful thing to happen to your lovely Smudge.

Was it a very pronounced limp? DCat’s is very subtle, I’m going to film it to show the vets (as she’ll just go into meltdown mode when we’re there and won’t walk) but I don’t know how well someone who doesn’t know her will be able to see it. Although they are professionals so I hope they will be!

Also, vet I can’t believe cats as young as 7 can have arthritis. When they have the potential to live for so long that just feels so unfair.

My Emma is granted really old so she most definitely has arthritis however one morning she seemed to just be walking odd on her back legs. Nothing massively noticeable but just a bit of stiffness. Luckily she's really good at letting me know when something is wrong and as she got up to the basin for her morning drink she tried to wee. Due to her age I rushed her down to the vets they dismissed it and said it will just be her age but come 7pm she was really bad rushed her back and turned out to be a water infection.