How active should a 13 year old cat be?

[TeaChocKitKat]

My cat has always been a very active indoor / outdoor cat who was well known by the neighbours and local Facebook groups. He used to worry me sick with all of his adventures!

Anyway, he's had a number of fairly serious health problems over the past 6 months or so. He seems much better in himself now that we have got him on various medications.
He is much less active than he was before though. When he's in the house he's almost always just on our bed. He goes out for an hour or two at most each day. He doesnt venture far. I dont think he leaves our garden out back or goes much further than our drive or our next door neighbours garden out front.
If you have a cat of a similar age, how active are they and how much do they go out? Is this a normal amount of slowing down or is this due to his underlying health conditions?
We want to make sure he has a happy and comfortable retirement. His prognosis isn't great so we are trying to give him quality over quantity of life. However apart from slowing down, all of his other symptoms seem to have gone.
He was very active until a year or so ago so I'm not sure what's normal.

My cats are 15 now and have slowed down a lot over the past few years - one of mine barely leaves the house for more than ten minutes at a time

I’d say that 13 was probably the start of the slowing down and if your lovely cat has been poorly I’d think that it’s probably hastens this along, understandably

My 8 year old goes out for short times and spends the rest on me or on my place on the bed. He's not really active at all. The younger two are much crazier.

13 or 14 my old DC slowed very noticeably over a 6 to 12 month period. He got slower, didn’t venture much further than a few metres from the house and slept in a flowerbed mainly. He stopped crying to go out, and just popped out for ten minutes with me if I went in the garden and left the door open. He got a bit more needy with regard to fuss and cuddles. I started keeping him indoors at 16, apart from sunny supervised garden trips, and we lost him at 18. The decline was very rapid and obvious at the end, we knew but he went in his sleep before our vet appointment.

Everything from 13 to 18 was slower with more sleep and closer to his humans, but he was still happy, fussy and bright right up til the end. Yours sounds normal (and lovely, and much loved).

Thanks all. Its encouraging (in a weird way) to think this is a fairly normal decline. The difference between him and our next oldest cat who is 12 is really significant. We have 3 cats now so although we are fairly experienced cat owners because he is our oldest watching his ageing is a first for us.

Its quite sad to see him slow down this much given how adventurous he used to be. We are getting lots more cuddles off him now. His life as changed a lot so we all need to adjust as long as he is happy.

Our 13 year old boycat does go out for quite a bit at night I think, but spends most of the day snoozing! His sister is more timid and probably doesn’t venture as far. We are quite urban with other neighbourhood cats about so neither problem wander too far.

Cats sleep on average something like 18 hours a day. So not very is the answer. Mine is a few years younger and sleeps about 20 hours a day.
I want to come back as a cat in my next life please!

Our boy is not far off 19 now, and spends about 99% of his time on the settee these days. We moved 2.5 years ago and he has been an indoor cat since, apart from the odd supervised walk in the garden. He only rarely wants to go out now though. He is definitely more affectionate than he used to be, so as long as he is well and happy we are happy.

My cat is 14 and sleeps most of the day. The change in her activity levels was quite rapid around the age of 12 and a half.

I would say that sounds pretty normal at 13. I had a cat that died at just 18 but really from about 13 years of age she started to slow down, sleep a lot more and lost the voracious appetite that she’d had up until then.

She rarely left the back garden, preferring instead to sleep in the flower beds and if another cat did try to come into the garden she would happily howl and screech from the safety of inside the fence and see them off 😁

Like Shylo, our cats are 15 now.
Girlcat mostly lives on a bed somewhere if there's no laps free, Boycat wanders in and out if the door is open, doesn't go much beyond the garden hedges and is often found curled up asleep in long grass near the back door!
They both have hyperthyroid problems and associated heart murmurs.

My 13 ur old stays in all day and will got out about 8pm for 2 hours. She pops of for 5 minutes of so for a wee during the night

My seventeen year old is more dignified these days.... but then at nearly eighty so am I.... This is natural and just to be adapted to and loved. Old age is not for cissies and definitely a challenge...

But also time to sit and enjoy the scenery and smell the roses or whatever the cat equivalent of that is..

Just love him... Be with him.

Eric at a similar age has slowed down and wants to be around me all the time, only one mouse and a frog this year.
Only thing not changed is fighting and he is still getting wounds. I have watched him and he will not back off, so defensive of territory. Currently at war with a cat twice his size, wish he would back down but not his nature and perhaps would make him unhappy.
Going away this weekend, friends in twice daily, but have decided to keep him in to be safe, he seems to get into trouble when I am out all day. Don’t want to be worried about his safety or land neighbours with a vet trip.
He has always been a lap cat but more than ever as he mellows.
I see it as us both having a joint retirement, try to enjoy his, it’s part of the natural circle of life.