Arthritic cat

[stclair]

My 16yo cat has been a bit less bouncy over the last few months. Eg she used to always wait for us to start climbing the stairs and then she would roar past and she seems to find it more effort to jump onto high places. I took her to the vet today as suddenly she has become very stiff in the back legs and was crying in pain occasionally 😥. The vet said she doesn’t appear to have an injury so most likely arthritis. She gave her an analgesic injection which lasts a month. I’m
surprised how fast this seems to have come on. From slowing down a little to sudden really noticeable stiffness. Has anyone else’s cat been like this and what helped?

Yes! My last cat came home suddenly lame in one back leg, by the time he saw the vet it had already loosened up, and he was diagnosed with arthritis, started pain meds and was suddenly annoyingly jumpy again. It became clear once he was pain free that he'd been very very slowly stiffening up for a while, but we didn't really notice it as it's so incremental.

This was before some of the new analgesics were available so he was on Loxicom/Metacam for quite a while and later switched to Onsior.

Oh thanks for your reassurance. Glad she’s likely to get back to normal once out of pain. She does seem to be worse once she gets off her bed and loosens up a bit as she gets going!

Fingers crossed for her. As cats live longer and longer, arthritis is something we all need to be aware of and watch for signs of.

Give them YuMove supplements too made a huge difference to ours.

Our cat has had arthritis for years (apparently since he was quite young and long before we were able to spot it). Like human arthritis it can be affected by the weather - our cat hates the cold and hates the wet (both together is hell!) He has Loxicom every day and a heat pad under a blanket which is on all night through the winter. He's happy and not in obvious pain so we just monitor the situation.

Thanks, will look out for supplements.
she also hates the cold weather. For the past couple of months she has been sleeping near the radiator in a basket with a fluffy blanket on a cushion. She’s always curled up
as it’s quite small but I’ve just read she needs a bed she can stretch out on so will look into that. Trouble is we’ve got builders in at the moment so nowhere is particularly relaxing for her at present!

Seraquin was good for mine and he adored them to the point he preferred them to dreamies! Also salmon oil

Yes, my 11 year old boy has arthritis and gets a monthly injection of Solensia.

It's been a game changer for him.

Ah, great. Solensia is what she had today. Look forward to it kicking in. Your lovely fluffy boy looks very happy again!

@Paw2024 is seraquin also a fish oil or analgesic?

Buy a wheat bag for her favourite sleeping spots apparently the type of heat they give off is good for arthritis according to my vet.

Yes! Our cat was recently diagnosed with arthritis at a relatively young age - he was only eight. Apparently though, about 80% of cats have arthritic changes by the time they reach nine or ten, it's just they don't show it in the same way that dogs do.

Anyway, he seemed fine until one morning he wouldn't get out of the cardboard box he was sleeping in, and when I tried to move him, he growled and spat. We took him to the emergency vets (where he behaved totally normally ) but they did a movement check on his joints and said it was really limited.

He's now on daily Metacam as well as YuMove in his food and he's like a brand new cat. He's so much happier and more energetic than he's been in months.

Wheat bag is a good idea. The emergency vet today seemed to think there were limitations in which meds she could have due to her age but I’ll take her to our usual vet and see what they suggest. I given her a NSAID to see her through to tomorrow for when the injection hopefully starts working. She seems happier once she gets going but slipping on the wooden floors once she moves faster than a walk which causes her pain 😯

I think the issue with regular Metacam is it can cause kidney problems - ours had to have a blood test before he could get it prescribed long-term, and he needs to go back every six months to be re-tested.

Can you put runners down? Slippy floors/surfaces are really not great for older animals :(

Solensia takes a few days to start working. It was about a week before we noticed our cat was happier and more mobile.

Seraquin seemed to help my elderly arthritic cat. She seemed to love the taste as well, it was like she thought they were treats, which helped! 😄

@stclair it's a supplement

She is due to have bloods so hopefully all well with her kidneys etc. Good to know we should see an improvement in her mobility by a week. I will need to look at flooring. We usually have rugs down but not at the moment due to the builders and their plastic floor protectors everywhere.

I had to mix YuMove into sardines in tomato for the arthritic cat, one of the others would steal them and eat through the packet to get to them!