Preventative joint care for female moggy, 15

[KiteofUncertainty]

My almost 15-yr-old cat (domestic shorthair, mum might have been British Shorthair) is in great health - still likes to play and climb, slim, no food sensitivity issues, etc. But she did get a little quieter after the age of 8-ish. When she was very young (before I got her) she had extensive reconstructive surgery on one of her front legs.
She was checked over last December and the vet thought she was fine.
I convinced myself to start her on Seraquin anyway as a preventative measure, having read that arthritis can creep up on cats... but then it occurred to me that I might not even know if it was working because there is no obvious difficulty. So now I'm wondering if I am dosing her up unnecessarily. I don't want to "Munchausen's by proxy" my cat, basically, but I worry that she might be in pain before I realise.
Am I doing the right thing? This is only day 2 of treating her with it.
I would really appreciate advice from more experienced owners. She is my first and only cat.

13yo MrCat had his annual check up last week. AFAIK he has no history of injury or joint problems, but he is definitely getting less bouncy. Still gets up on roofs, over fences etc, but it's more of an effort. So I asked the vet about exactly this. The vet said that he didn't know of any supplements that were proven to prevent, improve or ease joint problems in cats.

My vet recommended supplementing with glucosamine and chondroitin, and Tesco cat milk contains both, so I give some to my old girl to drink every day.

Our cat has arthritis in one of his legs and our vet recommended adding Yumuve powder to his food (he also has monthly injections though). DCat loves it!

I use yumove for my elderly cat - has really helped her

yumove.co.uk/

Thanks very much, everyone.

Thanks for the recommendations. I wanted to give her something gentle just in case - she doesn't have an obvious problem but I can't believe that at her age and with that reconstructed elbow/forearm, there are no problems.
@VallarMorghulis
Seraquin is a glucosamine/chondroitin combo. Did your cat show signs of stiffness or did the vet recommend it because of her age?

Synoquin for cats made by vetplus , you can get this from vets and online no prescription required.

Vet did mention Yumuve as having anecdotal evidence - trouble is MrCat turns his nose up at it!

Dilbertian

Woman plans, cat laughs...

Darn. Whereas DCat has been known to demand food, then just lick the Yumuve off the top

Apparently something like 80% of cats have arthritic changes by the age of 12.

Mine is only eight and started showing signs of arthritis last year - we trialled him on Metacam and it made a huge difference. He now takes it everyday with regular blood tests to check his kidney function. He also takes YuMove.

Thanks, everyone.

I'm going to stick with the Seraquin at least for a month or two and reassess. Sometimes you don't notice a difference until the problem has been improved, if you see what I mean.

She was getting a bit stiff around the hips and the vet said it could help, but she's also since had an accident and has had to have both her knees reconstructed, so there's even more reason to supplement I guess... I started giving her YouMove which others have recommended, until I noticed the glucosamine/chondroitin in the Tesco cat milk.

Ah, I see. Cunning use of Tesco cat milk!

My 16 year old cat (who broke his pelvis about 10 years ago) is on a monthly Solensia injection. It makes a massive difference in winter - he's been having it about 1.5 years now and definitely shows signs of needing it by the time the next appointment comes around. In summer less so, we stretch them to six weeks.

We did try Yumove in around 2019, but it didn't really seem to make much difference. Perhaps he didn't need it so much then.