Possible arthritis? Treatment experiences

[NImumconfused]

Our 12 year old tortie seems to be stiffening up lately, finding it harder to jump up on things etc, and sometimes a bit unsteady on her feet. I'm speculating it might be arthritis and just wondering if anyone has experience of this, supplements or treatments that were effective perhaps? I have a vet appointment booked, but just wanted to be going in to it at least a bit informed.

Metacam worked really well for our previous cat. We just put the recommended dose onto her food and she ate it without any problems. She was the sweetest-natured cat but the discomfort from her arthritis had caused her to become uncharacteristically snappy. Once the Metacam started, she returned to being a gentle and affectionate cat.

Yumove is excellent & worth it's reputation, so start with that and keep using it daily for the rest of her life.

Metacam would be next and very effective.

Librella is a gold-standard treatment but I don't know if they prescribe with mild arthritis, you'd have to talk your vet. Its a monthly injection, expensive but typically covered by insurance.

We started with Yumove for our old cat however she also ended up with spondylosis so was prescribed gabapentin.
If she likes to lie on your bed/sofa, consider getting her a wee set of stairs. Plenty on eBay and Amazon.

Hi, our 10yo moggy has had arthritis since he was eight.

The main thing that helped him was losing weight (not sure if that's applicable to your cat or not) and then daily metacam from the vet. He's been taking it for nearly two years now and he's doing so well - he lost 4kg (overweight rescue) and his mobility is so much better than it was.

Thanks everyone! So Yumove as a food supplement, and most likely metacam as the first vet option. She's not insured (rescue with too many pre-existing issues), any idea what I'd be looking at cost-wise?

Will check out sofa stairs (she's still managing at the moment but very slowly/gingerly).

Our cat is nearly 13 and has had arthritis for about a year. He has monthly injections of Solensia which seem to help. PetPlan pay 80% of the cost. We have Yumuve but he’s picky and often won’t touch food with it on. The vet also gives us some tablets to give him towards the end of the month if he seems to be stiffer or in pain - he likes these and seems to think they’re treats.

We‘ve not tried Metacam as it has upset his stomach in the past so we avoid it.

We pay £26 every 4-5 weeks for Metacam from our vet.

You can buy Yumove yourself, doesn't need to come via the vet. Stairs are often more of a help for them getting down rather than up.

Thank you, £26 sounds very reasonable and I have ordered some Yumove to try. Hopefully that will help and we won't need the more expensive options just yet.

My parents cat is on metacam and that works well for him. They had him on solensia for a while, but felt the metacam was more effective. (Personally I felt he was better in both, as he did improve on the solensia) but they took him off it. He’s still quite agile but limps a lot.

We've also had fantastic results with YuMove. Really brilliant. Last year I rescued a young cat, and I was shocked to see my senior display fear aggression to her. Bear in mind senior has lived with other cats all her life, she's very laid back and very sensible, and had never acted like this before. The new one was being rambunctious but her body language was play, even rolling on her back to show her belly. Senior was not acting like herself at all. I thought it must be a physical issue and I was going to take her to the vet, but I thought I'd just try YuMove first and put her on a loading dose. Seriously, their relationship transformed. She is 200% more tolerant and calm. She wasn't afraid of the little one. She was afraid of being shoved or grabbed, because she has athritis and it hurt. I should have thought of it before, but this is my first senior cat, I've had her my whole adult life. They are now completely fine together. They even groom a bit and cuddle in cold weather. If the little one gets silly and starts grabbing, senior literally just blanks her, or gives her one quick reprimand and its done. She's also way more active and jumps up on the dressing table with no problem again.