How do I look after an older cat?

Cats hide illness extremely well, and the conditions that dominate their later years — kidney disease, an overactive thyroid and arthritis — all begin with changes so gradual that they look like personality. A cat that has become quieter, sleeps in a lower spot and has a slightly unkempt coat is usually a cat with a treatable problem, not a cat that has simply got old.

Safety

What you'll need

• Kitchen or baby scales for monthly weighing
• A low-sided litter tray
• Steps or a ramp to a favourite perch (optional)
• A heated or well-insulated bed (optional)
• Water fountain or extra bowls (optional)

Step by step

1. Weigh the cat monthly and write it down.A cat losing a couple of hundred grams over three months has lost a meaningful fraction of its body weight, and you will not see it under the coat. Baby scales, or the weigh-yourself-and-subtract method, done on the same day each month. This single habit catches more early illness than anything else an owner can do.
2. Move to check-ups every six months from about eleven.Senior cat clinics typically include weight, blood pressure and urine or blood testing, which is how kidney disease and thyroid problems are found before the cat looks ill. That is the point at which the management actually changes the outcome.
3. Treat increased drinking as urgent, not as a quirk.A cat that starts emptying the water bowl, drinking from taps or the bath, or producing noticeably bigger clumps in the litter, should be seen. Chronic kidney disease, hyperthyroidism and diabetes all begin this way and all are much better managed early.
4. Learn what arthritis looks like in a cat, because it is nothing like a limp.Cats almost never limp with arthritis. Instead they stop jumping onto the worktop or the bed, hesitate before jumping down, take the stairs one at a time, sleep somewhere lower than they used to, stop using the cat flap, become grumpy about being stroked over the back, and stop grooming the hips and base of the tail — which is why matting appears there. It is extremely common in old cats and it is very treatable.
5. Make everything the cat needs reachable without jumping.Steps or a stool up to the favourite windowsill or bed, food and water on the floor rather than a worktop, and a litter tray on every floor of the house. An arthritic cat that cannot get downstairs to the tray is not being naughty.
6. Change the litter tray to suit an old cat.Lower sides, or a cut-down entrance, because stepping over a high lip hurts. Larger, so it can turn round. Somewhere it does not have to climb stairs to reach. Litter tray accidents in an old cat are very often a mobility problem or a medical one.
7. Groom the areas the cat can no longer reach.The hips, lower back and base of the tail. Daily gentle combing prevents the mats that form there, and the mats themselves are a signal worth reporting to the vet, because they mean the cat has stopped twisting.
8. Keep the cat warm and out of draughts.Older cats feel the cold and arthritic joints are stiffer in it. A warm bed off the floor in a quiet spot, away from the door, and somewhere sunny during the day. Radiator hammocks are popular with old cats for exactly this reason.
9. Watch the mouth and the appetite.Dental disease is very common and painful. Dropping food, chewing on one side, pawing at the mouth, or suddenly preferring wet food are all mouth signs. So is bad breath, which is not normal in a cat.
10. Support water intake.Multiple wide shallow bowls away from the food, a fountain if the cat likes moving water, and more wet food in the diet. This matters especially where kidney function is declining, and it is easy to do.

Tips

• If your cat has stopped using the cat flap, suspect arthritis rather than a preference. Pushing through a stiff flap is a specific movement that hurts.
• Take a short video of anything you want to describe to the vet — how the cat gets down from the sofa, or how it walks. It communicates far more than a description does.
• Keep the routine and the furniture stable. Old cats cope less well with change, and cats losing their sight navigate the house from memory.

Common mistakes

• Assuming an old cat is simply less active — Reduced jumping is the classic sign of feline arthritis, which affects a large share of older cats and responds well to treatment. Inactivity is a symptom, not a stage of life.
• Ignoring increased thirst — It is the earliest and most reliable sign of the three commonest serious conditions in older cats, and all three are far more manageable when found early.
• Treating litter tray accidents as behavioural — In an older cat they are usually pain, a tray that is now too hard to get into or too far away, or a medical problem. Punishment makes it worse and delays the diagnosis.
• Giving any human medicine — Cats metabolise many drugs differently and paracetamol is fatal to them in very small amounts. Nothing from a human medicine cabinet is safe to give a cat.

If it doesn't work

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