Often, I hear owners of elderly cats express during an exam that their cat is doing great since it eats and drinks all the time. When I ask why they believe their cat is losing weight, they want to blame that on age, they do not like the new food, they vomit hair a lot, or are surprised that they lost weight at all. Once a cat reaches 8-10 years of age, we consider them to be seniors. Cats can live 15-20 years so some believe they are still young at 8. Yet we often discover early symptoms of health conditions at this time. Senior Wellness exams are extremely important to help address issues hoping to avoid life threatening symptoms later.
Three key questionsto ask yourself about your furry feline friend are:
- Does my cat drink an excessive amount of water?
- Does my cat have larger clumps of litter in the box?
- Does my cat have changes to its eating habits?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, I would encourage you to speak to your veterinarian.
Cats that drink excessively usually will have a litter box that has larger clumps in it or the box is wetter than usual. The challenge is determining who is doing what when you have multiple cats in your household. Sometimes the issue is a cat not using the box and it is assumed a bladder infection when it could be a problem with needing the box cleaned more often because a cat is peeing more.
Changes in eating habits can come in many forms. Some cats will eat large amounts every day and continue to lose weight. Some cats will eat one day and then seem uninterested in food the next day, so people go out and buy a new food to try and low and behold the cat eats it, so they feel they got it figured out. Then a few days later the cat stops eating that food as well, so they do buy another diet and the cat eats again. We call this cyclic eating. It has nothing to do with you buying a new food and everything to do with the health issue lurking within the cat’s body. Some cats eat but seem to vomit often. This one causes most owners to clean up the vomit and relate the vomit to hairballs. Hairballs can be a cause of vomit in cats but in elderly cats you must also consider other health conditions. With all these scenarios, most of the cats will have gradual weight loss. Sometimes the weight will come off quickly in the case of an obese cat. Whenever a cat has weight loss and you are not actively trying to have your cat lose weight, this should be a red flag that something may be wrong.
The three most common age related conditions with these symptoms are:
- Diabetes
- Kidney Disease
- Hyperthyroidism
It is extremely difficult to diagnose any of these without doing blood work and checking a urinalysis. A cat can look completely fine on the outside but have one of these conditions if you are noting any of the above symptoms. All 3 of these can be treated by diet and/or medications. The sooner we discover what is happening the better the outcome will be. Please schedule a Feline Senior Wellness Exam so we can monitor these different values as they age and make recommendations as needed for a long and healthy senior life.
