Arthritis in Cats: How to Help Kitty
Maintaining a lean and healthy weight for your cat is an essential component in minimizing the severity of arthritic symptoms or preventing the emergence of arthritic symptoms in the first place. A cat that is overweight and suffers from arthritis may notice a discernible improvement in the intensity of her symptoms after losing even a little amount of body weight.
You may have a tough time maintaining the same level of muscle tone in your cat as she gets older due to the natural process of aging, which is characterized by muscular atrophy. Even while a certain amount of “shrinking” should be anticipated, many individuals are under the mistaken impression that their senior cat need less activity as they age. This is not the situation at all.
Your senior cat has to spend more time moving around in order to reduce the rate at which her muscles will waste away. This can be accomplished by increasing the amount of time she spends moving around. Maintaining a daily activity regimen is still vitally important for preventing the development of severe musculoskeletal weakness. This is true even though the intensity, duration, and kind of exercise will change with age.
Because muscles are responsible for maintaining your pet’s frame, maintaining muscle tone will also assist to limit the amount of joint laxity that arises (which is a cause of arthritis). This is because muscles contract and relax joint cartilage. Your senior cat needs to be challenged physically on a daily basis in order to forestall muscular atrophy and maintain its tone.
It is an excellent way to “move and eat,” which helps maintain joint range of motion and flexibility, if you carry your cat’s bowl around the house during meal times (and encourage her to follow you), and if you let her have a taste of food after each lap around the house, this is an excellent way to “move and eat.” This is due to the fact that for many cats, going to and from the food bowl is the only type of exercise they get.
Other important aspects of maintaining the health of an arthritic cat include feeding her a diet that is well-balanced and appropriate for her species, avoiding unnecessary re-vaccinations, and providing her with plenty of opportunities to be physically active throughout her life (interactive play sessions are excellent). Additionally, it is important to make sure that she gets plenty of opportunities to exercise.
How to Determine If Your Kitty Is in Pain
Considering that your feline friend is an expert at disguising their discomfort, the signs of pain that you should be on the lookout for are behavioral shifts rather than outward manifestations of pain such as visible limping or trouble rising up from a lying posture. The following are some examples of these:
– Reluctance to climb on things or difficulties jumping
– A lacking interest in playing with family members
– Going potty in places other than the litterbox, particularly if the litterbox is upstairs.
-Becoming less active and resting more.
No longer burying waste in the litter, including excrement and urine
A failure of the appetite
Make an appointment with your veterinarian as soon as possible if you discover that your cat is exhibiting any one or more of these symptoms. If you can determine the underlying cause of the change in your cat’s behavior as quickly as possible, you can get her started on the road to recovery much more quickly.