Continued from page 1Living Adjustments
Besides seeing to your older cat's dining and social comforts, make sure she is getting enough exercise. Older cats' participation in play might be limited by their willingness to compete with younger cats in the house or by arthritis and muscle atrophy. You can help your cat to maintain good muscle tone and suppleness, to increase blood circulation, and to improve gastrointestinal motility (the spontaneous movement of the gut) by exhorting her to partake in moderate exercise--the feline equivalent of mall walking done by senior citizens. While you and your cat enjoy her favorite game, be on the lookout for labored breathing or the rapid onset of fatigue, which may be signs of heart disease.
Regular grooming--at least twice a week--provides an opportunity to examine your cat for unusual lumps, skin lesions, or external parasites. Lumps or lesions should be examined further by a veterinarian. Grooming--the art of removing dead hair from a cat so she doesn't have to remove it herself--becomes an added kindness to the elderly cat. The more dead hair you remove from your cat, the fewer hairballs she will accumulate in her stomach. Hairballs cause more frequent problems for older cats, whose diminished gastrointestinal-tract motility makes them prone to intestinal impactions. For this reason bulk-forming agents such as wheat bran or a mild laxative should be given to older cats at the first signs of dry-retching, a reliable clue that your cat is trying to bring up a hairball.
When you groom your older cat, pay closer attention than previously to her nails. Older cats may not use scratching posts as frequently as young cats do. Thus, an older cat's nails should be checked weekly and trimmed whenever necessary.
The digestive tract is usually the last system to begin deteriorating in the cat. Some researchers believe that rapid cell turnover in the gastrointestinal tract provides some protection against the degenerative effects of aging. Nevertheless, older cats are more inclined to constipation than younger cats are. Milk, which is generally not recommended for cats once they emerge from kittenhood, can be beneficial to older cats because it may help to inspire a softer stool. Laxatives and hairball medications should not be used more that once a week, however, unless your veterinarian tells you to do so. They can interfere with the absorption of vitamins and minerals.
Dental Care
The time to begin many of the added attentions that make life more pleasant for older cats is when they are young. Dental care is perhaps the best example of this advice. Daily teeth cleaning can reduce tartar formation by as much as 95 percent in cats while weekly cleaning can result in a 76 percent reduction.
Your chances of cleaning your eight-year-old cat's teeth--especially if they have never been cleaned before--are not promising. You may need professional help to get the job done at this point, and, by all means, you should seek it. Accumulated tartar can cause gingivitis and weaken tooth structure, making eating a chore at a time when appetite is on the decline for other reasons.
If your cat is still young enough to learn new tricks, you should initiate a home-dentistry program now. Begin by gently rubbing your cat's teeth and gums with a piece of gauze soaked in a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide or 2 percent potassium permanganate, both of which can be purchased at a drugstore. You can also use a 0.2 percent chlorhexidine solution, sold as nolvasan, or a feline toothpaste. These can be supplied by your veterinarian. Do not use human toothpaste on your cat. It may cause excessive salivation and, if swallowed, may also cause gastrointestinal upsets.
The Bottom Lines
That celebrated cat lover Cleveland Amory once defined a conservative as someone who does not like anything to happen that has not happened before. The older cats become, the more conservative they get. They are less adaptable to--and less happy about--changes in the environment. Consequently, they should be boarded out only as a last resort when the family goes on vacation, and if they must be boarded, they should be surrounded with familiar toys and other objects from home to cushion the impact of being uprooted. Better still, arrange to have your older cat cared for at home by neighbors, friends, relatives, or a pet sitter.
Moving to a new house or bringing a new pet into your present house are additional sources of stress for an older cat. Moving cannot be avoided sometimes, but you can avoid bringing a new cat home. Indeed, once a cat is settled into middle age--at roughly the age of six--the chances of a new introduction going smoothly and of lasting a friendship developing between old and young lion(ess) are slim and slimmer.
While the tariffs levied by age are considerable, so, too, is a cat's ability to adapt her behavior to cope with any incapacity arising from her advancing years. As she has always done, your cat will try to do her share to make her senior years as comfortable for you as you will for her. Her measured steps and her treasured attentions will lead you frequently to pleasant reverie: of her life and yours, of eternal concerns such as birth, death, commitment, sadness, and joy. What's more, as you muse away an afternoon together, your cat will nod ascent to all your thoughts and never interrupt to tell you that you are not recalling the details of the story correctly.
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Published here by permission of the author.
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