Cats are mysterious, enigmatic creatures who can be difficult to read, challenging you to detect issues that need addressing. By learning to identify cues from your senior cat's body language, you can pick up on various ailments caused by old age that may affect your pet. Here are five ways your cat may tell you it's time to schedule an appointment with their primary care veterinarian.
1. Your senior cat is pawing at their mouth or meowing while eating
Although your cat may look like they are simply grooming their whiskers when pawing at their face, they may also signal pain. Dental disease is common in cats, especially senior cats. They may suffer from gingivitis, tooth-root abscesses, feline odontoclastic resorptive lesions, or oral tumors like squamous cell carcinoma. If you notice your cat pawing at their face or meowing while eating, they may suffer from periodontal issues. They may also drool excessively, chew on one side of their mouth, drop food while eating, or become an increasingly picky eater.
2. Your senior cat is walking stiffly or refusing to jump
Cats are incredible at hiding pain or weakness, so when you notice your senior cat walking stiffly or refusing to use their high perches, they likely have a severe problem. Although cats aren't as demonstrative as dogs with their pain signals, you may still be able to pick up that your senior cat is in pain from osteoarthritis. A stiff gait, refusal to jump onto furniture, the inability to climb perches, a reluctance to use a scratching post, inappropriate elimination, and difficulty bending down to eat and drink are all signs your senior cat may suffer from spine or joint pain.
3. Your senior cat is purring more than normal
Purring indicates a happy cat, right? This delightful rumble can mean your senior feline friend is content and relaxed, but can also mean they are stressed, ill, or painful. Purring is a self-soothing behavior that cats exhibit, so your senior cat may purr more than usual if they have cognitive dysfunction, kidney disease, or painful osteoarthritis. Many conditions can trigger your senior cat's healing purr response, so look carefully at context clues to see why your pet is purring more than normal.
4. Your senior cat is more irritable than usual
Have you noticed that your usually cheerful, playful cat becomes more irritable with age? Your senior cat now may growl, hiss, or swat at you when you reach out to stroke their back or rub their cheeks, or they may become reclusive and shun human interaction. These body language signals and behavior changes can indicate your pet is not feeling well and requires veterinary care. For example, if you reach out to pet or brush your senior cat's back and their fur raises, their spine arches, and they hiss, they could be painful from osteoarthritis. Cognitive dysfunction can also make your cat less friendly and more reclusive.
5. Your senior cat's pupils are dilated all the time
Dilated pupils often signal fear and anxiety in cats, but in senior cats, various conditions unrelated to their emotional state can cause constantly dilated pupils. If you notice that your elderly cat's pupils fail to constrict, they may have developed one of the following health issues:
- Blindness
- Chronic or constant pain
- Hypertension
- Age-related iris atrophy
- Ocular tumors
If your senior cat doesn't seem particularly stressed, but their pupils are large and unresponsive to light, they likely have an underlying medical condition that needs addressing.
Additionally, a great and widely used tool is the Feline Grimace Scale. "The Feline Grimace Scale (FGS) (© Université de Montréal 2019) is a valid, fast, reliable, and easy-to-use tool that can help with pain assessment. Based on the scores of the Feline Grimace Scale, it is possible to know if the administration of analgesics (i.e. pain killers) is required helping veterinarians with clinical decisions in pain management."- FGS website
If your senior cat's body language indicates declining health and increasing discomfort, you may choose to support your pet with veterinary hospice care or in-home euthanasia. Call our office at (802)871-2329.