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Elderly catiquette

trashpony

trashpony

Hag
My old girl is very old (nearly 18). She spends most of her day sleeping in a wholly inaccessible place (under a deep built in shelf in my bedroom) and comes out twice a day for food and stuff. Generally she's down at 8.30am and 6pm but sometimes she doesn't bother.

I don't want to take her food to her (not least because I don't want fish and gravy in my bedroom) but I always worry she's died if she doesn't come down for her food and then I get scared I'll go and try and wake her and she'll be stiff and cold.

I don't think I've ever really dealt with this before - my mum always did :oops:
 
You are doing the right thing. Even an elderly cat needs at least the exercise of getting to her food.

The cat I grew up with lived to be 22. By the end he barely resembled a cat anymore, but apart from that he needed help with getting on and off the sofa, he seemed quite happy.
 
hope she is OK, that's a good age...
...if she's not too set in her ways, you might try a little variation to see if you can tempt her out at other times, what about some dried food as a treat?
 
can i hijack this thread and ask for accepted wisdom about introducing kittens to a house with a resident ageing moggy? ours is coming up for 14 and i was thinking it would be kindest to wait until he's gone before stressing him out with other cats on his patch. does that sound about right?
 
She seems generally ok. Having a few grooming problems but I can do it for her.

She has dry food constantly so she's never going to starve (the wet food is a new-ish thing for boring reasons I won't go into here). She's a fairly fussy eater tbh.

Thank you for reassuring me that the trip down and up the stairs again is a good thing. She doesn't really go out any more so I guess a little exercise is a good thing.

My gran is 102 and in the last year or so all she does is sleep and she looks more and more like a cadaver. I think my cat is becoming her feline equivalent :(
 
wayward bob said:
can i hijack this thread and ask for accepted wisdom about introducing kittens to a house with a resident ageing moggy? ours is coming up for 14 and i was thinking it would be kindest to wait until he's gone before stressing him out with other cats on his patch. does that sound about right?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think it's kinder, if they aren't used to having another cat around.

My old cat was probably about that age when we got a 1yr old rescue, and she was never quite the same. She sort of adapted, more or less, but with hindsight it felt a bit cruel to do that when it'd been her house since she was a kitten.
 
we had him and his sister from kittens and they always got on well, but she upped and left a good few years back. my reasoning is there are millions of cats about here, he doesn't get into fights any more but i'd like him to have somewhere relatively safe, seeing as we foisted kids onto him and all.
 
I found Murphy wanted to go for a walk about when he was coming to that stage. He kept wandering off into the church yard a good mile away. I think they want some peace and quiet when they're like that.

It's hard, one of the worst things of owning a pet is watching them get old :(
 
I think it depends on the cat. Geri was almost 14 when we got Jimmy (who was 18 months - 2 years), and apart from the initial hissing, she wasn't bothered at all. I think she quite enjoys their mid morning chase. She has always been OK with other cats though.

On the other hand Spook never, ever forgave us for getting Geri. She hated all other cats with a passion.
 
Vintage Paw said:
Yeah, I think it's kinder, if they aren't used to having another cat around.

My old cat was probably about that age when we got a 1yr old rescue, and she was never quite the same. She sort of adapted, more or less, but with hindsight it felt a bit cruel to do that when it'd been her house since she was a kitten.
Click to expand...
I agree. We (me and the foal) are really keen on getting some kittens but I know she'd find it really distressing. So I'm waiting until she pops her clogs. She wants a bit of peace and quiet, not annoying kids around (and she's already got him :D)
 
I think it depends on the cat tbh, she may be okay with it, especially if she's okay around other cats in general. There are things you can do to minimise the shock too; introducing the kitten's smell before you bring it into the house, giving treats when introducing the smell so the smell is associated with good things etc.
 
It's really difficult, because you can't tell for sure how they'll react until you go and do it, and by then it might be too late. All you can do is assess what kind of cat they are, and err on the side of caution.
 
I think playing it by ear for older mogs is the key, you know your mog - is she happy ? Feeding her where she's used to being fed is no bad thing - how fat/skinny is she ? Is she perky and glad to see you or a bit dull and meh ? Does she have trouble getting up & down stairs ?

tbh if she's sleeping a lot and not eating much, missing the odd meal but reasonably non-skinny, glad to see you and can get up & down stairs, well sounds like you have yourself a healthy older mog there and don't have too much cause for concern. Of course, pictures would help.........
 
i think our cat has a deathwish tbh. he's recently taken to sleeping *on the stairs*. he is black :mad: i think he wants to take at least one of us out with a broken neck when he goes :(
 
izz said:
I think playing it by ear for older mogs is the key, you know your mog - is she happy ? Feeding her where she's used to being fed is no bad thing - how fat/skinny is she ? Is she perky and glad to see you or a bit dull and meh ? Does she have trouble getting up & down stairs ?

tbh if she's sleeping a lot and not eating much, missing the odd meal but reasonably non-skinny, glad to see you and can get up & down stairs, well sounds like you have yourself a healthy older mog there and don't have too much cause for concern. Of course, pictures would help.........
Click to expand...
she's reasonably happy, she's skinny. She's happy to see me and doesn't have trouble with stairs.

She's black so I struggle to take decent photos but will try :)
 
P1010459.JPG

No. But she's a bit manky-looking :oops:
 
I found with Brian that as well as regular brushing, a wipe down with a non-scented baby wipe was a help with grooming.
 
Less manky looking than me...btw, liked your post above, the cat bit, not the bit about your gran looking like a cadaver though
 
every now and again ours gets a bit starey, iykwim? he gets out of the habit of grooming himself. i found a really good stroking backwards as well as forwards with damp hands does the trick to get him doing it himself again :) she looks in pretty decent nick to me for an old bird :cool:
 
Ah bless. I suppose so long as she's happy in herself and able to get out for dins and the loo, she's okay. I know what you mean about that fear of going in one day and finding she's shuffled off this mortal coil. She's still got that look of steely eyed determination about her. Best of luck, however things go.
 
She weighs nothing - it's really weird. If you pick her up, you're expecting something substantial and she just flies through the air, weightless.

Mrs M - I took some photos of my nan which my dad didn't like because she has aged massively from when she was 100 (when she still looked like a person iyswim) but I think there's something incredibly beautiful about how she looks now. She looks like one of those religious paintings where people are raising their eyes to god

P1010404.JPG


(sorry this is bugger all to do with cats :oops:)
 
trashpony said:
She weighs nothing - it's really weird. If you pick her up, you're expecting something substantial and she just flies through the air, weightless.

Mrs M - I took some photos of my nan which my dad didn't like because she has aged massively from when she was 100 (when she still looked like a person iyswim) but I think there's something incredibly beautiful about how she looks now. She looks like one of those religious paintings where people are raising their eyes to god

P1010404.JPG


(sorry this is bugger all to do with cats :oops:)
Click to expand...
that's an amazing photo, trashy.
 
She was a strong lady :) Now she's a bit of a shell tbh. I hope she dies soon - she's not living, she's alive iyswim.

Sorry if that sounds callous but she really has had enough.
 
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