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Column: Will your cat live a full nine lives?

What is true for people is also true for cats. Just like us, how well they age is a matter of looking after the basics along the journey.
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Dr. Nicole Baran is the owner and operator of Sudbury Regional Cat Hospital. File photo.
What is true for people is also true for cats. Just like us, how well they age is a matter of looking after the basics along the journey. And that journey through time for cats, the way they pass through their stages of life, is quite different from you or me.

For instance, a young cat, at one and a half human years, will be past kitten-hood and already a teenager. At this point, however, the ratio changes. At seven human years, you could say your cat is in his or her 40s, and by 10 years, is well into middle age.

Now, if up until this stage of the cat's life the owner has always taken care to provide a good diet and has maintained regular medical and dental checkups, the odds are excellent that your cat can look forward to good health into the mature and senior years.

Having practised as a vet for eight years, I can say that along with the many joys of the profession — such as seeing ever-more happy, healthy senior cats still companions with their loving owners as medications and general cat medicine have greatly improved — there are also some very frustrating and sad situations.

Perhaps the worst is having to euthanize someone's beloved pet because by the time the symptoms could no longer be hidden and they are brought in to see me, conditions, fully treatable had they been caught early, have otherwise advanced into serious life-threatening illnesses too often beyond the skills of science to resolve.

I opened the Sudbury Regional Cat Hospital for the simple reason that I love cats and wanted to make it my life's work to raise the level of conversation and awareness about feline health and make a difference. Cats are masters at hiding weakness, and since they can't tell us in words that they aren't feeling themselves, it's easy not to notice the subtle changes that can foretell an illness.

However, there are some signs that you can watch out for which may indicate you need to see the vet. At any stage of a cat's life, but particularly in older cats, bad breath and/or smelly drool are often signals of periodontal disease. Cats are living much longer lives with us than they could ever have expected in the wild, but consequently, things like the teeth can deteriorate even long before they live to cat middle age.

Arthritis is also more common in cats these days, and, again, for the same reasons. Any of these conditions can be treated or at least managed so much more effectively than in years past.

Untreated, these conditions can not only leave your cat in constant pain, but many, such as periodontal disease, have been linked directly to both heart disease, kidney failure and other more serious conditions.

In one way, people and cats are much like cars; you can pay a little more up front to have good regular maintenance and hopefully avoid serious problems later, or you can ignore things and be guaranteed to have premature problems down the line.

But please remember, your car isn't your best friend, and it isn't a family member.

Every health checkup should include a full dental exam. Periodic blood panel tests are designed to catch a variety of conditions at an early stage when they are still treatable and should be considered a the least semi-annually.

There are other signs that you can watch for such as unusual increased thirst, which could hint at the first signs of diabetes and/or kidney disease (sadly more common as the cat survival ages rise).

Looser stools and/or vomiting might indicate the onset of several different conditions including parasites or autoimmune responses.

In Canada, where we are smart enough to have universal public health care, few of us would wait years between regular physicals, or go decades without seeing a dentist. Our pet cats, unfortunately, are often overlooked in this regard until some condition presents as acute.

Dogs, it seems, don't hide pain or distress nearly so effectively as cats and consequently are more often seen by vets on a regular basis. Yet, from the emotions I witness on a daily basis, I know cats as pets are no less loved, and no less mourned when they pass from our lives.

Not taking ongoing health care seriously is what many cat owners do without really thinking about it. We assume the cat is healthy because it isn't showing obvious signs of distress. Our lives are busy and the cat is often an unobtrusive companion, content to share our lives and our homes staying in the background and not making too much fuss.

Because they are masters at disguise, we can miss important symptoms.
Finally, at 15 human years, your cat has reached the equivalent physically to a person in their mid-70s. By this stage of their lives, more frequent medical checks are even more crucial and can make all the difference.

More cats than ever these days are making it to 20 years of age and a few even older (the world record is 38). Twenty years is equivalent to someone 100 years old or more. I know with my own cats, I would wish to spend 100 human years with them, if it were possible.

Dr. Nicole Baran is the owner and operator of Sudbury Regional Cat Hospital. This column will appear monthly.

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