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Gray whiskers, golden hearts: Caring for cats in their senior years · The Hissing Feline

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Depending on health and other factors, indoor cats can live into their mid to upper teens.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Some cats exceed that average, even living into their 20s.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Senior cats are special, but they can have many needs.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: This edition of the Hissing Feline focuses on geriatric cats, their health, characteristics, and care.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Please join me for this week's show.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, I'm Clark Greer, retired communications professor, a full-time cat dad, and host of the Hissing Feline, a podcast that is about everything cats.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Each week, cat specialists share their expertise in everything from feline health, training, and adoption to fostering community cats and kittens.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Now let's get started with today's show.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Hissing Feline Podcast.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Clark Greer.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: This is a podcast that is about everything cats.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: With me today on the Hissing Feline is Dr.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Grant Jacobson, founder of the Hometown Veterinarian in Marshalltown, Iowa.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Jacobson, it's great to have you back on the podcast to talk about senior cats.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: All right, thanks.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to be here.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Our cat Sadie was with us for more than 20 years.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's a long time for a cat to live.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: That is impressive, yes.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess it's not unexpected for me to see 16 to 18-year-old cats anymore.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I can remember beginning this job in the last century.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh, you know, we used to think 10-year-old was an old cat, but uh things definitely have improved.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's like humans where people are living a lot longer now than they used to, even 40 or 50 years ago.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of medical advances, people know about treatment and care of cats, and so now you end up with people with senior cats because they are living older these days.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think a big part of it is, I mean, we definitely have a better understanding of nutrition.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'd certainly love to take credit for better medical care as well, obviously the clear factor here.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: But um, you know, likewise, the indoor cat is much more common than really the outdoor cat anymore.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that has certainly uh improved their lives considerably.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was always curious about how old cats are in relationship to humans.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: And Sadie, according to some charts and and uh some other information that's on the web, she was about 96 years old.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: That seems really old.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: How does it work when you talk about age segments of cats?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a specific number for every year because what I understand is when they're just kittens after a few months, they actually gain some years.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Is that correct?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not really gonna be a linear thing as we might think about it with the aging process, you know, of a person, a cat in the uh first year of their life reaches sexual maturity by usually eight to nine months of age.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't necessarily mean it's a great idea for essentially baby cats to be having babies, but uh you know, they cram a lot into one year, and from there then things kind of stabilize uh for a number of years.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, we kind of still, I guess, consider seven or so to maybe we start considering them somewhat senior cats.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think that number maybe could be bumped back a little bit, uh, but uh in terms of what's kind of come across in guidelines as you know where we start to have to think about issues that might come up with an older animal.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: So it isn't purely the average that uh I was talking about when I had the uh kind of the brief introduction to the episode today.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: It probably depends a lot on maybe the cat's physical condition.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if breed is a consideration in that about how long they're gonna live.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of different factors that go into that.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there are a lot of factors.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean yeah, breed is a huge factor, um, just as it is in dogs.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um dogs, uh, you know, a great dane, for example, you don't expect to live as long as a mini poodle.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's just kind of the way it is.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But likewise, you know, unfortunately, say uh main coons or uh some of those breeds don't often have as long a lifespan.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Also, certain breeds are a little more prone to certain problems uh compared to your just general population of cats out there.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Does size relate to that?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: You were talking about dog size.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: I know it seems like little dogs live a long time, and older dogs sometimes have ailments that they'll get in their hips or heart issues and those types of things.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is that also true of cats?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: It is to a degree.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we don't have such the vast wide of range in size, but still, I mean, you can have a reasonably fit 20-pound mancoon.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Most of them are a little more fluffy than maybe they're supposed to be at that point, but uh certainly you can run into uh a lot of issues.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the typical cat at age 10 or over has arthritic changes in their joints.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's known, it's there, but those larger cats definitely uh suffer a greater degree of that.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: The concept, I guess, is actually when they get older, they're actually it's actually their geriatric cats.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: We can kind of compare them to humans as humans age.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of relationships between what senior adults go through and what senior cats do.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we will see um it's kind of the same way with people.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you'll see the these really old kitties that many of them are become very, very chubby because they just aren't doing much.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: But then you'll also see these group of, I guess I call it, you know, the frail, skinny little old lady cat too, that just uh things come up with them as time goes on.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: That was Sadie.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: Sadie was probably around 10 or 12 pounds when she was middle-aged, I'll call it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: But as she got older, it was really kind of cute because we noticed her looking older and she lost some weight and she had some health issues that likely contributed to that, but she really started to look like a little lady cat, and she even yelled with kind of a warble in her voice.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: She was actually very cute and got got much more loving when she got older.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: Does that happen with older cats?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it can.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I almost feel bad that I can't uh count the number of cats that I've had through my lifetime, but uh just say a lot.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but uh, I I've certainly seen personalities change in them um as as they get older.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Some cats they go from being the constantly on you cat to become a little more of a loner to the complete other way around.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I just I don't know, anybody asks me things, I just generally say because cats, I mean Yeah, they're all different.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: They do what they want to do.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: When is a cat age-wise considered to be a senior?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: In veterinary medicine, we usually kind of consider about seven, where where we start can you know looking at it as a senior, meaning some of those issues that come up in the older animal become a lot more common to see.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I personally think that might be a little bit early for a lot of them.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, most seven-year cats, seven-year-old cats that I see are still, you know, roundsen and trounsen and doing great.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: But when we start worrying about problems, you know, kidney illness or diabetes or even unfortunately cancers or things, I mean, your odds are a lot higher when you start getting on the the north side of that age.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: Have you seen over the years the longevity in cats that are more modern-day cats?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Have you seen that change a bit over the years?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, definitely.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um I can, you know, I graduated uh veterinary school in the late 90s, and I mean it grew up, you know, you can do the math, but I can remember it was pretty common to think a 10-year-old cat was a pretty old cat.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I still, you know, people come in to me with their cat, like, oh, he's so old, I just don't know how much we're gonna have money, you know.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: He's 10, and I'm looking him over and he's strutting around on the table, and everything looks fantastic.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: But uh again, you know, what what are the reasons for those things?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's definitely better care all around.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we don't lose them as often to diseases that we used to because we can prevent most things.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Also, we have earlier interventions.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: We understand diseases and many times these things that would have been the end early on, you know.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we can manage because we caught it early.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a lot of reasons for it, but I still feel probably a big part of it is well, you don't have these cats having to go through a Iowa winter outside.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't happen, you know.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, along with that, you know, I'll see claims of higher rates of cancers and things like that.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, when I have an expectation of a you know, 14 to 16 to 18, sometimes older cat, that's when that kind of thing happens.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: What makes a senior cat special when they get to that age?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's gonna be an answer for everybody, you know, because you know you're with your cat and you watch them go through all this.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, I guess in terms of if I'm looking at needs, you know, you don't have the same cat that you did when she was three years old or a kitten, you know, and you have to recognize that and you know that, hey, maybe I have to know that she can't hop up on the couch by herself like she used to, or things like that.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: But they can also have, well, as you were describing, a lot more clinginess or maybe a lot more, you know, I don't know, they just seem to slow down and maybe they just, you know, relax a little bit more than than they used to.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that can be kind of nice to have the kitty that likes to curl up on your lap that used to not have time for that sort of thing.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: Cats do have physical problems as they age.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: So there are actually several of them.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like to kind of turn our discussion to looking at those types of things, specifically things that cat owners will observe.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: I know one of them is arthritis.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, arthritis, very, very common, but very unrecognized.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Where I may detect something and start a treatment, often the owners really didn't have any idea, or it's well, she's getting older.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: She just moves slower and we just accept it as that.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I think we all get older and we move slower because joints hurt.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing in the cat.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we'll start them on a treatment, and it's very common for the owner to come back for the next treatment, like, okay, um, she's jumping on the counter again.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like her jumping on the counter, but uh, I feel bad because for years she wasn't able to jump on the counter.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we'll notice that because cats are very, very good at hiding problems.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's just what they do.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: They've never known a day of danger in their life, but they're small animals that are both a predator and potentially a prey animal, so they act accordingly, and a big part of that is the uh hiding an illness, I believe.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: We were talking just a little bit ago about size of cat as far as weight.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Is weight loss pretty typical for a senior cat?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Most commonly, if I am seeing weight loss, unless you're trying to make it happen, there's generally going to be a reason behind it.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Something is making that happen.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I've certainly had animals where they're just become skinny cats and they don't eat a lot, and that's just what they want to do.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I never figure out a specific reason behind it.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: More commonly, however, I tend to look at probably a big three as far as problems that I will find.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's kidneys or diabetes or thyroid problems, hyperthyroidism specifically.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Very common thing for me to see when I have that aging cat that uh is noticed to be losing weight.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk first about kidney disease.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Are those things that people can treat early that would at least help slow that?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: It does.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, unfortunately, kidney failure, just like in people, is a progressive disease.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Many of our organs can heal themselves and do a good job of it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Kidneys, as uh we're dealing with a chronic kidney illness, uh, the functional parts of the kidneys as they are dying off, they don't come back.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: We have improved considerably in our testing to be able to pick up problems a lot earlier than we used to.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the long most standing tests is called a BUN or blood urea nitrogen test, very commonly done on anything, people, whatever.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: But before that value will go up in the face of kidney disease, it's approximately 75% of the kidney has to be damaged before you ever actually see that value come up.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So back when that was pretty much all we had, even there we were jumping into a problem that had advanced itself along considerably.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: Another thing is cognitive issues.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I I had a guest on recently that talked about dementia in cats.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: That really can happen.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: It can.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just to think in pretty much any species, that sort of thing can happen where again they just kind of start acting a little odd, you know, and maybe that's suddenly very adoring cat is, you know, maybe a little bit of a kiddie dementia, but that is something.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And often what you'll see is stuff like litter box problems, very common.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's like they kind of forget where they're supposed to go, or you'll see the cat just kind of yowling in a room at a corner, and either I don't know, he forgot what he was doing in there or forgot how to get out of the room.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: But you'll see these kind of odd behaviors uh that can come up, certainly.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Periodontal disease is another thing that can happen in cats, not even seniors necessarily, but you might you might notice some of those things happening when you take your cat to the veterinary and they might say, Oh, it looks like we got some issues with the teeth.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean it definitely happens.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: And again, just you know, I tie a lot of things to people because we we can relate.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: But uh dental disease is well established as having connections to illness in the rest of the body.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're constantly fighting inflammation in the mouth, constantly having bacteria enter the bloodstream.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and many times that can wind up in the heart or in the kidneys and and cause further damage.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Also, it's incredibly painful.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like the lesions that I see when I am working in the mouth.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Many times I've thought to myself, like, you know, if you saw this big open wound on your cat's leg, you would have been demanding that I took care of it yesterday.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: But most of us aren't trying to open our cat's mouth and inspecting things in there.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: They don't like that.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And again, those cats, like they hide illness.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: They're not, they have no way to tell you they have a toothache.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: They were going to either chew on the other side of the mouth or they just swallow their food whole.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Which I've had many cases where I get to things that are so far along, all we can do is remove every tooth in the mouth of a cat.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: But invariably, uh two-week checkup, people can't believe how active their cat is, how well their cat is now eating such a big change in the cat because they're not in pain anymore.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Our Sadie, several years ago, and she was with us, she broke a tooth.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: She broke a canine tooth, and it was really obvious something was going on because she wasn't eating as much, she was being very careful, she didn't like the crunchy food.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was just irritating the tooth, but it had to be pulled.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so that it really helped her, and and she went back to life as normal, pretty much.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and this kind of I mean, it continues to be a little bit of an amazing thing to me in one sense, where so much of what I'm doing is focused on fixing something, and sometimes with those teeth, you you can't fix it, you know, you're you're destroying it, you're taking it out, but then the difference it makes for that cat is huge.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thyroid disease is another thing.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: We gave Sadie a pill every day for a long time, and it it seemed to help.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, are those are those remedies still going to be beneficial for cats even in older years?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so when we're talking thyroid disease, I you know, I want to have it clear.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Typically in a cat, we will have what's called hyperthyroid.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: The thyroid gland is overactive.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: You can occasionally have a hypothyroid.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen a small handful of those through the years.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Not very common in the cat.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Happens in dogs a lot.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but in the hyperthyroid, you're generally going to see this cat that's losing weight.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: But usually it's gonna be that cat that you didn't think was sick at all because that cat's incredibly active, almost hyperactively so.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they're often ravenously hungry, but as disease progresses, they get to where they just aren't feeling that great, and then maybe that diet, their their dietary intake drops off.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: But what's going on is their metabolic rate is cranked up so high, they're burning through calories, and they just can't physically fit enough food into themselves to meet those needs.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, our treatment, there's uh either eliminating the thyroid itself, which can be done in a couple ways, surgeries literally remove that thyroid gland, and I mean you can cure the cat that way, and have done it many times over.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: You can give medicine that suppresses it, it's never going to cure it, it's constantly suppressing the thyroid gland.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: There is a food that can be used as a treatment, but I have found it requires very special circumstances.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: It is a food that really has absolutely no iodine in it whatsoever.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Iodine is important for the thyroid gland, so if you're starving the thyroid gland of iodine, it will decrease that output.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem is the cat hops up and eats a little bit off of your plate, you completely counteracted the food, it does no good.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, when you start in that food, if you were using, say, plastic poles for the food, you need to get rid of those because they might actually hold iodine in them from previous foods and start everything over.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so it can work, and I've seen it work, but it requires a special circumstance.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: The other treatment at this point is gonna be actually using radioactive iodine therapy.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: In concept, it actually is a pretty easy treatment.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: The cat gets an injection, it has radioactive iodine in it.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people are scared of the idea of radiation, but in this particular case, that iodine settles in the thyroid gland and it it kills that thyroid tissue.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: But what we're dealing with is something that is not working properly or is becoming a tumor, and so by eliminating that, uh you can cure the cat.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: The tricky part is the logistics.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's not a lot of centers where you can do that because there is radiation involved.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: So the cat needs to be isolated, basically kept in a special cage where all liminations are disposed of as, you know, well, radioactive waste for that matter.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I probably found the most resistance that I've had people going through with it is lack of wanting to be away from their cat for a week.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, that is a very valid option and it does work and it works well.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen it take care of the problem and avoid surgery and avoids daily medicines and such.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: But uh that's one of the things that's out there that maybe a lot of people aren't aware of.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's really very helpful.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't even aware of that.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: I know we gave our cat just a regular thyroid medication, and so that's really helpful.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: There are some other senior-related situations.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna mention a couple with the time we have left.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: One is, and it's probably tied in with arthritis, is difficulty jumping onto a bed, a chair, or a couch.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: What types of solution would you recommend for that?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: So cats have traditionally been a little bit tricky with that.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly there are supplements that can help.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've seen them make a difference.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and I and you want to look at what you're using for sure to make sure that it is in fact safe for a cat.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: But those sort of things can can be an aid, the fatty acids and things like that.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Umsteroidal anti-inflammatories, like many of us might take for our own aches and pains.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: We have to be quite careful with in a cat.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: They can be sensitive to a number of of those things, and uh, and by sensitive I mean fatal, but there are many options that we can use.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we have kind of a unique challenge in the U.S.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: in that one of the worldwide most commonly used ones isn't labeled in the US, but uh that just tends to be a long uh conversation with people to make sure that they understand that if we were speaking with British accents, it'd be considered perfectly fine.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but since we're not, I have to explain why it says for dogs only on the bottom.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: But those things over time, you want to be monitoring their liver and things like that, because then that can be bothersome.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: One of the newer things is a uh, and and this is going a direction in many ways, uh, but what's called monoclonal antibody therapy, there's a product uh made of artificial antibodies against one of the main main inflammatory, like it's for lack of better word, processes within the body.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh when the body is recognized something is wrong, it releases varying messengers for different purposes.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this particular one is hey, there's inflammation, um, something's wrong, bring in the immune system and fight this off, which is very appropriate if you just got a cut or something.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: But when we're looking at chronic illness, chronic arthritis, that's inappropriate.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: It never is going to get better, it just makes it worse.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: So this actually does a good job.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's an injection once a month, and I've seen incredible results in a lot of animals.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And those when I was earlier talking about, you know, the animal we start on treatment where the person's saying, hey, they can jump on the counter again.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: I Seen them do that for years.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of these things that can make a difference.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: The nice thing about it is it doesn't rely on the liver, it doesn't rely on kidneys, and so you're not having issues there.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Any sort of mess medicine is gonna potentially have some side effects for an individual animal.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean you gotta talk to your veterinarian about it and make sure it's just right for that particular cat.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: But uh there are some amazing things out there that change lives.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: As uh someone's cat gets older and gets into the senior years, when should they see their veterinarian related to specific type situations?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Is it become more frequent or or is it as needs exist?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a big advocate for twice-a-year checkups um because there's so much that can change in a year, so much that can change in six months for that matter.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and particularly as animals aging, again, if we can pick up on a problem early, then we can often help them out over the long term.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I tend to be a big advocate on the twice-a-year checkup.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think you know I've had enough cases where there's something I noticed from this point to next that a year later would have been a critical problem.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that makes a difference.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: I tend to recommend as well doing regular blood screens.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Just because the cat's not ill doesn't mean they're not ill.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um I can only tell so much with my hands and my ears and my eyes, um, but I may not be able to see that well, the kidneys are starting to not behave themselves.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: So uh that lets us catch things.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And again, it comes down to earlier detection means a more successful therapy.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: Are there some specific references that you might recommend or resources for owners of senior cats?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: I always fall back on it being AAFP.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but feline medical uh association, they're probably our best resource.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they have so much out there for both veterinarians in terms of guidelines into care.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And they're not like secret documents either.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone can look them up and and they do cover a wide range of their recommendations, you know, from all manner of issues, feline, but also very good in terms of the pet owner side of things and and resources as well.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: With me today on the hissing feline has been Dr.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Grant Jacobson.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: He is founder of the hometown veterinarian in Marshalltown, Iowa.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Jacobson, many thanks for talking to us again today about senior cat health.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's really been very informative.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: This podcast is taking a close-up look at senior cats.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: I hope this edition of the Hissing Feline has given you helpful information about geriatric feline health and care.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: They're really wonderful cats, even in an old age, and can give a lot of love to their humans.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Be sure to tell your friends about the hissing feline and click the follow button on the platform where you listen to this podcast.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: And join me next week for another episode of the Hissing Feline.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Remember to keep heard.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Content on the Hissing Feline Podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only, and it's not intended to provide medical, veterinary, or legal advice.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Please consult your veterinarian and local and state authorities before dealing with feral and stray cats.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and not necessarily those of Doracho Cat Media LLC.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: References to products or services do not imply an endorsement.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Hissing Feline Podcast is a production of Doratio Cat Media LLC and has been blessed by our rescue cats, Bridget and Maddie.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: All content is used with permission or under fair use.