Sami was a flea ridden, parasite infested, malnourished kitten when I adopted her in the summer of 1995. With good preventive care and good nutrition she grew into a beautiful cat with a sleek, soft coat and a tendency to sleep on her owner’s head at night. As she has gracefully aged into an old lady of 16 I have reflected back on all the stages of her life, and am hoping for another 5 years of health. How can I best ensure her longevity and quality of life?
There is a great AAHA article about life stages that includes a table of their classification system.
Knowing that Sami is at the chronological equivalent of an 80-year-old human highlights all of the changes she’s experienced over her lifetime. As a kitten, she learned so many things. Sami learned to run, jump, and play, how to use the litterbox, and how to eat solid food. She was also one of those kittens who climbed up your leg to sit on your shoulder the minute you came home. During this life stage, kitten vaccines and deworming were at the top of the list. Then it was time for her spay. I paced and paced until the procedure was done, then rushed in to hold her during recovery. I tell my clients not to worry about being needy and nervous, that they don’t hold a candle to how I am when my own pets are on the surgery table!
Things were pretty status quo during the junior and prime years. Routine wellness care, the occasional bout of hairballs, and fights with her sisters were her only trips to the vet school with me. She moved to a few different houses and dealt with various dogs and cats that my roommates brought along. Things continued to roll along during her mature years. She began to be challenged by obesity so I put her on a diet. Sami went back to being a normal sized kitty although her pooch remained. She even handled a move across the country in her usual Sami style. She hung out on my lap and shoulder for three days of driving.
In her senior years, Sami began to have problems. The first was vomiting and diarrhea which began occurring on a fairly regular basis. Bloodwork, radiographs, urinalysis and culture, ultrasound were all normal. The diagnostic rule-outs that we think about in older kitties such as hyperthyroidism and renal failure didn’t appear to be a cause. The oncologist was very worried it was early lymphoma; I hoped for everyday ordinary inflammatory bowel disease. This went on for about 6 months, then spontaneously resolved. I definitely gained a new appreciation for the frustration my clients went through when dealing with the ups and downs of life with a senior pet.
Next was the torn Achilles tendon from racing away from the dog. It really hit me when the surgeon asked how old she was to determine her suitability as a surgical candidate. The first thing I said was she’s young. He asked how old. I replied, 14. Ok, that really hit me. She wasn’t young. My Sami was old. My purring, climbing, scrawny kitten had turned into an old lady, seemingly overnight.
The Banfield Applied Research and Knowledge (BARK) team report confirmed my experience with Sami and the life stages of disease. You can read the whole report at here. As a practitioner, I always suspected that hyperthyroidism and renal disease were the top concerns, but these numbers prove it. The proportion of these diseases in cats younger than 10 years was essentially negligible, where the proportion in cats over 10 years was 7% and 8% respectively. Malaise and heart murmur were also overrepresented in older kitties.
Why is this important for Sami and our geriatric patients? Early Intervention! Diagnosing hyperthyroidism early can have tremendous benefits. Treating these cats early can prevent some of the long term complications associated with the disease. These younger cats are better candidates for I-131 therapy which can be a cure in lot of cases. With renal disease it is a bit trickier. This progressive disease isn’t curable, but diet can have a tremendous positive impact in longer term quality of life for these cats.
One important lesson I have learned from our research is that even with all of the trouble it takes to bring in cats to the office, it is well worth it. These early detection tests are crucial to maintaining a long, high quality life which falls in line with my experience as a 10 year veteran of veterinary medicine.
This is the basis of evidence based veterinary medicine: augmenting experiences and observations with the use of hard evidence. Banfield is unique in the world of evidence based medicine in that we have millions of records in which we can perform this kind of research. The State of Pet Health Report referenced above contains a wealth of information in what we have found in these records. Additionally, you can check out this website on evidence based veterinary medicine.
My parting thoughts are that we must embrace every life stage of our cats as we should do for ourselves. With preventive care maybe someday for cats, 20 will be the new 15.
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