Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [29]
Temperature: This ranges between 99.5 degrees to 101.5 degrees.
Hydration: Use the scruff test. Loose skin on the neck should immediately spring back when grasped and released, and a delay indicates dehydration.
Blood Circulation/Pressure: Capillary refill time of 1 to 2 seconds is normal. Firmly press the flat of a finger against the cat’s gum, then release, and time how long it takes the pink color to return to the whitened finger-shaped mark. A delay indicates dehydration, low blood pressure, or even shock.
Heart Rate: 120 to 140 beats per minute.
Respiration: 16 to 40 breaths per minute.
Behavior Cues
Generate a list of as many of your cat’s normal behaviors as possible. The categories will vary somewhat from cat to cat. Be as specific as possible. Examples of categories follow, but don’t limit yourself to my suggestions. If your cat gets in the sink every day, for example, or enjoys chasing the dog, include that as a category and describe her routine. Any changes to routine might indicate a health concern that needs attention. For instance, if she wakes you every single day at five and then suddenly lets you oversleep, perhaps her joints hurt too much from arthritis to jump onto the bed.
Favorite Activity: Describe how she plays. For example, if she loves a fishing-pole toy, does she fetch? Make mad, leaping catches? Play keep-away? Bring you the toy to incite a game? How often does she ask to play? How long does the game typically last—twenty minutes? How does she move—at a run, or walk? Does she pounce and leap to the top of chair backs, or climb slowly? Activity monitoring can alert you to painful arthritic changes.
Vocabulary: All cats learn certain words. What are your cat’s favorites (food, play, mousie…) and how does she react when hearing them? A change in reaction to favorite words may indicate hearing loss or cognitive dysfunction.
Vocalizations: Describe what circumstances prompt meows or other vocalizations. Perhaps she goes nuts when the doorbell rings, the can opener whirs, or a neighbor cat visits. How long do vocalizations last? What do they sound like? Are they howls, hisses, yowls, growls? Cognitive/memory changes, hearing loss, and dimming eyesight can change how the cat vocalizes.
Interactions/Personality: How does she get along with the other pets in the household? Describe her relationship to each one. Detail her typical reaction to strangers—ankle-rubbing frenzy or hides and hisses? Personality changes may indicate sensory loss. If she’s deaf or blind, she’ll startle more easily and react accordingly. She may also become short-tempered from chronic pain.
Sleep Cycles: When does she sleep, and for how long? Does she have a favorite spot? The sofa, her pillow, windowsill, your bed? What’s her temperature preference—cool tiles beside the bathtub or puddle of sunshine? Painful joints may prevent her reaching favorite resting spots on the bed, and prompt her to seek out sunny spots, and sleep for longer periods. Metabolic changes can influence temperature perception and sleep rates. Cognitive dysfunction often reverses sleep cycles, so she’s awake at night and sleeps during the day.
Habits/Routines: What is her day like? Does she wake up at noon each day ready to play? Meet you at the front door after work? Beg for a nightly 20-minute feather-chase game? Is she queen of the cat tribe who keeps others in their place? Loss of hearing or eyesight, painful joints, brain changes, and organ dysfunction may all impact routines.
Body Warnings
Generate a list of your cat’s normal body functions. Be as specific as possible. Examples of categories follow, but don’t limit yourself to my suggestions. “I’d rather see a case that doesn’t need to be seen as an emergency than not see one that needed to be,” says Dr. Marks.
Appetite: Does she have a favorite food? Is she finicky or a glutton? How much does she eat (measure the amount), and at what time of the day? Missing one meal usually won’t hurt her, but an aging cat