Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [5]
You are reading these pages because you cherish the relationship you share with your older cat—whether he’s an active seven-year-old, or a mellow 17-year-old feline. Complete Care For Your Aging Cat not only offers great information about what physical and emotional changes may happen as your cat becomes a senior citizen, and how veterinary care can help, it also provides practical solutions to common problems, contact information for helpful products, educational and emotional support resources, and countless cost-saving home treatments.
Owners of aging cats typically are willing to provide the extra care that keeps pets happy and comfortable. Medical help is a big part of that. Because many people are interested in alternative care in their own lives, a discussion of the pros and cons of “holistic” and conventional “allopathic” medicine for cats is covered in the book. Both approaches offer great benefits for senior cats, and combination therapies—called complementary medicine—may provide the greatest help.
On the conventional side, veterinary specialists such as surgeons and oncologists usually cost more, but they offer cutting-edge care that many cat owners are willing to fund in order to keep their cats feeling good. In fact, repeated surveys by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) indicate more than 70 percent of pet owners would go into debt for their pet’s well being. Yet cats get the short end of the veterinary stick.
The American Veterinary Medical Association's 2007 U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook published results from surveying 48,000 households. This information, compiled about every two years and shared with the United States census, reports that 36.6 percent of cat-owning households received no veterinarian care in 2006 compared to 17.3 percent of dog households! The cost of treatment may be one reason, so I’ve included breakout information titled Bottom Line which estimate how much a given diagnosis and therapy might cost.
It’s All About The Cat!
The CATalyst Council was formed in 2008 to improve the status of cats and counter the trend of felines receiving less care than canine counterparts. This coalition of the veterinary community, academia, nonprofits, industry and animal welfare organizations includes the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA) and the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA).
More and more pet owners purchase health insurance for their cats because it can make treatments and care for chronic illnesses—even cutting-edge and alternative therapies—quite affordable for the average owner. A checklist for evaluating pet insurance is included to help you make informed decisions. Another potential cost-saving measure is home nursing care that also can keep your cat happier and more comfortable during convalescence. The most common nursing techniques are described to help you decide which might be a good option for your situation.
Because of a lifetime of good care, many aging cats stay quite healthy throughout their golden years and won’t require anything but routine veterinary care for years and years. That makes it even more important for owners to know how to be good partners in their cat’s good health. After all, you live with your cat all year long, you know him best, and you will be the first to recognize a problem and get help if something goes amiss.
Complete Care For Your Aging Cat offers practical ways to ensure a high level of enjoyment and happiness for both you and your cat, as he continues to age. It’s important to understand how bones and muscles change with age, and that aging eyes and ears can influence behavior, for example. Senior cats often need help grooming themselves, and become less willing to walk up and down stairs. Providing a ramp, some comb time, and an extra litter box keeps everyone happy and prevents “accidents” that upset human and cat alike. Many owners of aging cats willingly rearrange