Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [52]
Today, we know more about caring for senior cats than ever before. Much of that has to do with our new perception of pets. According to surveys, more than 84 percent of pet owners consider their cats as their children. This unique relationship means cat lovers yearn to preserve their relationship for as long as possible, and therefore they take better care of their cats than in the past. Today, owners want a comparable level of veterinary care for their pets to that which is available for their human family members. That drives veterinary medicine to ever greater heights to answer the demand.
While younger felines more typically develop acute (sudden) diseases and conditions, such as a broken leg or cat bite abscess, older ones more typically suffer from chronic, long-term health concerns. Acute problems are often best addressed by surgery or other “allopathic” treatments, but chronic disease doesn’t always respond as well to these traditional Western medical therapies. Some “old-fashioned” method such as herbal treatments, acupuncture, and nutritional supplements offer great potential for maintaining quality of life. “Acupuncture and herbs, the two mainstays of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), work together to achieve healing in the elderly cat by improving the homeostasis of the body, rebalancing it, and helping to stabilize and slow down the degeneration of body systems,” says Dr. Beebe.
“Western medicine is very powerful and effective for certain things. If you’re bleeding to death, you can’t give herbs and acupuncture. You need Western medicine for that,” says Dr. Beebe. Yet when surgery and state-of-the-art diagnostic tools are combined with alternative methods, that offers the best of all worlds, says Dr. Beebe. Alternative approaches are often ideal for keeping the old cat feeling well during chronic problems like cancer or arthritis. “Most of these holistic systems have been around for several thousand years. Western medicine has been around for 150,” says Dr. Beebe. “There doesn’t have to be a choice between them.”
A 2003 survey by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) indicated that 21 percent of respondents used some form of complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM), compared to six percent in 1996. Today, many veterinary schools include education in CAVM that may encompass acupuncture, nutraceuticals, nutritional supplements, and physical therapy. Owners and veterinarians agree that CAVM has a place in the care of our pets.
Research is an ongoing process that is never complete. Feline geriatric research is particularly daunting because it requires large numbers of cats to study over a great many years. This is not only very expensive, but finding large populations of old research animals is nearly impossible. Instead, researchers often contact veterinarians and ask for volunteers from among their senior cat clients. Because there are fewer studies conducted, research that is available has a much greater impact on the health of aging felines.
Nutrition Research
The major commercial pet food companies maintain their own colonies of animals specifically for answering questions about feline health. A number of changes are now being made to “senior” cat foods to address the needs of aging felines.
When senior cat foods were first developed, the focus was on reduced calories, based on the premise that older pets don’t require as much energy. They aren’t as active, many have been spayed or neutered which may slightly decrease their metabolism, and often they’re overweight. “We can replace those fat calories with some fiber and slap a label on it, and you’ve got a whole new realm,” says Sarah K. Abood, DVM, a clinical nutritionist at Michigan State. Consequently, the label “senior” has been regarded