Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [70]
Ten minutes several times a day is a good start, says Dr. Conzemius. Small amounts of daily are much better than marathon sessions once a week. Massage before and after exercise can help keep muscles from tightening, which can make your cat reluctant to get off his furry tail. It also doubles as a nice bonding exercise.
Nurse Alert!
A number of arthritis medications are available. Nearly all are in pill form, and will require you to pill your cat one or more times a day.
Many cats enjoy and benefit from massage, especially from someone they love.
Following surgery, you may be required to keep incisions or bandages clean, restrict your cat’s movement, or encourage him in physical therapy activities.
Medication
Each arthritis medication has advantages and disadvantages, says Dr. Cook. What works best for your cat may not be helpful for another, but you won’t know until you try. Generally he recommends a three-week trial on any medication. The results are monitored, and if it’s not working, another drug can be tried.
NSAIDs—nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs—are a class of medication that can really help arthritic dogs and people. Aspirin is the best known of these. The drugs work by affecting the production of certain enzymes that are involved in joint inflammation and pain.
But cats are much more difficult to treat for pain because they lack the enzyme that breaks down many of the most common NSAIDs, says Dr. Linn. “Consequently, cats can be poisoned by a number of analgesics. Tylenol kills cats, and aspirin isn’t so hot either.”
Aspirin can be given to cats but only under a veterinarian’s supervision, and care must be taken not to overdose. It’s not the best choice for pain relief anyway—Dr. Little says aspirin is effective only in relatively mild cases of arthritis. Carprofen, trade name Rimadyl, is approved for dogs and with care it can be used off-label in cats. “I don’t use Rimadyl in cats, but some people do,” she says.
“Metacam (meloxicam), made by Janssen Animal Health, is another one licensed for dogs but there is a feline dose,” says Dr. Little. The manufacturer’s feline recommendations call for an initial injection (0.2 mg/kg) followed by a daily oral dose (0.1 mg/kg) for 4 days. “There is an oral liquid form of Metacam available in Canada,” she says. “It is hard to recommend meloxicam for chronic conditions, since cats are very sensitive to the gastric and renal side effects of these nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.”
Dr. Linn says Ketoprofen is probably the most commonly used NSAID in cats. It’s also currently used off-label. “It certainly isn’t approved for use in cats, but a lot of the folks I know who medicate cats with analgesics have liked it.”
Another group of drugs--steroids--can help ease feline arthritis pain. “Cats are very steroid-tolerant as a species,” says Dr. Little. “Occasionally I’ll use prednisone for advanced high inflammatory effect, because cats tolerate prednisone on the whole better than most of the NSAIDs and you have less risk of a problem with prednisone in a cat.” The dose varies, but generally the lowest dose possible that keeps them comfortable is given.
According to Sharon C. Kerwin, DVM, a veterinary surgeon at Texas A&M University, narcotics can help manage feline arthritis pain, particularly acute
flare-ups or after failure of an NSAID. Buprenorphine has been demonstrated to be effective in cats, and oral liquid morphine also has been used, although many cats dislike the taste. She says that sustained release morphine used frequently to treat arthritis pain in dogs is not yet available in a useful form for the cat. Dr. Kerwin also suggests that doxycycline can prove very