That could be a tough one with cats. They're very secretive. They're both a predator species and a prey species, so they are kind of hardwired to hide pain or weakness. Many times pain will be manifested more subtly—you're not often going to find a cat yowling or crying in pain. Most of the time, what you'll find is that they're not as interactive, and they tend to hide more. Sometimes you'll notice that they are limping, but a lot of times, that is a later sign. So things to watch for would be hiding more, but also hesitance to jump. If they're not getting on the couch or the counter or being a general nuisance as my kit so often is, then that could be an indication that the kitty's not feeling well.

Another thing that we can see is abnormal grooming patterns. Sometimes kitties with chronic bladder issues will start to groom their belly, or cats with arthritis will begin to groom their rump or not want to be touched on their rump. So always check in with us if there are any behavior changes because we may be able to help you figure out what's going on.

The best thing that we can do is treat the aging cat as an individual. We must remember what they like and what their lifestyle's like, and work around that to maintain that healthy lifestyle. When you’re with them at home, remember that although they're getting older and slowing down a little bit, we still need to keep them active and mentally stimulated. Use puzzle toys or puzzle feeders and other interactive toys like wands to get some interactive play or play that they actually need to think about. That can be important for keeping that brain healthy and keeping those muscles healthy. Go ahead and modify these as needed for what your cat's abilities are.

Other things for making your cat comfortable are maintaining good nutrition, which sometimes means switching to more of a canned food diet as kitties get older. A canned food diet can help because it's a higher moisture content, which is more helpful for the kidneys if there's some early kidney decline. Then probably the most significant thing is letting us take a look at them more frequently, and we like to see senior kitties at least twice a year. Things change more quickly as pets get older. And as we all know, they live a shorter period, so they age more quickly. And so by seeing them more frequently, we can often pick things up before they become a problem.

It's pretty minimal when you think about the risks. Whenever we stick anything in your dog, there's always the risk of a little bit of bleeding, or a bruise, or those sorts of things, but in general, it's a low-risk procedure with excellent results. There’s always the risk that your dog snacks on a needle, but I've, knock on wood, never had that happen. We usually try to keep them distracted with food or love.

It depends on the condition and the experience and comfort level of the practitioner. For many conditions, such as arthritis, back pain, and neck pain, acupuncture can be a miracle worker. We can see dramatic results within a day or more. It's also nice because it's not very invasive, it's not painful, and it's something that we can maintain long-term.

That's another thing that can be variable. The more chronic a condition is, or the longer it's been going on, acupuncture can take longer in those situations to see results because it takes a while to grease the gears, if you will. Sometimes, though, we will see results the same day. Acupuncture can release endorphins in the body and make animals feel better and more relaxed. We may even start to see results from that, even if we haven't helped the primary condition yet.