Is your senior cat inactive? While senior dogs often get walked daily (a great way to keep them alert, happy and in shape, even if they get other outside time or are little city canines) senior kitties often spend a lot of their time resting and being under-stimulated.
When my senior kitty, Maurice, became less active, I was concerned. Although he does have several physical issues such as hyperthyroidism, irritable bowel disease and spinal arthritis, he was generally pretty active and youthful for an older cat. I made sure to get him checked thoroughly by the vet, be consistent about his medications and consider that the weakness in his hind legs from the arthritis made him cautious. I was careful to feed him a high quality diet and supplement it with probiotics and glucosamine and chondritin to help with his digestion and arthritic joints. However, I knew that he greatly enjoyed running and playing and had become even more interested in getting my attention after our other cats passed away. While he’s not the most chatty communicator, I could tell he was becoming bored and unfocussed, having “senior moments” of forgetting we had fed him or why he was meowing (loudly, at 4:00 AM.) He just felt “blah.” So, I decided to stop just worrying about him and figure out ways to get him safely active.
