My Cat Has Arthritis

[HoosierStateDem]

I have a beautiful Persian cat who is 17 years old and she limps when she walks. She's so healthy in every other regard but it breaks my heart to see her limping like she does. She's had this limp for a few years now. We've tried just about everything - the Cosequin, Dasuquin, and we have even tried a small dose of Tramadol, which turned her into a zombie, so that's out.

Does anyone know if there is some sort of steroid injection we can get for her, kind of like they give to humans?

[TygrBright]

1. Yes, your vet can give her a steroid injection, if she's a good candidate for it.

Other helpful things:

Put a heating pad on low underneath a layer of memory foam or eggcrate foam, and cover it with a towel, and put this lash-up where she likes to park, so she can lay on it.

Be sure that the water you are giving her isn't too alkaline. Filter it and/or add a drop of white vinegar to it if it is.

Your vet may also be able to give you some mild analgesic pills or cream to give kitty.

It so hard to watch our old girls and boys dealing with the physical problems of aging. I'll hold you and kitty in the Light.

empathetically,
Bright

[badgerpup]

2. I've used selenium for an arthritic kitty...

...don't remember the dose though... ...Jasmine (aka FuzzyFace) went to the Bridge nearly 20 years ago at the ripe old age of 18 and a half.


Check your local health food stores...frequently they have some very knowledgeable people.

Also you might want to ask your vet about aspirin. I'm talking St. Joseph's baby aspirin or a reasonable facsimile.
DO NOT USE tylenol (aka acetemenophen)...it's poisonous to cats!

Esme suffered from the occasional arthritic flare-up and a baby aspirin helped her immensely.
DO check with your vet about the dose though; it goes by size. Esme was a pretty good-sized girl (13-14 lbs) so she was able to tolerate 1 whole baby aspirin every 2-3 days or so without problems.
She got to the point where she associated 'pill shoved down my throat' with 'my hips feel better and it doesn't hurt to walk'...at least, that's what I'm assuming by her behavior and super cooperation...smart girl, my Ezzle-may.

Good luck...old kitties are a treasure.

[Merlot]

3. When my cat had an injury to his back leg and was limping

the person at the pet food store recommended feline enzymes and probiotics to help with inflamation.

While his was an injury instead of arthritis, there is a chance that the enzymes would help the inflamation. And the good news is they are always beneficial, even if they don't help the arthritis.

My cat seemed to heal much quicker when the enzymes were introduced to his food and is not limping anymore. He gets a dash of the enzymes in his breakfast every day.

[HoosierStateDem]

4. Thanks for the Suggestions!

I haven't tried any of those so I will. She's just the sweetest thing and I know she's winding down in her life so I want her to be comfortable. She's a domineering cat and has always been independent but in the last year or so she follows me around the house and now sleeps with my husband and me every night - maybe it's for the warmth we provide. She's also hard of hearing so she meows really loud.

She's going to be a hard one to let go of when the time comes. I dread the day. We've had other cats in her lifetime but she has outlived every one of them.

[TorchTheWitch]

5. get advice from your VET

You're the responsible person when it comes to the health of your pets and how to treat them. Proper treatment comes from a competent licensed veterinarian, not random folks on an internet forum. A phone call to the vet is free. Call your vet for advice on what to do and always clear any medication whether prescribed or over the counter or homopathic through the VET. The VET is the expert on proper treatment and will know the proper dosage.

Did the Tramadol help for the pain? If it did whether making the cat lethargic or not, for the love of all that's holy put her back on it. It's FAR better that the cat get pain relief even if it does make them a "zombie". Tramadol is a pretty major pain killer. If that didn't help with her pain then there is nothing in the world that you can get over the counter that is going to help. Get with your vet and find some kind of strong medication that helps the cat without problem side effects. Maybe a smaller dose of the Tramadol would work better. You aren't going to know without working through your VET. There are many many varieties of medications either alone or in combination with others that the vet can try, and sometimes it just takes trying different ones until you hit on one or a combination of meds that will work without problem side effects. But still, you might end up just having to deal with problem side effects as long as they aren't as bad as the pain.

When my dog got bone cancer Tramadol was one of the medications he took. At first he barely moved and slept like a log most of the time for days. Why? Because for once he was pain free and NEEDED to do all that sleeping. It gave him RELIEF.

For heaven's sake, if the Tramadol gave your cat even some relief put her the hell back on it. SO WHAT if it made her a zombie - she NEEDS the RELIEF.

Frankly, years of pain is a cruelty. I know you don't want to hear it, but your cat is old and in constant pain. If you can't find any vet approved treatment to take that pain away then PLEASE do the right thing and let her go in peace. No animal should be made to suffer in pain.

[HoosierStateDem]

6. Wow!

Thanks for the lecture but I've had plenty of cats in my adult life to know when to let go and to tell when they are in pain. The tone of your reply is exactly why I do not post here much, even though I'm a staunch democrat and enjoy reading the posts here. I've seen the posters like you who can't read a post and respond kindly and frankly, I don't believe your tone is warranted.

Now would you consider yourself "random folk" on a message board? Yet here you are telling me to give my cat Tramadol. I will not give her more Tramadol. She sat in the same place for 24 hours straight staring out the window. No sleep, no eating, no drinking, no lying down, and her pupils were dilated. That's not a normal reaction. Where do you think I got Tramadol from? From my vet. He said to not give it to her again.

I was merely asking if anyone here found anything that worked for their pets' pain. She limps but she's still a lively, happy cat who is aging gracefully, except with some arthritis. She walks up and down the steps, she very carefully hops up on the furniture but we have bought her some of those pet stairs and she uses those.

I've had three cats euthanized in my adult life and it's never easy, and it still isn't to this day when I remember them. I do not believe in letting pets linger if they are ill. My husband and I will know when it's time to let her go. I've never had a cat who lived to this age. She's loved, well-fed, and given lots of affection. I'm home with her all day, every day, and I think I know better than some "random folk" on a message board what works for her. The other posters made suggestions - you are typing commands as to what to do and you sound very rude.

We saw the vet today, she had an x-ray, and she has arthritis which has advanced mildly in the last three years. He gave her a steroid injection and it has helped her. She's barely limping this evening.

Get off your high horse. The tone of your reply is uncalled for and just confirms my feelings about posting at this site. I don't need lectures from anyone about how to take care of my cats.

[TorchTheWitch]

7. if you were so knowledgable you wouldn't have posted here

asking for help. Sorry, but a message board is the wrong place to go asking for health advice whether for people or pets. You didn't mention anything about your working with your vet, and if you are then WHY are you asking for advice here??? You also didn't mention about working with your vet concerning the Tramadol. You have only yourself to blame for how what little you said came across to others. The details about the Tramadol should have been in the original post.

Yeah, I have a BIG problem with people asking for and using health advice for their pets from non-experts on the internet because it's foolish and may very well be dangerous neither of which is fair for the pet. I have to wonder what the hell goes through someone's mind in posting on the internet for health advice for their pet in the first place when they should be consulting with their VET, and if they aren't satisfied with that VET then find a better VET. Random non-experts on the internet are not the people one should be getting health advice from - PERIOD. If you wanted to describe the issue for sympathy, fine, but asking for and using health advice over that of your VET is just stupid and wrong and unfair to the pet.

Goddamned ironic that *I* care more about the health and proper treatment of your ill cat than YOU do since it's YOU here asking for medical advice from random non-experts and me having to tell you where to get PROPER medical and treatment advice from for your ill cat and warning you of the dangers of using medical advice from random non-experts. If all my "lecture" atop my "high horse" did was get you to use your VET instead of the internet then GOOD.

[HoosierStateDem]

8. Oh geeeze

Now you're trying to tell me what I need to say in my posts so someone as dense as you can understand.

You know nothing of me and how I care for my pets. It is ironic that as you demand that I not ask for advice from people on the Internet, you command me to give my cat a prescription pain killer without knowing the details of her reaction. Perhaps you could have asked kindly what the reaction was before you commanded me to give her more.

I had a vet appointment planned for Friday for my cat. I came here merely to ask if anyone else had found something that worked for their own pet. I NEVER give her anything without talking to my vet first as she is an aging cat.

You are very ignorant to think you care more about my cat than I do.

Now run along and go lecture someone else about something you think you are an expert on. I wouldn't trust someone like you with your obvious anger issues anywhere near my pets or my children.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. "you command me to give my cat a prescription pain killer without knowing the details of her..."

I am so glad you didn't follow those commands. Lots of animals die from Tramadol reactions. I am hopeful that Torch is the one who actually learned something here this evening. I was horrified when you were told to keep giving the cat a medication which could kill her. Reactions are we have, as owners, seeing as our animals cannot talk to us.

Hope your little girl is feeling better soon. It sucks to see them age so much faster than we do.

[Marengo]

9. A discussion board represents a wider body of experience than a single individual

Just as with doctors, not all vets are equal in knowledge, experience and motivation. The OP is seeking information, something we should all be supportive of. Your response is insensitive and arrogant, and I believe an apology to the OP is in order.

[badgerpup]

12. My two cents...

I've received some very good suggestions from the good folk here.
Many of the people here have experience which is MUCH wider than mine and they were able to point me in a direction that I may not have considered...and allow me to discuss these possible solutions with my Sainted Vets.

Just about everyone here (myself included) accompanies their advice/suggestions with a very strong reccomendation to check with their vet first before trying any new treatment.
I've never seen anyone suggest otherwise, either.

Sometimes networking like this helps...and if nothing else it provides a place where people UNDERSTAND your situation and let you know that you are not alone in what you may be going through.

That can be more important than ANY advice given...to know you are understood and not alone.

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. If you were knowledgeable you would be aware that Tramadol, even in small doses,

can kill a cat if the cat has an adversity to it. You would not be so bold or ignorant as to yell at the OP to put the cat back on a drug that could possibly do harm. Please do not go through life willy nilly thinking that you can just give one drug to one of your pets because it worked so well for another. That's a scary proposition.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. You know . . . . . .

. . . . your comments violated no rules, but the attitude they convey is very much against the spirit of these smaller groups. These groups truly are communities. Whether you were right or wrong, you managed to alienate more than a few people with your tone and choice of words, to say nothing of berating the OP in what comes off as a very mean spirited way.

I have no idea what your real intentions might be. I suspect they're actually good. But man, you sure do come across as abrasive.

[TBF]

24. Obviously folks consult with Vets -

and they also ask friends for off-the-cuff advice based upon their past experiences. We have had three rescue labs and with one of the groups we actually have a private facebook page where we keep in touch and discuss topics such as these. You can bounce ideas off people, hear their experiences, and then talk it over with your Vet to find the optimal solution for your pet.

Your hostility is unnecessary.

[Warpy]

10. I had a cat with arthritis many years ago

who was on Prednisone because that was the only drug available at that time. She stopped squealing when she had to jump up or down but developed cancer a year later, possibly from the suppression of her immune system.

It was a question of quantity versus quality, and I think I'd probably do the same today, allowing her a short amount of time without pain versus a few more years with constant pain.

YMMV, of course. I just know what I'd choose for myself, and I chose it for my furry best friend.

Talk to your vet about realistic options. I know they don't like giving steroids now that there are alternatives, but it seems you've been through the alternatives.

[HoosierStateDem]

11. Thanks for that Information

The steroid injection this time has done wonders for her. She is actually chasing her little sister around the house, albeit a little hesitantly, but she is much improved over last week.

The one thing is that she has never cried out in pain or shown any signs of pain other than her limp and hesitancy to jump up and down off furniture like she used to.

He did mention oral prednisone and that is an option. At this point in her life, I am all for quality of life over quantity of life. She has lived a happy long life and she has been lovingly cared for. If she were to develop any sort of chronic disease that vastly decreased the quality of her life, I would choose to euthanize her.

I just cannot describe how special of a cat she is. We got her as a kitten and had an older cat who was probably 5 at the time. The minute we brought the new kitten home, she took over the house and let the 5-year-old cat know that she was now in charge of the house and that was that. Every kitten or cat we adopted after that seemed to understand immediately who the boss was.

She still believes she is in charge of the house and not just the cat family, the entire family. She's just been a lovely cat to have in our lives and she has brought so much to our house and home. But I will be ready to let her go when she is ready to go. Before then, I will do everything I can to make her comfortable.

The vet did mention the side effects of oral prednisone and said that would be a last resort measure but so far, so good with the steroid injection.

[Mosby]

13. Has the vet tried piroxicam?

also if you do go the prednisone route make sure the vet tapers up the dose and then tapers it down over the tx period. I know a dog can take a fairly high dose for months, one of my dogs developed meningitis and took took it for 4 months I think. We also gave it to her near the end when she wasn't eating.

What about glucosamine/condroutin chews, they are expensive but might help the joint.

[HoosierStateDem]

14. Piroxicam

He mentioned something that sounded like that maybe but he said since she had been limping and she had not gotten much relief with the glucosamine/chondroitin combination, he wanted to give her a boost with the steroid injection, and that seems to have worked well for her with very few side effects. He said that sometimes the oral medications like aspirin can be really hard on a senior cat's tummy and he thought the injection was the best way to go. I'm supposed to call them tomorrow with a progress report and we'll decide where to go from there.

When I tried giving her the Tramadol previously, she drooled a lot so I had to conceal it inside a capsule but then she had the other side effects.

So yeah, we have tried the Dasuquin and Cosequin (which are the glucosamine and chondroitin) and after several weeks they didn't help much, and I was really disappointed because it wasn't hard to give those to her.

I must say I'm pretty happy with the steroid injection she got. She is like a new cat this week! I'll be interested to see how long these results last.

[Mosby]

15. piroxicam is an nsaid so it can be hard on the stomach

Last edited Tue Dec 20, 2011, 08:40 PM - Edit history (1)

but it's a potent anti-inflammatory and pain reliever. It's also used for treating bladder cancer in dogs which is how we found out about it.

On edit - the vet gave us some other med, a liquid I think which helped the stomach handle the nsaid.

A lot of people think that glucosamine and chondroitin don't do a thing like most dietary supps, but our vets have suggested them also for some of our dogs, hard to tell if they helped any. Below is a link from quackwatch.

Glad to hear the shot is working!


http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/glucosamine.html

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. I am so glad you found something that worked for you!

Great news, and you are an awesome pet owner to care so much!

[HoosierStateDem]

19. I'm Very Relieved

My cat (her name is Gabriella) is just such a unique and special cat and it's greatly saddened me to see her struggle the last year or so. Her personality is so sweet and she brings such joy to our lives that it makes me cry sometimes when I think of how long we've had her. She's a total indoor cat and always has been but she likes to bring us things in the middle of the night that she finds around the house - sometimes it's a piece of lint, a straw, a piece of crumpled up paper, or those little sponge balls she likes to play with. And she makes sure we know she has brought us something.

I know she's getting better because this morning she woke us up at 5:00 am - she comes and gets in between my husband and me and then she starts pawing very softly at my face and purring really loud.

I was really astonished at the response I got from TorchTheWitch, honestly. And then she implies that she cares more about my cat than I do? That was the last straw for me. If I had followed her advice and given Gabriella more Tramadol, the results could have been worse.

I love getting input from other people who love their animals as much as I do. The worst thing anyone can do to an animal lover is to accuse them of not caring or loving their pet. That's just pure evil.

[virgdem]

21. I think your response to her was very effective..

she had no right to criticize you when you obviously care so much about your cat. Too bad the ignore feature isn't set up (yet), but she deserves to be put on ignore. There are some that think they know it all - she is one of them. I love this forum - those that post do care very much about pets and I have found it a good repository of valuable information. Her response should not keep you from posting and asking questions of others - it is how we learn -from each other.

[HoosierStateDem]

22. Thanks...........

I've been very hesitant to post here but decided with the new DU3 I would get a little more involved because it is nice networking with other people on many different topics, including our pets.

I was shocked when I posted something in the pet forum and was admonished. I can understand people fighting about politics but going after me for getting opinions is way out of line.

I don't like to get into fights but I'm not afraid to stand up for myself and what I believe is right for me. No one has all the answers and those that think they do are fooling themselves.

Everyone, save TorchTheWitch, here in the pets forum has been so kind and understanding.

[TBF]

25. Please let us know how your kitty is doing -

I have arthritis myself and had hyaluronan shots (rooster comb) - a series of 3 over a year ago. My knee responded really well.

[Angry Dragon]

23. The ignore feature is there now..........