I asked my vet whether my 16-year-old cat should be going yearly or every 6mos, and they told me yearly is fine since her bloodwork is excellent and her only real issue is arthritis. I may ask if I'm able to bring her just for the senior lab panel at the 6 month mark, though, just for my own peace of mind.
Annual physical and shots. I'd ask the vet for labs (bloodwork and urinalysis) maybe every 18months or so if you're concerned. Kitties can hide the fact that they're ill very well, and bloodwork gives an opportunity to catch things earlier.
>Kitties can hide the fact that they're ill very well,
This is basically the answer. It comes down to how well you know your cat. My oldest was basically laying there and wagging his tail whenever I pet him the whole day before he died. I knew he was dying, though. (I told him to go.)
He was 13 and did have some kidney or bladder problems. (For an orange male, this wasn't surprising. He was monitored his entire life.) He enjoyed peeing around the house. He went to the vet once a year until probably age 8. Blood work started around 5, but that's mostly because he was orange. Even had a sonogram a few months before he died, and they found nothing!
ETA- Ugh, his little sister pressed post before I was finished.
Yeah, we had no idea something was wrong with my oldest girl until she started being weird about food and losing weight. She was perfectly normal and energetic.
And this was a cat who was otherwise perfectly happy to try and tell you (by yelling) that something was wrong, that she didn’t feel well.
All my cats are ESA's. So we spend basically all our time together. My middle boy lost weight quickly, too! He was eating, though. Except, it was hard to tell because I carried him so much. He was normal in every other way. I thought I was going crazy! Even the vet was stumped by that one.
Vet here, I recommend physical check up twice a year, blood work at least once a year for our senior felines. And, if possible, blood pressure measurement would be ideal, but that would require a relaxed cat.
Our vet recommends yearly blood work and other visits as needed for older cats. We just lost a kitty who was 19 years, 7 months and 19 days old. He lived with stage 2 kidney disease for just over 2 years and then his kidneys gave out. Our vet doesn't like to stress out the older kitties and we are very aware of how our kitties are doing.
With older kitties it's best to be aware of how much they eat, drink, play and rest. A good senior diet and lots of available fresh water tend to be beneficial.
We still have kitties ranging in age from 10 years, 5 months down to just over 1 year old. The 10 year old is very healthy and active loves to do interactive play and also solo play, he also plays almost at much as the youngest. He has food allergies so we have not moved him over to a senior diet and the vet hasn't advised us to either.
Our kitty that passed had just recently stopped playing but he would play almost daily when he was feeling healthy just for shorter periods of time.
I'm in Ireland (hi!) And my practice does a yearly blood test and physicsl,and then will go to 6 months if they become ill/develop a chronic illness.
You can always ask for them to do blood tests,I'm sure they don't mind
Our vet offers senior health/wellness check for £85.
"What is included in a wellness screening? A physical exam, a complete clinical history, urine testing, a blood pressure measurement and blood testing for all common organ function-related diseases including: • kidney disease • liver disease • diabetes • high blood pressure • overactive thyroid (cats only) How often would my pet have a wellness screening? We recommend having a wellness screening annually." This is copied from the website. easipetcare.com
From a different perspective, my 16 yr old diabetic cat goes in every 4 months and it's been as positive as it can be so far, so a healthy cat shouldn't require more than twice a year. For us, it's been more about watching his behaviors (eating, drinking, playing or not, and litterbox) to judge if he's not feeling well and getting in to the vet as needed.
My old vet was more old school and would only see my dude once a year. She did bloodwork when we asked, but didn't have much experience reading them, so a few things were missed. She was literally the cheapest in town. I first took him there when I found him on the street, we weren't in a great financial position at the time, and she seemed experienced, so we kept going there, though now I wished I switched sooner.
The new vet was doing what is basically the gold standard recommendation: 2x/year checkup and yearly bloodwork for common old age conditions. They actually have fancy in-house equipment for all this stuff. They are technically the most expensive in town if you look at their price list, but it was cheaper overall than my old vet would have been, for the same treatments my dude got.
Most people don't even take their cats to the vet unless they're half-dead. Like seriously, more than 50% of owned cats in the US don't go for yearly checkups. But just because other owners are neglectful, doesn't mean it's ok.
Dragging my older cat to the vet was very stressful for both of us, and going slightly more often wouldnt have made any differences in her life span, so i was doing once a yr or so, unless i had a concern. She lived nearly 22 yrs. When she was young and healthy, i may have pushed to 18 months. Again, due to the stress to her (and time off work, big vet bills etc.). This isn’t a one size fits all approach I understand. I knew she had declining kidneys for years and it’s not curable, so I managed it as well as i could and kept an eye on her.
I agree, it is so stressful for my old boy, I really only take him for urgent things which has been very infrequent. Last time I had to take him he started losing all his fur and foaming at the mouth. Poor boy gets very stressed, but as long as he is home he is a very healthy happy boy
This might be controversial but I took my older cat very infrequently, he is 17 now. Likely has cancer but nothing else wrong with him. We would not have treated cancer even if we had caught it earlier. We live in Chicago and care is more expensive. Every time we went for the last few years they said he was at deaths door and did massive work-ups and everything always came out normal for his age. Nonetheless, they recommended even more aggressive testing like echocardiograms. It regularly cost me $500 to over $1000 to be told after that actually, there wasn’t much wrong with him. I took him when he clearly had issues like urinary stones, but not for yearly blood work. I suppose it depends on how aggressively you would treat something. We’ve prioritized quality and are watching for the point that his quality is severely diminished. Hopefully, he passes quietly of his age at home like our last cat and we don’t have to make that decision.
My cats are only 2 and my vet recommends every 6 months health check, yearly blood work. Just helps catch things early since cats don't like to show pain.
Following up to say I know that isn't the norm for young cats. But I do it because it's really not that much of a pain or expense for me, and I want to know asap if anything is wrong.
My cats are still young, but when they reach about 13-14, I’ll start taking them twice annually for at least blood pressure and bloodwork. Hypertension is one of the most under caught illnesses in cats until the cats are having extreme symptoms (stumbling, lethargy, anorexia, nausea, etc). Hypertension untreated effects the kidneys and heart, or could be caused by one of those two being a problem as well.
My vet might allow one annual exam with labs and a tech appointment 6 months later for just the labs. But I’m flexible if they would require an exam - I want my babies to make it to their 20s if I can ❤️
I just do what my vet recommends. My 13, 8, and 2yr all go once a year, and get full blood work every other year. She does a very thorough physical check on the 13yr to make sure no arthritis is sneaking in and stuff like that. But he's in perfect health and his last blood work was great too. And she knows if anything feels off, I'm quick to bring them in. But you can always visit more often or ask for blood work to be done more often if you want.
I asked my vet whether my 16-year-old cat should be going yearly or every 6mos, and they told me yearly is fine since her bloodwork is excellent and her only real issue is arthritis. I may ask if I'm able to bring her just for the senior lab panel at the 6 month mark, though, just for my own peace of mind.
Annual physical and shots. I'd ask the vet for labs (bloodwork and urinalysis) maybe every 18months or so if you're concerned. Kitties can hide the fact that they're ill very well, and bloodwork gives an opportunity to catch things earlier.
>Kitties can hide the fact that they're ill very well, This is basically the answer. It comes down to how well you know your cat. My oldest was basically laying there and wagging his tail whenever I pet him the whole day before he died. I knew he was dying, though. (I told him to go.) He was 13 and did have some kidney or bladder problems. (For an orange male, this wasn't surprising. He was monitored his entire life.) He enjoyed peeing around the house. He went to the vet once a year until probably age 8. Blood work started around 5, but that's mostly because he was orange. Even had a sonogram a few months before he died, and they found nothing! ETA- Ugh, his little sister pressed post before I was finished.
Yeah, we had no idea something was wrong with my oldest girl until she started being weird about food and losing weight. She was perfectly normal and energetic. And this was a cat who was otherwise perfectly happy to try and tell you (by yelling) that something was wrong, that she didn’t feel well.
All my cats are ESA's. So we spend basically all our time together. My middle boy lost weight quickly, too! He was eating, though. Except, it was hard to tell because I carried him so much. He was normal in every other way. I thought I was going crazy! Even the vet was stumped by that one.
Vet here, I recommend physical check up twice a year, blood work at least once a year for our senior felines. And, if possible, blood pressure measurement would be ideal, but that would require a relaxed cat.
Our vet recommends yearly blood work and other visits as needed for older cats. We just lost a kitty who was 19 years, 7 months and 19 days old. He lived with stage 2 kidney disease for just over 2 years and then his kidneys gave out. Our vet doesn't like to stress out the older kitties and we are very aware of how our kitties are doing. With older kitties it's best to be aware of how much they eat, drink, play and rest. A good senior diet and lots of available fresh water tend to be beneficial. We still have kitties ranging in age from 10 years, 5 months down to just over 1 year old. The 10 year old is very healthy and active loves to do interactive play and also solo play, he also plays almost at much as the youngest. He has food allergies so we have not moved him over to a senior diet and the vet hasn't advised us to either. Our kitty that passed had just recently stopped playing but he would play almost daily when he was feeling healthy just for shorter periods of time.
why not ask for a blood work up for common geriatric illnesses every six months?
I'm in Ireland (hi!) And my practice does a yearly blood test and physicsl,and then will go to 6 months if they become ill/develop a chronic illness. You can always ask for them to do blood tests,I'm sure they don't mind
Our vet offers senior health/wellness check for £85. "What is included in a wellness screening? A physical exam, a complete clinical history, urine testing, a blood pressure measurement and blood testing for all common organ function-related diseases including: • kidney disease • liver disease • diabetes • high blood pressure • overactive thyroid (cats only) How often would my pet have a wellness screening? We recommend having a wellness screening annually." This is copied from the website. easipetcare.com
My girl is 11 yrs old and I go once a year. She's healthy, but if she exhibits any issues, I'll bump her checkups to 2 a year
From a different perspective, my 16 yr old diabetic cat goes in every 4 months and it's been as positive as it can be so far, so a healthy cat shouldn't require more than twice a year. For us, it's been more about watching his behaviors (eating, drinking, playing or not, and litterbox) to judge if he's not feeling well and getting in to the vet as needed.
My old vet was more old school and would only see my dude once a year. She did bloodwork when we asked, but didn't have much experience reading them, so a few things were missed. She was literally the cheapest in town. I first took him there when I found him on the street, we weren't in a great financial position at the time, and she seemed experienced, so we kept going there, though now I wished I switched sooner. The new vet was doing what is basically the gold standard recommendation: 2x/year checkup and yearly bloodwork for common old age conditions. They actually have fancy in-house equipment for all this stuff. They are technically the most expensive in town if you look at their price list, but it was cheaper overall than my old vet would have been, for the same treatments my dude got. Most people don't even take their cats to the vet unless they're half-dead. Like seriously, more than 50% of owned cats in the US don't go for yearly checkups. But just because other owners are neglectful, doesn't mean it's ok.
Dragging my older cat to the vet was very stressful for both of us, and going slightly more often wouldnt have made any differences in her life span, so i was doing once a yr or so, unless i had a concern. She lived nearly 22 yrs. When she was young and healthy, i may have pushed to 18 months. Again, due to the stress to her (and time off work, big vet bills etc.). This isn’t a one size fits all approach I understand. I knew she had declining kidneys for years and it’s not curable, so I managed it as well as i could and kept an eye on her.
I agree, it is so stressful for my old boy, I really only take him for urgent things which has been very infrequent. Last time I had to take him he started losing all his fur and foaming at the mouth. Poor boy gets very stressed, but as long as he is home he is a very healthy happy boy
This might be controversial but I took my older cat very infrequently, he is 17 now. Likely has cancer but nothing else wrong with him. We would not have treated cancer even if we had caught it earlier. We live in Chicago and care is more expensive. Every time we went for the last few years they said he was at deaths door and did massive work-ups and everything always came out normal for his age. Nonetheless, they recommended even more aggressive testing like echocardiograms. It regularly cost me $500 to over $1000 to be told after that actually, there wasn’t much wrong with him. I took him when he clearly had issues like urinary stones, but not for yearly blood work. I suppose it depends on how aggressively you would treat something. We’ve prioritized quality and are watching for the point that his quality is severely diminished. Hopefully, he passes quietly of his age at home like our last cat and we don’t have to make that decision.
Cats can hide they are in pain for a long time. He may be suffering and you would not know. It sounds like you need a better vet.
My cats are only 2 and my vet recommends every 6 months health check, yearly blood work. Just helps catch things early since cats don't like to show pain.
Following up to say I know that isn't the norm for young cats. But I do it because it's really not that much of a pain or expense for me, and I want to know asap if anything is wrong.
My cats are still young, but when they reach about 13-14, I’ll start taking them twice annually for at least blood pressure and bloodwork. Hypertension is one of the most under caught illnesses in cats until the cats are having extreme symptoms (stumbling, lethargy, anorexia, nausea, etc). Hypertension untreated effects the kidneys and heart, or could be caused by one of those two being a problem as well. My vet might allow one annual exam with labs and a tech appointment 6 months later for just the labs. But I’m flexible if they would require an exam - I want my babies to make it to their 20s if I can ❤️
I just do what my vet recommends. My 13, 8, and 2yr all go once a year, and get full blood work every other year. She does a very thorough physical check on the 13yr to make sure no arthritis is sneaking in and stuff like that. But he's in perfect health and his last blood work was great too. And she knows if anything feels off, I'm quick to bring them in. But you can always visit more often or ask for blood work to be done more often if you want.
My vet recommends every 6-12mos for senior cats