Normal lifespan of cats

"ingold1234[at]yahoo[dot]com (Gandalf)" wrote

The generally accepted 'life span' for an indoor cat with good quality
food, and regular vet care, is 15 years.

Agreed. That said most of us who have had many cats have seen the older 20+
but it isnt 'normally expected'. Just like humans don't normally reach 100
years of age. They can, and there are plenty who do, but it's not the norm.

18 isn't that uncommon but past it seems to be from my experience.

Suddenly, without warning, Wayne Mitchell exclaimed (9/20/2010 12:15 AM):
wrote:

Although Meep was born with some
issues that are making her life more difficult now, perhaps she would
have been healthier at this age if I'd not followed the "wisdom" at the
time, and fed her dry food for the first 7 or so years of her life.

Why do you think that? There is no scientific evidence that cats who
are fed canned exclusively are healthier or longer-lived than cats who
are fed dry exclusively.

I'm not going to get into this argument again, but for Meep anyway, it
was not a good thing. She's had cystitis since she was 7, and the only
way to keep it under control is to have her on 100% wet diet. If she
was on at least a partial wet diet from the get go, perhaps she'd not
have had cystitis at all.

jmc

On Mon, 20 Sep 2010 17:52:41 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

"ingold1234[at]yahoo[dot]com (Gandalf)" wrote

The generally accepted 'life span' for an indoor cat with good quality
food, and regular vet care, is 15 years.

Agreed. That said most of us who have had many cats have seen the older 20+
but it isnt 'normally expected'. Just like humans don't normally reach 100
years of age. They can, and there are plenty who do, but it's not the norm.

18 isn't that uncommon but past it seems to be from my experience.

My previous two cats lived to 16 years, and 18 years, with virtually no
health problems at all, until the very end.

You just never know


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Mary,

All vets' offices I've gone to have classified 8 years as a "senior"
cat, which puzzles me. The latest numbers I heard said that average
age for indoor cats is 14-16, but what is "average?" My parents had a
cat who lived to be 19, but others don't make it past 10. So many
factors come into play for age. Perhaps some cats who have had health
problems during their lives are elderly at 12 or 13, but many aren't.

Our Tucker is now 12 but does not look or act like his age. If he were
to become ill, we would treat him in a heartbeat.

Rene

On Tue, 21 Sep 2010 06:37:04 -0700 (PDT), Rene
wrote:

Mary,

All vets' offices I've gone to have classified 8 years as a "senior"
cat, which puzzles me. The latest numbers I heard said that average
age for indoor cats is 14-16, but what is "average?" My parents had a
cat who lived to be 19, but others don't make it past 10. So many
factors come into play for age. Perhaps some cats who have had health
problems during their lives are elderly at 12 or 13, but many aren't.

Our Tucker is now 12 but does not look or act like his age. If he were
to become ill, we would treat him in a heartbeat.

Rene


I think a lot has to do with what kind of food and care (vet) they
receive as to how long they will live.

"ingold1234[at]yahoo[dot]com (Gandalf)" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Sep 2010 10:04:40 -0500, "MaryL"
-OUT-THE-LITTER wrote:

I have seen a number of messages on this NG where people refer to their
cats
as "elderly" with little chance of a quality of longer life, with
implications that it would be unkind to prolong the cat's life when the
cat
shows signs of illness. In some cases, these "elderly" cats have only
been
11 or 12 years old. I would like to ask that people do some research into
normal lifespan of cats. A cat of 12 years old is *not* elderly or at the
end of his/he normal lifespan. It is no longer unusual for a cat to live
to
be 20, and some even live into their 30s. There is great variation, of
course. Some of it is beyond our control, but much of it is due to good
nutrition, veterinary care, and other variables. The average lifespan is
much longer for an indoor cat (in the U.S.) than for an outdoor cat, often
due to predators, automobiles, and deliberate actions by malicious people.

My first cat lived to be almost 20. Amber lived to 16-1/2. Holly had her
15th birthday on June 1, and she shows no signs of being a senior citizen.
Duffy is probably about 11 years old, and he is incredibly active. So,
please, stop making decisions based on the outmoded idea that a cat of 12
or
13 "doesn't have much time left."

MaryL

The generally accepted 'life span' for an indoor cat with good quality
food, and regular vet care, is 15 years.

Just like people, there is a wide variation.

Some 'slow down' and are fairly sedentary before they are 10 years old.

Others still act like kittens, well into their teens.

Just like with people: some die young, from a variety of causes, while
others live into their twenties.

I believe that 33 or 34 years old is the world 'record'; I'm too lazy to
look it up, right now.

My cat is a little under 15 years old, and has several serious health
problems.

She is not going to be a 'long lived cat', unfortunately

With cats, as with people, its not how long they live that's important. Its
the quality of life they have while they have it. That's why I take in
strays and feral cats, and don't trap them in my house.....They have two cat
doors, so they can escape any time they want. My cats were born free, and
they remain so with me. I feed them well, and give them veterinary care as
necessary. I am fortunate that I live in an area that is as safe for outside
cats as any I've seen. But if I didn't, I would rather not have any cats at
all than have to trap them inside my house. Trapped in my house, I would
worry that they may be consumed in a fire or other catastrophe. But I don't
tell other people what to do with their pets, so I appreciate it when others
don't tell me what to do with my cats. There are those who believe that
length of life is of the utmost importance. But I compare our miserable 100
years or less with the 20 or 30 billion years the universe has been here,
and say, "Live for today, and let the devil take tomorrow."

"Bill Graham" wrote in message
...


Well, we have one who tests FIV positive, and has for the last five years
or so....He is about 15, and has a marginal quality of life at best....He
is severely arthritic, and has to climb everywhere, because he can no
longer jump. He has seizures frequently, and he is also allergic to fleas,
or something, because he tears at his skin a lot....My wife loves him very
much, and she will go to no end of trouble to take care of him....She rubs
ointments into his skin and brushes him every day. I worry that he will
infect the other cats, but they have all had their shots, and they tend to
keep away from him generally, so they seem to be managing OK. He was feral
for the first ten years or so of his life, and he had the virus when we
caught him and had him fixed and taken care of by our vet. I wonder when
he will be suffering so much that we should put him down, and just when it
seems we should, he seems to perk up and start enjoying life again, so we
let him continue.....It's very hard to know when we would be doing the
right thing for him by putting him down.....Our vet is amazed every time
she comes to see him.

It is very hard to know sometimes. When there are already health problems,
I think you and your vet know best. I think Mary was talking in general
about seemingly healthy cats. I also had a FIL+ cat for 2 years after he
was infected. He was 9 at the time (blood transfusion). He also had IBD.
I have a cat now that I thought would be dying young as he has severe
allergies and has shots for them but amazingly, he seems to be outgrowing
the allergy if that's possible. Vet has been amazed at the decreasing
frequency in which he needs a shot. About once a year now.

Good luck. You'll know.

In article , Bill Graham
wrote:

Modern medicine might surprise you.....People are already living to near
100, or, at least, it's not uncommon.

That's what I'm afraid of. The way things are these days, I'm going to
outlive my money and wind up in a homeless shelter! LOL

On 22 Sep 2010 18:42:05 -0500, Clara Semps
wrote:

In article , Bill Graham
wrote:

Modern medicine might surprise you.....People are already living to near
100, or, at least, it's not uncommon.

That's what I'm afraid of. The way things are these days, I'm going to
outlive my money and wind up in a homeless shelter! LOL

That, of course, is the great mystery of life, or rather, death. If I
knew how long I was going to live, I could plan accordingly.

"Clara Semps" wrote in message
...
In article , Bill Graham
wrote:

Modern medicine might surprise you.....People are already living to near
100, or, at least, it's not uncommon.

That's what I'm afraid of. The way things are these days, I'm going to
outlive my money and wind up in a homeless shelter! LOL

Hey....Tell me about it....When my money gives out, I am going to camp out
on Obama's front porch....:^)