Question. Elder statescats. Poll as well

"Victor Martinez" wrote in message
...
tanadashoes wrote:
So I ask you when do they join the elder status quo and do you have
any in that age range?

Well, according to our TED, cats need their "annual senior wellness
examination" when they turn 8. By his measure, our 3 oldest are
indeed seniors. We think the girls are way too young to be called
that, so only Xoxo, at an estimated 10 years old, gets the senior
exam.

I'm guessing it has a little bit to do with how busy the vet is. Jake
just turned ten. I asked the vet to run a senior panel on him this
past spring and he did it and agreed with my reason. But he wouldn't
have recommended it.

Jake had a pretty serious episode of being lost and injured and
without food and water many years ago. And he has a heart murmur as
well as moderate CHF. Plus some days he seems to sleep inside all
day. (But then again so does Charlie who is his person) I just
wanted to know what his status was.

Good news was it all looked great.

Jo

"tanadashoes" wrote in message
m...
When, in your opinion do our owners achieve elder statescat status.
Tanada will be 16 in two weeks. TED has been calling her an old girl for
about four years now. If you go by TED, QC will soon be an elder as she
is about ten now, as is Merlin. Both were adopted in 1999/2000 at about
two years of age or so. Some elders are obvious, like Snoopy, Yoda,
Stinky, and their fearless leader Kitty Farm Cat.

So I ask you when do they join the elder status quo and do you have any in
that age range?

Pam S.


Vets often consider cats to be "senior" at about 7 or 8 years of age.
Personally, I have never seen any traits in my cats of that age that would
lend me to consider "senior" status. My cat that lived to age 20 did not
even show any real signs of aging until he was about 18-1/2. Holly is now
13, and she is still alert, active, and all the "good" things. Duffy is
about 10 years old. My vet has said that many cats seem completely healthy
until age 12 and then some very suddenly decline. I start having a full
panel of blood work at age 12, and do that on an annual basis. That is a
preventative to enable us to catch any problems early. I feed my cats
premium canned food (no dry food at all), and I have not changed their diet
with age.

MaryL

"tanadashoes" wrote ...
When, in your opinion do our owners achieve elder statescat status.
Tanada will be 16 in two weeks. TED has been calling her an old girl for
about four years now. If you go by TED, QC will soon be an elder as she
is about ten now, as is Merlin. Both were adopted in 1999/2000 at about
two years of age or so. Some elders are obvious, like Snoopy, Yoda,
Stinky, and their fearless leader Kitty Farm Cat.

So I ask you when do they join the elder status quo and do you have any in
that age range?

Pam S.

My Juliet is 14.5yo now and I consider her to be an elderly cat. But she is
in fact still very playful and still enjoys spending time outside.

Flippy.

On Aug 19, 8:29*pm, Marina wrote:
Yowie wrote:
According to the boxes of kibble in the supermarket, a 'senior cat' is 8 or
older!

Bah! I say. A senior cat is one that no longer shows the wild kittenish
actics they did when they were two. Shmogg stopped acting like a two year
old cat when he was about 14. And *that* is when he got to be a senior cat,
and not before.

I don't know, Frank was still playing like this at the age of 16:

http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o...rank%20and%20N...

Don't know if I'd have called him an elder statescat at that point.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

An elder statescat in his second kittenhood, perhaps? =o)

Pan became more sedate when he was about 12, but still batted a catnip
toy around once in a while.

I know both my present owners are not remotely in the Elder Statescat
category.

Melissa

On Aug 20, 8:38*pm, "Flippy" wrote:
"tanadashoes" wrote ...

When, in your opinion do our owners achieve elder statescat status.
Tanada will be 16 in two weeks. *TED has been calling her an old girl for
about four years now. *If you go by TED, QC will soon be an elder as she
is about ten now, as is Merlin. *Both were adopted in 1999/2000 at about
two years of age or so. *Some elders are obvious, like Snoopy, Yoda,
Stinky, and their fearless leader Kitty Farm Cat.

So I ask you when do they join the elder status quo and do you have any in
that age range?

Pam S.

My Juliet is 14.5yo now and I consider her to be an elderly cat. But she is
in fact still very playful and still enjoys spending time outside.

I have mentioned elsethread that Maggy May is an elder statescat.
However, I would like to say that this does not mean a complete
absence of playfullness. While she won't take any guff from anyone, MM
is very easy to interest in low-intensity play. She will play "step on
the finger when you put it down in front of me" for a long time before
she gets bored and will rassle gently with one of the other cats as
long as the other cat is gentle. She has a soft-spot for Bear, whom
she helped raise when he was a puppy, and will tease and play with the
huge Lab as if he were one of her kittens. And she likes the cat-
fishing feather lure. She will chase it and play with it and she also
likes watching younger cats who play with it longer.

--
Will in New Haven