JUst a quick mini survey: For those with senior cats 10 years and over?

Question

1) how old is your cat?
2) what do you feed him (primarily wet canned food or dry kibble)?
3) any bouts with UTI or similar kidney-urinary tract problems?

wow... lots of responses and I am writing them down... very very helpful... "dry vs wet" is of profound interest to me... I will wait all 2 days to tabulate... although, how can I pick "best answer"? am sooo grateful that I am getting all this info

Answer 1

Both my moms cats (they where the cats I had growing up) died at age 27 and 25. VERY LONG LIFE!!!

We gave them imes and science diet cat food (dry). We never gave them wet food. (Although,I did give them some 2 or 3 different times). We also gave them tuna juice when we opened a can.

I don't think they had any problems

I had a hard time with the death of them. They died when I was 20 and 21. I had them as my pets as long as I can remember. My one cat (the 27 year old) died in my arms. I was home alone that week and my mom left to go see my brother in Tennessee. I came home and she was just laying on the bathroom floor and was soooo skinny. I picked her up and held her and put her in a warm towel and I even went to wal mart and got a baby cat bottle and tried to give her water and food. I spent about 30.00 to try to help her but it was no good. We went to sleep at about midnight (she was laying next to me in bed) and I woke up and she was gone. I miss her a lot, the other one died after I moved out. They where good cats.





ADD ON:

My mom said she use to give them sience diet and Iams dry cat food. She said she would mix it togeather. She also said wet cat food is not good for a cat. (lets just not tell her I gave them some)


They lived a LONG life!

Answer 2

1) how old is your cat?
14 years

2) what do you feed him (primarily wet canned food or dry kibble)?

Both Free choice dry and half can of wet a day. He really dosen't care for dry though.

3) any bouts with UTI or similar kidney-urinary tract problem?

Yes when he was 7 he had 3 problems with it nothiing since then.

Answer 3

Well she WAS 15 1/2 when she died this year. We fed her mostly dry food, a premium senior formula with very little filler. She got a partial can of tuna or wet food about 2 -4 times a month. I gave her the water or oil off of the tuna on her dry food sometimes too. (when I made tuna for us, she got the drained water or oil with some chunks of tuna in it) She also got a few bits of scambled eggs a couple of times a week. A couple of teaspoons, nothing huge, but she LOVED them.
We always made sure her water was very fresh. We got to a point where it was easier to leave the bathroom sink dripping very slowly with a cup in it so she could get a drink of fresh water. She absolutely would not drink stale water.
And no, she never had any UTIs or kidney problems. She died of a stroke at 15 years, had always been extremely healthy, great shiny coat, had almost all of her teeth. Good health for 15, right until she stroked out.

Answer 4

1) 11 Years old

2) I give her dry food and a spoonful of wet food on top with milk on the side (I have been giving this to her since we got her and haven't had any problems)

3) I have been giving her a special older cat dry food which has helped the urinary-tract problems. She is an outdoor cat, but in the winter time she has problems coming in the house from the cold and tries to pee in the house. Since we got her the special older cat food it has helped her out a lot.

Answer 5

my cat is 14. Older cats, unlike humans, are prone to hyperthyroidism..the metabolism speeds up so there are certain things that must be taken into account when they eat. My cat can no longer digest moist food, but she can not smell the dry food enough. My vet said for me to try Gerber stage 2 baby, lightly coating the food. I coat her dry lightly and put in micro for about 5 seconds to heighten the aroma, then she eats. The baby food must be Gerber stage 2 as this has all meat. No veggies. She is also throwing up more the she did when she was younger. I also do overall external physical check of her so that I can detect any growths, if any. Luckily, I have found nothing to date. No urinary infections yet either. The vet said she will get to an age where it is more difficult to crouch and use her box since muscle tone will be weaker. Mentally, they still have the instinct but their bodies can not perform the movement. Right now she is still using her box. There is also a great reference book " Caring for your older cat and dog" by Robert Anderson DVM.

Answer 6

My cat is 21 years old. She has dry kibble available to her all the time and she gets a treat of wet food at night when I get home from work. She has never had any urinary tract problems.

Answer 7

Hi there

We have two elderly-ish girls and neither of them has dry food. Lottie is around 14 -15 (adopted from my Dad so can't be sure of her age - Mum's passed on and Dad can't remember exactly when they got her and neither can I as I live 200 miles away and for many years have only been able to visit a couple of times annually).

Lottie has inflammatory bowel disease and so is fed on the Royal Canin Sensitivity diet. It is certainly in the category "wet"! (It's also greatly desired by our young boy cat, Cliff, and we give him some every so often when the pressure gets too much!)

Calico is 17 and eats wet canned food, mainly Whiskas in Jelly or Whiskas in Gravy. She seems to have a slight preference for the latter and I wonder if that's because it's a bit sloppier.

Neither of them has had any UTI or kidney problems (fingers crossed).

They also both get carefully selected, plainly cooked table scraps - Cal pretty regularly, Lottie less often as she has a smaller range of meat/fish she can tolerate.

Hope this helps!

P.S. Have fed dry food (not exclusively, though) to younger cats for a brief period many years ago but found their consumption of water rocketed so figured it probably wasn't doing them all that much good.

Answer 8

My cat, Max, is about 12 years. I feed him dry kibble, and have had no urinary problems. As you may know a cat is a poor drinker, and usually they get their water from the mouse they just ate. So when you feed your cat dry food, the cat might be walking around dehydrated. I have always put water in the dry food just prior to feeding him. I do not free feed. So my kitty usually has a good load of fluids in him to prevent this from happening. I raised my kitty like this, so it may be hard to do on an older cat not used to his food like this. Canned food with liquid might be ok, in fact you can add a little water to the soft food to make sure kitty is well hydrated.

Answer 9

The four cats I have now are all in their "teens". One cat (female, 13) will only eat dry food. The other cats (all male, 12, 14, 15) eat only meat. A raw meat diet I make with organic chicken and turkey and canned food.

No urinary health problems, no vomiting (except for the dry food addict occasionally), no diarrhea.

Answer 10

1) 11 this year
2) Mostly wet food and tuna. He's very picky in his old age! We leave dry kibble out (Dad's urinary tract formula--the only kind he'll eat!) for if he gets hungry inbetween feedings
3) YES! My cat has a deformed kidney, and has had UTI and his urethra blocked several times, although it's common in my cat's gender and breed (male siamese). We had to even consider giving him surgery to cut his urethra similar to a female's to make it easier for him, or putting him to sleep. Very scary!