Our feline patients are living much longer now than they did 20 years ago, thanks to better nutrition, home, and veterinary care. Senior cats are defined as those between 11–14 years, and geriatric cats are 15 years and upwards.

We feel very strongly that aging is NOT a disease. However, getting older can certainly change the physiology, behavior, and susceptibility of cats to certain diseases – just like it does with us.

Here at Corvallis Cat Care, we take a deep interest in caring for and maintaining the special needs of our older patients. It is very important that they are monitored more closely, so we recommend regular annual or semi-annual exams.

Many of the conditions in our older cats such as osteoarthritis, renal disease, thyroid, or other endocrine conditions are easily missed in the early stages as symptoms are not obvious. It is true that we cannot cure many of the conditions that we see in the elderly, but they can be managed quite successfully in a variety of ways, to maintain, improve or extend quality of life.