joint problems unless care is taken in the breeding matchmaking
process.
“When they discovered the first Scottish Fold in 1951, they were
breeding folded-eared cats to folded-eared cats,” says Michel e.
“Their kittens had al kinds of spine problems, stiff joints and stiff tails,
short tails and club feet, spina bifida, that kind of thing. They realized
very quickly if you breed a fold to a straight-eared cat, you didn’t get
these problems,” she says. Today, ethical breeders avoid these health
problems in their cats by breeding folded-eared cats with a straight-
eared cat. “But there’s a lot of folded to folded in every Scottish Fold’s
background, because they al started with just one cat,” says Michel e.
“That’s probably part of the problem with stiffness that they have.”
Many cats get stiff and hunched up when they’re older, says
Michel e. “We don’t know if Scottish Folds have normal arthritis, or if
it’s something special to folds.” Carol W. Johnson, DVM, PhD of
Kalamazoo, Michigan, is col ecting histories and X-rays on affected
and asymptomatic cats to help determine how widespread Scottish
Fold Osteodystrophy (SFO) is within the breed. Al submissions
remain confidential. The ultimate hope is to find out whether or not the
problem is associated with the fold gene, and/or find families of cats
within the breed that do not get SFO so that selective breeding wil
prevent the problem in future generations.
Punkin’s problems first showed up in her stiff back legs, and then
she began to hunch over as though her back was painful. “It seemed
to come and go,” says Michel e. It was especial y bad during
pregnancy perhaps because of the extra weight and strain on her
joints. “She had a real y rough time,” says Michel e, and she final y
stopped breeding her. More recently, Punkin has developed knobs on
the inside of her wrists. “Like smal marbles, they’re smooth. They’re
so bad now that even when she’s at rest you can see the little knobs
sticking out there.”
Over the years, Michel e has made adjustments to help keep Punkin
comfortable and maintain her quality of life. “I put little boxes
everywhere right by the bed so she never has to jump more than six
inches. And I put a step stool and table by the window so she could go
up steps. That does seem to help.”
She also found information and advice on the Scottish Fold
email list, in particular about changing Punkin’s diet. When a new
senior cat food came out that included glucosamine and chondroitin,
Michel e decided to give it a try. “I healed my own arthritis with
glucosamine and chondroitin, so I’m a big fan,” she says. Michel e
offers a mix of different foods to her cats, so for Punkin she added 50
percent of the new food to the cat’s previous diet. “I started on her
birthday last year, so it’s been just about a year and she’s much
better. It has real y worked for her,” says Michel e. Punkin no longer
walks al hunched up, she’s not as stiff, and she’s much more lively
and plays more.
Michel e has also noticed that the cat’s ability to groom herself has
declined, probably because she’s not as flexible. “She used to be one
of those cats that if you touched her, she’d clean her whole body for
twenty minutes,” says Michel e. “She’s mostly white, and she kept
herself sparkling clean and perfectly smooth. Now she’s starting to
develop little mats around her neck and under her chin—and she’s a
shorthaired cat. So now I have to brush her for the first time.”
Also, Michel e has never had to clip her cat’s nails. “I teach them to
scratch like maniacs, and it keeps the nails in perfect condition. But
because of her arthritis, Punkin can’t scratch so much.” She’s noticed
problems with the nails getting too long, especial y on the back toes,
and curling into the tender flesh of the pad. “It seems to be a slippery
slide. Once she gets stiff, she can’t clean herself as wel , so therefore
mats, and she can’t scratch and therefore toenail problems,” says
Michel e.
She knows that Dr. Johnson wants Punkin’s body to study when she
dies. “I hope she’s going to live another 10 years,” she says, but she’s
made the necessary arrangements for when the time comes. She
hopes learning from Punkin wil help advance understanding about
SFO and help other cats.
Today, taking care of the beautiful cat and accommodating her
senior needs doesn’t feel like a hardship to Michel e, or to Punkin.
“Her quality of life is just fine,” says Michel e. “We’re great together.
She real y loves me and I real y love her.”
BLINDNESS
Cats can become blind at any time, but it occurs mainly when they
are older. Vision loss often is gradual, but may be sudden, complete
or partial. Injury or eye disease such as infections, cataracts or
glaucoma can frequently cause blindness. “The greatest problem we
see in aging cats is hypertension secondary to renal [kidney]
problems,” says Paul A. Gerding, Jr., DVM, an ophthalmologist at
University of Il inois. Hypertension can also develop as a consequence
of heart disease. “It’s far more common to see vision loss due to
retinal detachment because of hypertension than anything else.”
Even if the cat loses vision, the owners typical y aren’t aware of it—
at least not at first. “They can be down to their last bit of vision, and in
their own home they compensate very wel ,” says Dr. Gerding. Blind
cats remember the layout of the house, and rely on sound and scent
landmarks to get around. Vision loss typical y causes problems when
they’re in unfamiliar surroundings. Owners may suddenly realize
there’s a problem if they rearrange the furniture, for example.
Catching vision loss in the earliest stages has the best chance of
preserving the cat’s sight. Specific drug treatments and sometimes
surgery are available for glaucoma and cataracts, discussed further in
the chapters on those topics. Eye infections and inflammation may
also respond to prompt medication.
Similarly, cats suffering from kidney or heart disease often benefit
from anti-hypertensive drugs, says Dr. Gerding. “If you catch it early
and treat it medical y you may catch it before the retina completely
detaches, or it may reattach so there’s stil some viable vision
afterwards.”
Senior Symptoms
“Usual y you’l see vision loss in an unfamiliar environment. They’l
have memorized their own home or yard if they’ve been there the last
5 to 10 years,” says Dr. Gerding. Symptoms of vision loss are
therefore noticed more in an unfamiliar environment. “Cats to tend to
become a little more withdrawn if they lose their vision,” he says. Look
for these signs:
The cat hides, and her activity level decreases.
Shows reluctance to navigate stairs or jumps, especial y in
unfamiliar places
Becomes clingy
Bites when touched unexpectedl
y
Moves more slowly and cautiously
Pupil of eye stays dilated
Accommodations
When blindness due to disease or injury can’t be reversed, you
need to adjust your cat’s environment to help her better cope in a
sightless world. Blind pets compensate for the loss by relying more on
other senses, and won’t be nearly as concerned about the deficit as
the owners, says Harriet Davidson, DVM, an ophthalmologist at
Michigan Veterinary Specialists.
Cats prefer the status quo anyway, and this becomes even more
important when they can no longer see. Don’t rearrange the furniture.
Keep things in the same place so the cat can map the house, and
doesn’t become disoriented. “Keep their food, water bowl and bed
always in the same spot so the animal knows where his things are at
al times,” says Dr. Davidson. Cats don’t tend to run into objects, but
they may decide to stop moving altogether in a strange landscape.
“The animal’s behavior wil change somewhat in that they wil
sometimes become more dependent on the owner,” says Dr.
Davidson. “They tend to stand very close and fol ow you around more.”
That can be a problem especial y for elderly owners if the cat stays
underfoot and causes fal s. To counter this tendency, try providing a
safe, cat-friendly retreat such as a bed or cat tree in each room.
Cats that have always loved to be the center of attention may
become reserved once vision is lost, especial y when guests visit.
That’s only natural, says Dr. Davidson. The cat’s sense of self-
preservation keeps her out of harm’s way—under the bed—instead of
beneath the feet of guests where she might be stepped on.
As long as the environment stays the same, blind felines become
adept at compensating and may stil be able to accurately judge wel -
known leaps simply by memory. But take care to block off danger
zones, such as the basement stairway, to protect your blind cat from
an accidental fal . If you must pick up and carry the cat, set her down in
a place she recognizes—near her litter box, for example—or she may
become disoriented. Setting her on high unfamiliar surfaces could
cause her to fal off because she doesn’t know where she is. Also,
warn visitors that the cat can’t see, and to avoid startling her.
Frightened cats often bite out of reflex, and you want to protect friends
and family – and your senior kitty. Interestingly, other cats often seem
more tolerant of blind cats than they are of others that can see.
A blind cat is stil a very happy cat. She can enjoy and remain
engaged in life and the world around her. “People are told by a
neighbor that when they’re blind, you have to put them to sleep,” says
Dr. Gerding. is further from the truth.
Comfort Zone
Sound is much more important to blind cats. Try attaching a bel
to the col ar of other pets in the home, so the blind cat can more
easily find them. It may also be helpful for you to wear a bel , or
speak to announce your presence to avoid startling the cat.
Offer toys that have a sound, such as bal s with bel s inside, a
noisy paper sack, or scrunch up wads of paper she can hear
and “dribble” across the room.
Golden Moments: Blind Stubbornness
Rudy is a 10-year-old fawn Abyssinian, but she doesn’t act the
least bit old. “Abys are kittens forever!” says Linda Weber, and shares
a picture of Rudy as a baby. The children’s book author from Reno,
Nevada shares her home with seven cats, aged 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 17, and
19, but Rudy rules the roost—even though she is mostly blind. “She
stil runs through the house at 90 miles an hour,” says Linda.
Rudy began having problems with her eyes at age 4, as a
result of an earlier upper respiratory infection. “We had to fight to keep
her alive. She didn’t seem to have any immunity to herpes,” says
Linda. The il ness started with congested lungs and stuffy nose, and
got progressively worse. “We thought we were going to lose her then,
because she couldn’t eat or drink.”
Rudy managed to fight her way back from this near-death
experience. But then the infection got into her eyes. “She was healthy
except for her eyes, and these things kept growing and growing
through the corneas.” In many such cases, owners final y decide to put
the cat to sleep. “That wasn’t an option with her because she was just
fighting too hard to survive,” says Linda. “That seems to be a quality in
fawn Abyssinians. They seem to be extra stubborn.”
The infection caused chronic inflammation of the cornea, which
resulted in a corneal sequestrum—a growth of dead tissue on the
cornea. This dark plaque interferes with the cat’s ability to see, and
treatment involves removing the bad spot and patching with tissue.
“She ended up having three surgeries on her left eye and two on her
right eye to remove them,” says Linda.
Each time the surgeon would remove the sequestrum from each
cornea, and pul up the inner eyelids and stitch them shut to give the
corneas a chance to heal. “Rudy would be completely blind for a
week,” says Linda. “We’d put her in the funnel col ar, and she’d use
that as a white cane, stomp around the house and run into furniture
with it to figure out where the furniture was. She’d walk along the back
just to annoy us.” At the end of the week the stitches were removed,
the eyelids opened and she could see again.
But two years later, after she’d had two surgeries on the left eye and
one on the right, Rudy’s left eye was so thin that it ruptured.
“Fortunately, it coagulated right away and didn’t completely drain, but
it was scary,” says Linda. “We lived in Fresno at the time, and the
ophthalmologist was two hours away in Stockton.” The surgery to fix
the damage left her blind. The left eye had too little remaining cornea,
and that eye developed cataracts. “The right eye has a skin patch
across the middle of it,” says Linda.
The last surgery didn’t seem to bother Rudy any more than the
previous ones, until the stitches were cut. “She was tense because
she knew what was happening,” says Linda. But this time when her
eyelids opened up, she didn’t relax into happiness; she stiffened up
again. “You could feel her anger. It radiated out of her in waves,” says
Linda. “When her vision didn’t come back, she got mad that we’d
broken the rules. I don’t blame her. She showed us that she was
pissed, literal y, and sprayed the house.”
Rudy eventual y adapted to the loss, and she is a very happy cat
most of the time. She’s got just enough sight in that right eye that she
can see where she’s going, says Linda. “The ophthalmologist
compared it to looking through a ful coke bottle with a label in the way
—I don’t know how she does it.”
Rudy stil manages to leap to her favorite sleeping perches on
top of the furniture. “She fakes depth
perception to know how far to
leap,” says Linda. “She loves to be up high.” It takes two eyes to judge
depth accurately—the brain processes vision from each individual eye
and automatical y makes the necessary calculation. To compensate,
Rudy gets more than one “reading” with her single, damaged eye by
moving her head into different positions. “She’l spend about 30
seconds stretching her neck out, and then pul ing it back so that one
right eye has moved a distance of about two inches,” says Linda.
“Somehow in her brain she has used that to fake the depth perception
you get of two eyes side by side. Then she’l leap flawlessly and land
on top of the 8-foot tal entertainment center.”
Despite being virtual y blind, Rudy enjoys life to the ful est and
keeps the rest of the Abys in line. So far her innate stubbornness has
brought her through multiple chal enges. “I expect Rudy to live to be
about 30,” says Linda.
BRAIN TUMORS
Although cats of any age can develop them, brain tumors are
more commonly considered a disease of older animals.
“Typical y the cats with brain tumors are anywhere from nine to
fourteen years of age,” says Lisa Klopp, DVM, a neurologist at
University of Il inois. Even when tumors are quite large, cats can
appear to be “normal” on a neurological workup. Symptoms of
brain tumors are often chalked up as simply behavior changes of
old age when the cat becomes less active, more vocal, hides, or
has changes in litter box al egiance. As with any tumor, prompt
treatment offers the best hope of remission and/or recovery.
Pets are more likely to develop certain types of brain tumors. “I
think now everybody agrees we see by far more
meningiosarcomas, tumor of the covering of the brain. That’s true
especial y in cats,” says Dr. Klopp. Meningiomas are usual y
removable, and the biggest issue for the surgeon is the location
and how accessible the spot is. The majority of these tumors in
cats develop in locations that you can get to, she says—in the
forebrains.
The symptoms depend on the location of the tumor. “By far the
most common presenting sign is seizures,” says Dr. Klopp.
Another sign is when the cat stops jumping up. Of course, this
could also be an indication of arthritis. Vascular injury—a stroke