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How Age Affects Your Cat

Like us, cats don’t stay young forever – they age. And, like us, some cats age more gracefully than others. When a cat reaches around 10 years of age, he will likely start acting and feeling like a senior cat. The effects of the aging process are both physical and mental. Physically, all organ systems throughout the body will undergo some structural and functional change, affecting vision, hearing, stamina, susceptibility to drugs and locomotor activity. Mental changes are secondary to decreasing brain size and a reduced number of brain cells.

Aging does not affect all cats of a certain age in precisely the same way. Some cats are more successful agers than others. Some, even at the age of 15 years, may still be full of the joys of spring and have no noticeable physical or mental incapacitation. Others of the same age, however, are already beginning to be handicapped by age-related internal organ failure, failing senses or orthopedic problems.

As they age, certain behaviors and changes are expected. Older cats become less active and tend to play less. Geriatric cats sleep even more than younger cats. Some elderly cats will even groom less and eat with less vigor. Knowing what to expect and being prepared can help you determine if the changes you are seeing in your cat are related to advancing age or if underlying illness is at fault.

Cats’ hearing deteriorates progressively with age so that many older cats appear not to hear you, and they do not respond to outside sounds that formerly would have aroused them. Loss of hearing can be either peripheral, due to changes in the ear itself or, as with failure of vision, related to changes within the brain.