No bumps, lumps, cuts, sneezing, dripping, not eating, non of the usual reasons I would get in to the vet.
But my 16 year old much loved cat seems off somehow. I will concede that at his age, he doesn’t want to or can’t jump as high, so I will pick him up more, but I just can’t get over this feeling.
OTOH, he gets horribly traumatized going to the vet, and I hate doing that to him, with nothing concrete to tell them.
Fret, fret, fret
I absolutely bring 'em in if anything seems off. The pugs need periodic maintenance (mainly anal gland popping) so most of the time if I have questions, I bring 'em up during that, but I’ve certainly scheduled appointments just because something seems weird. Pets can’t talk and it’s often hard to detect if things are wrong. I’d say just feeling like something is off is more than enough reason to get a check-up.
A 16-year-old cat probably can benefit from at least yearly blood work and such. Take that kitty in!
When you have a Rabbit, you almost have to do that.
Rabbits are prey animals. They naturally try to hide any illness or disability, lest they become some predator’s lunch. You have to become familiar with their routines and recognize subtle changes. That’s one of the reasons that Rabbits kept in a hutch outside or in the garage don’t live very long – their people don’t recognize their routines or the small changes that signal trouble. (Lots of other reasons, too.)
Cats are like rabbits in that they try as long as they can to hide any illness. Listen to your gut and take your cat to the vet. It’s unfortunate he’ll be traumatized, but he’ll get over it. I’m not unsympathetic having been in that position, but the stakes are too high to not go for that reason. The vet won’t mind that there’s nothing concrete to discuss and most likely will immediately suggest blood work.
Years ago I had a male Siamese, Ivan. He was a 2nd hand cat. I adopted him from a family friend who was relocating to England for work. (I live in USA.) He was older; perhaps 7ish. We clicked right off in a strange way. I’ve always gotten on well with cats. If I go to your home and you tell me “Oh my cat doesn’t like strangers he won’t go to anyone” or whatever; that cat will come to me without coaxing. It is as if I was a cat whisperer or sweated catnip. Anyway Ivan just looked at me one day and his eyes told me he was in pain. So off we went to the vet who said, at first glance and touch, nothing was wrong; but he did blood tests and sure enough Ivan was sick and we got meds and he was fine and we live happily ever after. I love cats.
Yes. In fact I’m going to take my cat Max in next week exactly because something seems off.
I’ll add to the Yes take him in! camp. My current 14 y.o. cat gives me that “off” feeling from time to time and I have to take him in - every time he’s had a UTI coming on. Nothing concrete to show - but the bloodwork and pee test shows it. Take him in.
Adding to the yeses. Sometimes it’s something so slight like just a bit of 3rd eyelid showing, or sleeping in an odd spot, or just sort of a glassy-eyed look. Cats are SO good at hiding illness, and too often when they do show something real it’s gotten really bad.
So yep, off I go on a hunch!
Everytime I’ve put it off thinking it was something simple - it wasn’t.
This was with dogs, but the sentiment is the same.
Better to find out - if its simple, great - if its not - you may have caught it before it became really complicated.
Yes. One morning my doberman wasn’t acting quite right. Just…off. I took her in on my way to work, waiting in the parking lot for the vet to open. I gave her to the tech and said, “I think she’s bloating”. A couple hours later and I go the call she needed emergency surgery. $3000 later, and she’d lost 1/3 of her stomach. But she pulled through. I lost her to an undiagnosed cancer a few months later.
StG
Followup: Sadly, I took Max in on Tuesday and the vet showed me on an ultrasound that the cat’s belly was full of fluid. The fluid was full of cancer cells. Max hadn’t been eating for about a week, but I never thought it was the end. There was nothing to be done except surgery to get a more precise diagnosis, but in a 13-year old cat… I couldn’t do it. Max went to the Rainbow Bridge that same say. When I took him that morning, it never occurred to me that I would not be bringing him home. 
He was the most wonderful cat, so affectionate and easygoing. I miss him.
(((((ThelmaLou)))))
I took my 18-year-old cat to the vet today because he pooped on the rug yesterday. He’s lost a pound since she last saw him in October (he now weighs just 7 1/2 pounds) and she ordered bloodwork, which was normal except for a slightly high serum creatinine; in plain English, that means he may have mildly compromised kidney function. She told me to increase his Miralax dose and maybe start giving him canned food. I’ll see how that works.
He showed up in my yard shortly after 9/11 and I was told that he was 18 to 24 months old, so his de facto DOB is 1/1/2000.
We took one of our cats to the vet because he was lying really funny. Good thing we did, because he had a urinary blockage due to bladder stones that would have killed him and we were just about to leave on a vacation out of the country for something like 10 days. The poor guy would have probably died painfully while we were gone. Instead, he spent the time in the vet’s kennel, being catheterized and costing us almost as much money as we were spending on vacation. In fact, by the time the problem was basically finally fixed (the guy basically has no penis these days), I think it cost us about 2-2.5 times what that vacation did.
{{{ThelmaLou}}}
Thanks, y’all. I miss the little orange fuzzy guy.
Oh I am so sorry. That’s so sad.
ThelmaLou, I’m so sorry you lost Max. nearwildheaven, yes, you want to increase the fluids a kidney kitty takes in so switching to canned is a very good idea. There are a lot of things that can help to manage kidney disease. This is an excellent Facebook group run by a friend of mine:
How is KittyGladHands, anyway?? It worries me that we haven’t heard anything.