Cats and Ages VS Diet and Vaccines

[lunariris]

Hello everyone. 

Most of us know indoor cats, spayed or neutered, live an average of 15-20 years, and outdoor or indoor-outdoor generally only up to 5 years, but can live much much longer. However, it's not clear how long they live compared to their diet and vaccine schedule. Everyone says one kind of food is better than another, and more or less vaccines are better. 

But I want to hear it from real people who have or had actual cats who lived into their 20's and even 30's (yes there have been cats that made it into their 30's). 

So if there's anyone who has a cat at age 20 or higher, or had a cat that made it to 20 or higher, I'd like to hear from you personally. 

-What kind of food did your cat get throughout his/her life? Did they eat wet, moist, dry, raw, or a mix? What brand? Any specific flavors?

-Did they get given cat treats?

-How often and what vaccines did they get? (I know there's a rabies protocol law, but in all honesty, I know that the rabies and other vaccines can be very dangerous if not fatal, if over-done) I've heard many people say they use only 1-year, and others after 1st one, only every 3 years. I've also heard others who say they've had pets get sick or die from vaccines and refuse to give any, law or no law. Some give every vaccine under the sun, others just rabies, or rabies and FVRCP, and some keep up with both, or just rabies after initial FVRCP, since it tends to give lifetime immunity after the 1st set to panleukopenia but not the others in the combo. But the vets send yearly reminders for all vaccines, reguardless.

-At what age did you stop vaccinating your pet?

 

[nora1]

I'll offer an example. This is not my cat, but my boyfirend's parents cat:

She is currently (still alive and well) 20 years old, has been indoor her entire life, received "Kitten shots" (rabies, FVRCP etc) but never a single vaccine afterwards, and eats cat chow dry, with friskies wet throughout the day.

She's lost a few teeth along the way, and is a tad slower on the "playful" side of things, but otherwise is a healthy 20 year old cat!

 

[Willowy]

My first 2 cats lived to be 21. They both ate only dry Friskies or Cat Chow until they were about 10, when they started eating some Fancy Feast, and their dry food was switched to Nutro MaxCat salmon flavor. They also received all vaccines (FeLV included) annually (we lived on a Navy base and rabies vaccination was strictly enforced, they gave the others automatically at the same time). We moved to the US when they were 5 and kind of kept up with annual vaccines for a couple years, maybe skipped a couple or were "late", so maybe 2-3 more vaccines until they were 10, when we just kind of stopped taking them in. I don't believe they had any more vaccines after that.

I remember giving them soft treats with catnip, that came in a can. Don't remember the name.

They were mostly indoors but sometimes went out. It depended where we were living at the time---some places were safer than others.

One of them had IBD-type symptoms pretty much all her life. Funny thing, about 3 years after her last vaccine, she was fine :dk:. It just went away. Of course, she was also eating more canned food at that point so maybe it was that, too. She ate only canned food from about age 13-14 on, the other one still preferred dry food so maybe 50/50. I don't believe they would have lived so long if we had kept up with annual vaccination and all dry food. The improvement in their general health was really quite dramatic.

 

[catsallaround]

Wanted to chime in on outside cats.  I had 2 come with my house the female is still alive and well at over 10.  she was spayed very late as I only came here 5 years ago or so.  Her son was neutered at more or less 2 and he was euthanized for FIV at 7.  He was a fighter years after being neutered.  My personal cat I took while pregnant and she was at least 2. She had her litter and stayed in a few months till we moved.  She is nearing 10 now.  ALL 3 only had a rabies shot. Only issues have been fights with the boy and the last cat fell wrong from tree and broke a tooth.  So you can have 10 year old outside cats.  

All my cats currently eat Meow Mix dry or Friskies dry. Sometimes they had Science Diet.  They were on all canned for a while but had to stop due to money being an issue. No treats as it is to expensive but will give them raw burger or chicken here and there.

After a few vaccine issues I stopped giving anything but Rabies to the cats who go out.  I have more then half who have never had a shot in their life. Have to say the only time I really had URI was about 9 month ago.  The cats who had the shots seemed to be hit but the unvaccinated ones did not get it at all, it was sorta strange to see it go on as the one I found sick first had only shots at time of neuter at 4 months(vet required to neuter at his clinic). I put him in a cage and expected his snuggle buddies to get sick first and then the others but the ones he is closest to are the unvaccinated and they did not get sick.  the otehrs did. I stay low key and do not have anyone over as all I know are in animal rescue and go to shelters to pull.