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- Dec 7, 2023
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I adopted Maisie about six months ago. The rescue had her age estimated as being between 4-6.
She was in rough shape. She'd just been spayed a month before, and had a litter of at least one kitten nine months prior. Her coat was patchy in places and fairly dull. She struggled to jump or run. To me, she looked and acted more like a senior cat than a younger adult.
I took her to the vet, who took one look in her mouth and said she had to be at least 8, if not closer to 10, due to the terrible condition of her teeth. She didn't notice any arthritis but did note some muscle wasting.
I also noticed her tail was very tapered at the end, and looking at some pictures now it's clear she must have had some injury.
(Photo is from March.)
I reached out to her original rescue for more information, and got a bunch. She'd been pulled off the streets by a kind neighbor in the fall. He kept her and her kitten in a tiny bathroom while he tried to figure out what to do. Three months later, he realized he was in over his head and surrendered the two of them to the Humane Society. They were put in the cat free-roaming room, and Maisie was known to just lie around and nap.
She was apparently very thin when he brought her in, but gained weight fast at the shelter. This continued when they moved her to the SPCA near me. By the time I rescued her, she was over 12 pounds.
Once she had full run of my apartment, things changed quickly.
She regained a lot of strength in her back legs. She became extremely playful. She went from hobbling from room to room to darting at full speed after toys. She went from needing my late cat's senior stairs to get onto shelves to leaping 4, 5 feet in the air after toys.
She flourished getting multiple small meals a day. The weight started coming off without any drastic intervention.
She got a dental done in June, and the dentist called me and told me it looked like a classic case of feline juvenile periodontal disease. She was missing a third of her teeth already and needed a third more removed, but the remaining 10 were apparently in great condition. There were no signs of stomatitis (which it originally looked to be) or FORLs.
"She may actually be younger than you think," she said.
That was three months ago. Maisie is a brand new cat now. She runs around. She loves to play. Her energy level and play drive are kitten-like. She LIVES for wrestling matches with my other cat. (He's a bit older--nearly 6--and she's more than a match for him!) You would never know this was a cat that had originally been assumed to be 10+ years old.
In fact, the vet's new estimate for her is.... 2 and a half, maybe three at the most.
(Photos below from the past month.)
She's lost a whole 6+ years! It's amazing what a stable home can do.
She was in rough shape. She'd just been spayed a month before, and had a litter of at least one kitten nine months prior. Her coat was patchy in places and fairly dull. She struggled to jump or run. To me, she looked and acted more like a senior cat than a younger adult.
I took her to the vet, who took one look in her mouth and said she had to be at least 8, if not closer to 10, due to the terrible condition of her teeth. She didn't notice any arthritis but did note some muscle wasting.
I also noticed her tail was very tapered at the end, and looking at some pictures now it's clear she must have had some injury.
(Photo is from March.)
I reached out to her original rescue for more information, and got a bunch. She'd been pulled off the streets by a kind neighbor in the fall. He kept her and her kitten in a tiny bathroom while he tried to figure out what to do. Three months later, he realized he was in over his head and surrendered the two of them to the Humane Society. They were put in the cat free-roaming room, and Maisie was known to just lie around and nap.
She was apparently very thin when he brought her in, but gained weight fast at the shelter. This continued when they moved her to the SPCA near me. By the time I rescued her, she was over 12 pounds.
Once she had full run of my apartment, things changed quickly.
She regained a lot of strength in her back legs. She became extremely playful. She went from hobbling from room to room to darting at full speed after toys. She went from needing my late cat's senior stairs to get onto shelves to leaping 4, 5 feet in the air after toys.
She flourished getting multiple small meals a day. The weight started coming off without any drastic intervention.
She got a dental done in June, and the dentist called me and told me it looked like a classic case of feline juvenile periodontal disease. She was missing a third of her teeth already and needed a third more removed, but the remaining 10 were apparently in great condition. There were no signs of stomatitis (which it originally looked to be) or FORLs.
"She may actually be younger than you think," she said.
That was three months ago. Maisie is a brand new cat now. She runs around. She loves to play. Her energy level and play drive are kitten-like. She LIVES for wrestling matches with my other cat. (He's a bit older--nearly 6--and she's more than a match for him!) You would never know this was a cat that had originally been assumed to be 10+ years old.
In fact, the vet's new estimate for her is.... 2 and a half, maybe three at the most.
(Photos below from the past month.)
She's lost a whole 6+ years! It's amazing what a stable home can do.
She is a beauty
I think it’s very hard to tell how old a cat is for sure if they have been outside for a certain length of time due to all of the health conditions that can arise.
I laughed and told her he had been outside for almost 2 years so he couldn’t be under a year old.
