4 ms·

If anyone here has any anti-aging resources for cats, I'd love to see them. I have two 9-year-old Maine Coons whom I'm supplementing with glucosamine for joint

If anyone here has any anti-aging resources for cats, I'd love to see them. I have two 9-year-old Maine Coons whom I'm supplementing with glucosamine for joint and urinary health, and wonder if there's more I could be doing. Edit: Getting some great tips on core diet and health down below! Luckily we're already doing most of those, and I guess I'm largely wondering about advancements in supplementation or preventative medicine (of course everything would have to be considered with a veterinarian). Here are other basic things we already do: * My most important thing is not giving any dry food. Especially since one of my cats is prone to urinary problems and gets sick within just a couple of weeks if given even a partially-dry diet. But even if he wasn't prone to it, with what I've learned over the years I would not feed any cat dry food. * We eat partly wet partly homemade raw (but the latter needs to come with careful research and caveats since cats have very delicate nutritional needs). * Keep water bowls away from food and switch bowls/fountain once in a while for novelty. * Indoor-only and we go for walks on a harness for enrichment when the weather is nice.

antisthenes 3y ago
Make sure they drink enough water. May have to get them a water fountain or a wider bowl, and make sure it's fresh. Aside from that, Maines are already a very long lived generally healthy breed.
- drakonka 3y ago
  Good point; despite fountains and large bowls mine tend to not drink much except when the male is on urinary-specific food that ups his thirst (he was sick as a kitten which made him prone to urinary issues). I've read that cats in general don't tend to naturally drink much and are more used to getting moisture from their food. So I make sure they only eat wet and raw food, which provides extra moisture.
post_break 3y ago
Raw food is the biggest thing. One of our cats has IBD and was about to be put down, raw food completely reversed it and now he’s better than before with no signs of slowing down.
- drakonka 3y ago
  Good call. Mine eat a mix of homemade raw and commercial high-protein wet.
DanHulton 3y ago
I just wrote a comment above, but I wanna make sure you don't miss it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38601677 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38601677
- drakonka 3y ago
  Thanks for posting this. Mine don't have OA (that I know of or see symptoms of, at least), but I know joint issues are common in larger breeds like Maine Coons. I'll definitely ask my vet about this if the time comes (since this seems like more of a pain-relief thing rather than a prevention method?) So glad your cat is happy and pain-free!
ornornor 3y ago
We just lost our cat last week. She was 18 and got a tumor in her nose which became too big. Her kidneys were mostly fine and it wasn’t a concern the last time we checked (about 6 months ago) I think she lived so long because she was allergic to most commercially available food (chicken and beef allergy) so we had to feed her higher quality food with 95+% meat. We also put her water in a different spot or the house (cats hate drinking where they eat, the smell of food near water makes them think it’s unsafe to drink so they’ll drink much less of it) She was an indoors only cat for the last 10 years of her life after some crazy junky partially shaved her. If we ever get over the pain and get a new cat, I’d do it all over again: - high quality, 95+% meat food (dry and wet, the cat picks whenever she’s hungry) - indoors only (no crazy people, no antifreeze, no cars, no cats/animals fights) - water bowl far away from food bowls Not a miracle recipe, but she was older than any other cat I’ve known.
- drakonka 3y ago
  Thank you, these are great tips. Sorry for your loss, sounds like you gave her a long and happy life. Luckily I already do all of these! (Except for dry food; we do wet and raw only here)
  - ornornor 3y ago
    Thanks. It’s hard for people who haven’t gone through it to understand the pain it can cause. But even then, euthanasia is an act of compassion no matter how difficult it is rather than letting the animal suffer and slowly die. For dry food, vets told us some cats like it better but it also helps with oral health as it removes some of the plaque by friction and keeps the gums healthier by stimulating ligaments holding the teeth from the crunching.
    - drakonka 3y ago
      I have not yet had to go through it myself, but came very close when one of my cats nearly died as a kitten. The experience affected me permanently and I get a little more anxious with every year that they get older. From what I understand the plaque thing with dry food is a bit of a myth. After all, we don't brush our teeth by eating crackers. So I brush their teeth with a toothbrush and enzymatic toothpaste instead! For stimulating ligaments, that's really interesting. I feed largely a (balanced) homemade raw diet alongside commercial wet and suspect/hope having them chew through solid chunks of raw muscle meat would achieve a similar effect.

antisthenes 3y ago

Make sure they drink enough water. May have to get them a water fountain or a wider bowl, and make sure it's fresh. Aside from that, Maines are already a very long lived generally healthy breed.

drakonka 3y ago
Good point; despite fountains and large bowls mine tend to not drink much except when the male is on urinary-specific food that ups his thirst (he was sick as a kitten which made him prone to urinary issues). I've read that cats in general don't tend to naturally drink much and are more used to getting moisture from their food. So I make sure they only eat wet and raw food, which provides extra moisture.

post_break 3y ago

Raw food is the biggest thing. One of our cats has IBD and was about to be put down, raw food completely reversed it and now he’s better than before with no signs of slowing down.

drakonka 3y ago
Good call. Mine eat a mix of homemade raw and commercial high-protein wet.

DanHulton 3y ago

I just wrote a comment above, but I wanna make sure you don't miss it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38601677 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38601677

drakonka 3y ago
Thanks for posting this. Mine don't have OA (that I know of or see symptoms of, at least), but I know joint issues are common in larger breeds like Maine Coons. I'll definitely ask my vet about this if the time comes (since this seems like more of a pain-relief thing rather than a prevention method?) So glad your cat is happy and pain-free!

ornornor 3y ago

We just lost our cat last week. She was 18 and got a tumor in her nose which became too big. Her kidneys were mostly fine and it wasn’t a concern the last time we checked (about 6 months ago) I think she lived so long because she was allergic to most commercially available food (chicken and beef allergy) so we had to feed her higher quality food with 95+% meat. We also put her water in a different spot or the house (cats hate drinking where they eat, the smell of food near water makes them think it’s unsafe to drink so they’ll drink much less of it) She was an indoors only cat for the last 10 years of her life after some crazy junky partially shaved her. If we ever get over the pain and get a new cat, I’d do it all over again: - high quality, 95+% meat food (dry and wet, the cat picks whenever she’s hungry) - indoors only (no crazy people, no antifreeze, no cars, no cats/animals fights) - water bowl far away from food bowls Not a miracle recipe, but she was older than any other cat I’ve known.

drakonka 3y ago
Thank you, these are great tips. Sorry for your loss, sounds like you gave her a long and happy life. Luckily I already do all of these! (Except for dry food; we do wet and raw only here)
- ornornor 3y ago
  Thanks. It’s hard for people who haven’t gone through it to understand the pain it can cause. But even then, euthanasia is an act of compassion no matter how difficult it is rather than letting the animal suffer and slowly die. For dry food, vets told us some cats like it better but it also helps with oral health as it removes some of the plaque by friction and keeps the gums healthier by stimulating ligaments holding the teeth from the crunching.
  - drakonka 3y ago
    I have not yet had to go through it myself, but came very close when one of my cats nearly died as a kitten. The experience affected me permanently and I get a little more anxious with every year that they get older. From what I understand the plaque thing with dry food is a bit of a myth. After all, we don't brush our teeth by eating crackers. So I brush their teeth with a toothbrush and enzymatic toothpaste instead! For stimulating ligaments, that's really interesting. I feed largely a (balanced) homemade raw diet alongside commercial wet and suspect/hope having them chew through solid chunks of raw muscle meat would achieve a similar effect.