Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Pookey and I just got back from the vet for his six month check-up and everything was GREAT. Blood, urine work-ups showed all values in the normal range. Not bad for a 17 year old (17 in August).

He does still get 1/4 a Cyproheptadine every other day to help his appetite, but he's maintaining a good weight -- was even up a quarter of a pound...

He's feeling his oats, too. He came out of his carrier and sat alongside of me at the vets on a bench as dogs passed right by him... Normally he stays in the carrier. He was lounging on the bench watching the world go by...
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

This is wonderful Tammy! It may even be some kind of record

WTG Pookey!

PHKitkat

That is wonderful. Good job Pookey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-----
Tessa Onyx, Foudini, Charlee, Spottie, ShyRaven, Buddy, Tuxie, Widdle Attila Sipowitz, Lizzie, Minnie, ET, Mylo,(We be house cats at last), and Salem, Wicca and Marmalade (We iz also house cats, we guess)and the 5 porch kits also Riley da goggie and Buddha da baby hamster too
Tabitha and Samantha..always in our hearts//Fly free Penny 12/12/07
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

My Aunt's cat lived to 24... My Uncle's to 19...

16-18 years is average for an indoor only cat and Pookey will probably be on borrowed time before long. The vet and I agreed something will probably show in the next year or two we'll have to deal with. She said he's about past the danger range to worry about Tyroid much anymore. Kidney is one of the top problems in older cats, if not the top, but he is still eating the KD (prescription Kidney Food) we started Stanley (and Pookey since I couldn't feed separate) on 3 years ago.

We just shake our head because they were from the same litter and Stanley unfortuantely had about every significant problem a Senior Cat gets the last couple years of his life -- brain swelling, kidney disease, severe anemia, total blindness (cataracts), recurring constipation problems, and starting thyroid problems when we lost him at 16 last August.

Aside from losing his leg to the Rabies Shot induced tumor (man-made problem) at age 12.5, Pookey's never had more than a Urinary Tract Infection. Probably in part from all the actions taken for his brother I could safely also use on Pookey as prevention.

Quite a blessing...
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

My Onyx just turned 21 years old last week. Her only health problem is arthritis and old cat fur. She weighs 5.4 lbs (was never a very large cat) and only has 3 teeth left but she eats everything that doesn't eat her first. I don't think she hears as well as she used to, but she knows when I am fixing food in the kitchen and she knows when it is something that she might want. She rules over the other 19 cats with an iron paw and they are mostly terrified of her. She loves the dryer and sleeps on it when it is running and will knock another cat off there or off my bed whenever she feels like it. Foudini is the only one that is really close to her, so is allowed to share her dryer with her and sometimes they are not so close depending on the old Queen of the World's mood. The only problem that Onyx has ever had in 21 years was a pyometria when she was 9 years old. And an URI after the surgery for the pyo.

-----
Tessa Onyx, Foudini, Charlee, Spottie, ShyRaven, Buddy, Tuxie, Widdle Attila Sipowitz, Lizzie, Minnie, ET, Mylo,(We be house cats at last), and Salem, Wicca and Marmalade (We iz also house cats, we guess)and the 5 porch kits also Riley da goggie and Buddha da baby hamster too
Tabitha and Samantha..always in our hearts//Fly free Penny 12/12/07
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

My Onyx just turned 21 years old last week. Her only health problem is arthritis and old cat fur..

====

What WONDERFUL news!! I hear the record is low 30s for a cat. They did a special in Cat Fancy a few years ago and I was amazed at the 18 and 19 year old cats, and then I turned the page. Many cats in their lower 20s and still going! And some in their upper 20s and this one in his low 30s. He passed away within a year of that (I think at age 32 or something) and they did a special. Poor dear was a Sphynx so he wasn't the most lovely to start with, imagine his many years as an old toothless hairless cat, LOL! He was a sweetie.

Pookey is also facing arthritis and old cat fur. I am combing him out regularly to help him with the dry fur and mats that now want to pop up. He has arthritis due to only having one back leg. To compensate, he has to position it differently than if he had two rear legs. So, his lower back and hip have arthritis. What medications to you give Onyx, if you give any... Right now, since he is doing so well and we want to keep him eating without stress (meds stress him), we are just keeping an eye on him. He isn't jumping like he used to, but still jumps on the bed and couch to favorite places. Once he stops doing that or show other signs of slowing down more than now, we'll start meds. Right now, he has me trained. In the evening, he meows at the end of the bed for me to lift him up. Most other times he jumps himself, but his range is diminishing.
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

Onyx isn't on any meds. She hates taking meds and she bites. She can still get up wherever she wants to be but sometimes she wants me to lift her up on the dryer. She loves the dryer when it is running. There is a step-stool next to it so she jumps on that and then to the dryer. As for the bed, I have a dressing bench at the foot of it, so she jumps on that and then climbs on to the bed.
-----
Tessa Onyx, Foudini, Charlee, Spottie, ShyRaven, Buddy, Tuxie, Widdle Attila Sipowitz, Lizzie, Minnie, ET, Mylo,(We be house cats at last), and Salem, Wicca and Marmalade (We iz also house cats, we guess)and the 5 porch kits also Riley da goggie and Buddha da baby hamster too
Tabitha and Samantha..always in our hearts//Fly free Penny 12/12/07
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

Great to hear that he is doing so well.
-----
Boris's Human, Pam