Hi all...
My cat Mike was diagnosed recently with what the vet described as "kitty Parkinson's". I am somewhat acquainted with Parkinson's in humans, having worked in a nursing home, but am somewhat at a loss to know what to expect with Mike.
A few years ago he started walking a little funny. Then came mild tremors. His hindquarters are most severely affected in that his back half will sometimes fall over when he walks. He can no longer run, and lost his tail a year and a half ago to a raccoon attack. He can still jump up onto my recliner, enabling him to climb onto my bed, but he can't jump onto the bed from the floor. He leaves the bed by the same route, but when he jumps to the floor from the chair he sometimes tumbles.
He is between 10 and 15 years old; having adopted him as a stray some eight years ago I really don't know, and he isn't telling. I carry him up and down the stairs as it is too painful for me to watch him laboriously climb up or tumble down; in short, I am spoiling him absolutely rotten. He can still feed himself and climb in and out of the litter box, though I will soon have to get one with lower sides.
My question is about the progression of the disease, and at what point will I have to put him down. He seems otherwise perfectly healthy and could live for many years. Does anyone here have experience with this?
(In the last 11 years I have lost one cat to kidney disease, one cat to liver cancer, plus two cats and a parent to old age.)
Thanks,
Fred Latchaw
Seattle
My cat Mike was diagnosed recently with what the vet described as "kitty Parkinson's". I am somewhat acquainted with Parkinson's in humans, having worked in a nursing home, but am somewhat at a loss to know what to expect with Mike.
A few years ago he started walking a little funny. Then came mild tremors. His hindquarters are most severely affected in that his back half will sometimes fall over when he walks. He can no longer run, and lost his tail a year and a half ago to a raccoon attack. He can still jump up onto my recliner, enabling him to climb onto my bed, but he can't jump onto the bed from the floor. He leaves the bed by the same route, but when he jumps to the floor from the chair he sometimes tumbles.
He is between 10 and 15 years old; having adopted him as a stray some eight years ago I really don't know, and he isn't telling. I carry him up and down the stairs as it is too painful for me to watch him laboriously climb up or tumble down; in short, I am spoiling him absolutely rotten. He can still feed himself and climb in and out of the litter box, though I will soon have to get one with lower sides.
My question is about the progression of the disease, and at what point will I have to put him down. He seems otherwise perfectly healthy and could live for many years. Does anyone here have experience with this?
(In the last 11 years I have lost one cat to kidney disease, one cat to liver cancer, plus two cats and a parent to old age.)
Thanks,
Fred Latchaw
Seattle
