Are stairs good for cats with arthritis?

Hi Friends,

My 15yr old has been diagnosed with arthritis (she was actually diagnosed 3yrs ago).  I've been adding Cosequin to her food for the past 3yrs and have made adjustments around the house to help (pet stairs, memory foam mattress) and I've tried laser therapy.  My vet didn't want to try Adequan because she said that she hasn't seen much improvement in her feline patients on Adequan.  

I'm relocating for work and potentially moving into a furnished unit that is unfortunately 2 stories.  The floors are hardwood, so I'll put carpeted stair treads on the stairs so that her paws have something to grip if she attempts ascending/descending the stairs.  

I live in a 2-story place now, but I work from home so whenever she wants to come upstairs, she sits at the bottom of the stairs and meows for an "elevator ride".  

With my new job, I'll be working in an office so I won't be home to help her, except when I come home at lunch to give her food. 

I've heard that people who have arthritis should attempt to try to stay in motion as much as possible to prevent the arthritis from worsening. Is this the same for cats?  I'm not sure if I'm hurting her by potentially *making* her climb stairs, or if I should be encouraging her to stay in motion to prevent the worsening?

I've asked many vets and they can't give me a direct answer unfortunately. Some say that motion is good, some say that once the arthritis has reached the point that it hurts her, they should no longer try.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I can only speak from personal experience.

1.) I would give Adequan a try. I used it the last year I had my Lucky and I DID notice some improvement. I later added Onsior (used off label) and Bulrenex for breakthrough pain.

2.) As Lucky's arthritis became worse, he simply chose to not go up and down stairs unless he really had to/wanted to. I certainly would not have made him use the stairs more. He had access to everything he needed on the top level of the house (3 floors) and was happy sleeping on his bed in front of an air vent most of the day.

(I do want to mention that Lucky's death had nothing to do with arthritis nor kidney issues from the use of Onsior, which I used for about 2 years.)

I guess I would suggest that you provide your kitty a litter box, water bowl and bed/blanket on each level that way she can decide where she wants to spend her time.

I guess I might suggest you keeping a diary of sorts to monitor your cat's activity/pain level. See how she does with 2 weeks or so or encouraged activity verses 2 weeks of self-regulated activity. See if you notice a difference.

If you see her struggling to go up and down the stairs, I simply wouldn't push it.

I would rather see her using the stairs then trying to jump.  (I know, she couldn't jump up the stairs....let me explain)

While we live in a bi-level, our BooBoo now uses stairs to get up on the bed. We bought a small set of stairs for him. He is 19+ years old, was diagnosed with really bad arthritis about 18 months ago and has been taking Dasuquin since his diagnosis. He will try to jump to back of the sofa, he will still try to jump to the windows in the house, he will still try to do those things, even though it's not good for him and even though in many ways it causes him even more pain. If he jumps from the window to the floor and lands awkwardly, we make emergency runs to the vet for pain shots and meds. But he is who he is and he won't stop doing those things. He does use the steps to get to the bed and he will use them to get off the bed, too. And that didn't take long at all for him to figure out that it was a lot easier to use the steps than it was to jump. (We can't put any steps at the bay window in the living room because we'd have to put the steps right up against the heating register....not a good idea. But he can go from the cat tree to the window, so that's not too bad.) And there are times when he'll tell us that he wants down on the floor, but he can't do it alone. And we help him.

So....as a mom of a kitty with bad arthritis, I would say that, whenever you can, carry her up and down the steps. It's just better for her in the long run. Chances are that when you're at work, she probably won't do much on her own, but that depends on her pain level. There are days when Boo does pretty much what he wants; however, there are days when he spends hours laying on a warm pad because he hurts. So chances are that, as the arthritis progresses, she will start spending her time on the lower floor, esp when you're not there with her. When you go upstairs, take her with you (along with some snacks, water, litter box, etc. so she doesn't have to go downstairs in the middle of the night). So if you work upstairs, she'll want to come, too. Take her along. Nothing wrong with those elevator rides at all. Boo is to the point where when he comes to bed, he's pretty much there for the rest of the night and some mornings, I carry him out to the kitchen for breakfast. He wants to be with us and, if that means, we carry him, well, that's what we do.

That's probably not a good answer for you, but honestly, it's the best answer I can come up with.

When my kitty Tiger started having difficulty getting up on my bed I made stairs for her rather than having her jump. However, I live in a split level house, and when I noticed she had trouble getting downstairs, I knew that the longer set of stairs were getting harder for her. (she was 17)   I looked into getting this made: http://www.petclassics.com/Bed-Ramps-For-Pets/climber-slope-pet-ramp.73.html or something like the ramps on this page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kool-Kitty-Toys/1529498480620428

You might consider asking your vet about a product called Duralactin;I know of two people who use it for their arthritic  kitties with good results. Mine could not have it as her calcium level was borderline high.  Also ask about supplementing fish oil/omega 3 and accupressure.