Cats in their senior years (15+) have specific welfare requirements including regular health monitoring, pain management, and environmental adaptation; proactive geriatric care significantly improves quality of life.
Geriatric cat welfare requires the highest level of proactive monitoring and management. Multiple concurrent age-related conditions that interact and compound require integrated management rather than treatment of each in isolation. The reduced mobility of arthritic geriatric cats creates secondary welfare problems including reduced grooming, difficulty accessing litter trays, and challenges reaching elevated food and water sources. Environmental adaptation that meets the reduced mobility of geriatric cats is as important as medical management.