Feline osteoarthritis affects the majority of cats over 12 years old, yet it is dramatically under-diagnosed and under-treated. Cats conceal pain as a survival instinct, making recognition challenging without specific training in feline pain indicators.
Cats with chronic osteoarthritis pain experience daily suffering that owners and vets frequently miss because cats do not cry or whimper when in pain. Instead, they reduce activity, avoid climbing, groom less thoroughly, and become less interactive — changes owners often attribute to normal ageing. The welfare cost of systematic under-treatment is enormous: millions of cats living in treatable pain because the signs are missed. Validated pain assessment tools including the Feline Grimace Scale and Mobility Impairment Index give owners and vets objective ways to identify and monitor pain. Frunevetmab, an anti-NGF monoclonal antibody given monthly by injection, provides excellent pain control with minimal side effects.