Pablo's Aching Joints

When I was visiting my in-laws over the Thanksgiving holidays, I of course wanted to check over their way cool cat, Pablo. Both of Michael's parents are artists, so it has been a tradition in the family to have cats with artist names. One I fondly remember who resided at their art gallery and motel was a beautiful brown striped Norwegian Forest-type cat named Toulouse. She would often stay overnight with guests of the motel, and regulars would even call ahead to "reserve" her. She was a great cat.

Pablo is a sleek, black, very solid boy with some sprinkling of gray hairs and whiskers telling his age a bit. I noticed he was pointing his left front leg when standing still and was a bit hesitant to jump on and off the kitchen counter where he has access to a window that his mom props open for him. It looked like he had to take time to "plan" his jump; I thought he was reluctant because the action he had done multiple times a day for 10-plus years had taken its toll on his joints. Like I said, he is a very solid cat, and all that weight pounding on his joints over and over throughout his life now seemed to hurt him.

Pablo's mom had seen subtle signs of him "slowing down" recently; she had placed a stepping stool next to the counter so he didn't have as far to go in one leap. Now he could stage each jump into two smaller steps. She hadn't noticed the "pointing" of his front leg that I showed her-a symptom of some pain in his shoulder, and this was confirmed when I examined him. He was fine when I palpated his elbows and right shoulder, but REALLY objected to that left shoulder being flexed and extended. I didn't have my x-ray machine at hand, darn it, but I felt confident in my "rule-outs" for his condition. Pablo was likely suffering from osteoarthritis or degenerative joint disease.

We all know how "fun" it can be to medicate cats. It isn't just the physical action of getting a pill into a cat that makes medicating cats a challenge. The metabolism of a cat is different from other species and can be very sensitive to drugs we consider benign or safe. A single Tylenol, for example, can kill a cat. Their kidneys just can't handle many NSAIDs such as aspirin, at least when given at common intervals like we give humans or even dogs. Since I also didn't happen to bring my blood analyzing machine with me on vacation, Pablo's organ function was unknown to me. Fortunately, I had some experience with a product that might help him with out being harmful to his aging organs. It also comes in a formulation that actually tastes good to cats, too!
Cosequin is a nutritional supplement containing glucosamine, chondroitin and manganese-ingredients shown to support and maintain joint health. I love this particular formulation because it is a capsule that can be opened up-the powder inside is fish flavored. Our hospital cat, Noodles, actually chews up her capsule to get to the tasty powder inside!

I have quite a few of my older cat patients on nothing but Cosequin for their early "arthritis" symptoms, including Spencer, my sister Teresa's handsome companion. Some will eventually need more for pain management, and we will work on multi-modal analgesia (as we have discussed before) when that time comes. Weight loss and controlled exercise is just as important as it is in humans and dogs, but can be more difficult to implement (of course, we are talking about cats, after all!) Physical therapy and alternative treatments such as acupuncture have had varying success in cats, but it is often suprising how tolerant they can be of some of these things, even underwater treadmills and passive range-of-motion exercises.

When I got back to the hospital on Tuesday, I packed up a box of Cosequin and sent it off to Pablo. I hope he likes it and I hope it works to give him some relief from his apparent aching joints. If not, I'll make sure his mom gets him in to see their local veterinarian for some blood work and x-rays to see if it is safe (and appropriate) to get him started on an occasional "cat-friendly" NSAID such as Metacam (meloxicam.) Then again, maybe NOT jumping on kitchen counters is a good thing??? Nah.....

Peace,
DrReneigh