Conference misery::feline_v1

I think the record is 31 or 32, but have only the vaguest memories about
that. The oldest cat I ever met was 22 when he died, but he was no pampered
house pet. He was a scruffy black barn cat, and the only attention he got
from the ranch owners was to be neutered (which probably increased his
life span, as whole toms seldom live half that long) and to be given a
little milk at milking time. Despite all this he was a friendly fellow,
always ready to be petted. And he was *ugly* - poor guy had had a tangle
with an automobile fanbelt at an early age, and his tail looked like a
semi-straightened coat hanger, bent and practically hairless.

He died of uremic poisoning, I think; the familiar symptoms, increasing
thirst, growing lethargy, unwillingness to move. Twenty-two Wyoming winters
hadn't got him, nor had coyotes, owls, or farm implements. With a little
better care, who knows how long he might have lasted?

Of all the cats our family has had, only one has died of old age so far,
and that was a kindly little blue-point Siamese named Yum-Yum. At the end,
she was so frail that her ears felt like paper, and she weighed practically
nothing. She was twelve years old then, but if she'd been a human she would
have looked over a hundred.

All our other cats have either succumbed to illnesses or simply disappeared.
One was killed by dogs in our own backyard, and one went mad at the age of
ten or so and had to be put to sleep.

My two cats are about ten years old, and so far they're doing fine, despite
Chiun's run-ins with automobiles. Just think, if they live as long as the
old ranch cat did, I'll still have 'em when I'm 45...
                                                     
-b

Cat lives aren"t on a 7:1 ratio to human lives, as dog lives are supposed
to be (both are inaccurate; there are few fertile humans 7 years old, and
both cats and dogs can reproduce at one year or less).  Cats mature fairly 
rapidly, then drop into about a 3:1 ratio.

Morgan and Nianinne died at 15; Angelica at 18; _none_ of old age.  Morlock
died at about 5 years of age.

I once met a lady cat who I was told was 26(!) years old.  She lived in
a yarn shop, and seemed rather lethargic, though alert.  She had only one
tooth, her upper right canine, but I was told she could lick and gum down
food with no trouble.  Nice lady.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

My parents had a cat that lived to be 23.  He was a yellow tom cat.
He was in good shape and only died because he got hit by a car (what a waste
after all those years).  They have a siamese cat now 13 years old.  She
is in good shape except for arthritis in one of her front paws.

EM

Our first family cat, Tiger, lived to be 19.75 years old.  For 17 of those
years he was an indoor/outdoor suburban cat. He then moved to New York City
and became a co-op owner.  His death was due (we're pretty sure since his
last days were spent at home with no trip to the vet - the trip would have
killed him faser than whatever finally did) to advance age.  He had arthritis,
was deaf, and walked like a drunk because of a lack of muscle tone/coordination
with his hind end. Towards the end he was fairly cranky - his meow changed
to a howl, and he preferred to be within earshot of a human - better to make
one's wants known.

Josh and Becky should live to be so old!

Kathy

   There was an article not too long ago about elderly cats in CAT FANCY.
I'll have to see if I can dig it up...

    Especially indoor cats will live into their 20's.  The more time they
spend outside, the less likely there are to live that long because of Disease,
dogs,cars....  All other things being equal, contrary to what you might think,
the good old mutt is perhaps the healthiest.  Breeds that have been inbred
and encouraged to develope aesthetic rather than survival traits (for instance
the Peke-faced Persian and the Siamese) are the most frail.  Siamese in 
particular are susceptible to cold and disease.  Some books reccommend having
them vaccinated at 6 weeks rather than 8 because of this.  Some breeds that
I remember being mentioned as some of the healthier breeds are the Abysinian,
the Burmese, and British and American Shorthairs.  

    When I was growing up, our two longest lived cats were mutts,  of the
indoor/outdoor type.  Blackie lived to be 13 or so having survived at least
one occasion of being poisoned.  Licorice lived to be 15.  Both disappered,
so they have been hit by cars rather than died of old age.  Most of the other
cats we had while growing up disappeared after only a few years.  We now
suspect that a neighbor of ours may have had something to do with their
shortlife span.  (One of the many reasons, that as soon as I has cats of
my own, I decided to keep them inside.)  My parents indoor/outdoor cat is
around 10 years old and you'd never know it.  She looks and acts like she
were 2 or 3.  If she can avoid my parents nasty neighbor (and she has done
quite well at that so far) I expect she'll be around at least another 5 years
probably more.

     Our cats rang from 9 mo to 3 years old.  I expect to still have a
significant portion of them around 15-20 years from now.

tlh

I once had a siamese named Sam, that lived to be 18.  He was one of those cats
with the proverbial "9 Lives".  On two occasions he was hit by a car, but lived
He survived being shot by a BB gun and being brutally attacked by a Siberian
Husky named Kojack. (The dog took the cat's rear end in his mouth and shook
him around.  Poor Sam had two teeth marks in each leg, couldn't walk for weeks,
and never did go outside again.)  He also survived many bouts of disease.  My
mother had him put to sleep at age 18 because of failing health.

Mary

re .5:

Dogs are "mutts"; cats are "mixed breed."

Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Steve, 
       I use the term mutt in reference to felines as a compromise.  
"Alley cat" has not too pleasant connotations to it and "mixed breed" 
I find entirely too pretentious to use in reference to my clowns.  Thus I
settle for the affectionately teasing "mutt".  I could use mongrel (an indiviual
resulting from the interbreeding of diverse breeds or strains; esp: one of
unknown ancestry) but again the connotations of the word are not nice.  
The word was sufficiently apt that you understood the concept I was trying
to convey.  I will continue to use this term and you may use whatever you
like.

    Sorry to jump on you, but this reminds me a recent discussion on usenet
about the proper words for sterilization of a cat.  Someone asked a question
about getting a cat fixed and was jumped on by someone who said the "correct"
terms were neutered and spayed.  Well this brought on a whole spate of 
"The *real* correct terms are Castration and hysterectomy.." or "Ovariectomy
and orchidectomy..".  The original term was sufficient, why hassle someone
about it?

Mom to 6 feline mutts,
   tlh

    I disagree with the idea that purebreds are less healthy than their
    domestic cousins.  As a breeder of Birman cats, I have found the
    Birmans to be no less healthy than my 3 mixed breeds.
    
    On the question of longevity... one of our cats came to us as a
    stray.  He was on the brink of death and it took six months before
    he was sufficiently healthy to be introduced to the brood.  Our
    vet estimated his age (teeth and bone method) to be between 11 and
    13 years.  He is in excellent health now and I expect him to live
    for a very long time.  His age is now in the 14 to 16 range.  I
    show him as a household pet and he often takes top awards because
    of the shape he is in for his age.  We named him Jesse James because
    he had to be tough to last that long as an outdoor cat.
    
    Jo Ann
    

    We recently received some distressing news about Jesse James the
    cat I mentioned in the last reply.
    
    It seems he has a heart murmer.
    
    We found this out by accident.  I took the cats in for a health
    certificate for a cat show and the vet (who is a feline cardiologist)
    diagnosed the murmer after listening to his heart.
    
    Jesse may have had this murmer for some time.  It was very hard
    for the cardiologist to hear.  Our regular vet may not have been
    able to detect it in previous examinations.
    
    Anyway, up until this week, Jesse showed no signs of his illness.
    He has started to develop bloating in the abdomen as well as a cough.
    Both of these are symptoms of heart murmer.  He is due to go in
    for tests to determine if this murmer is a valve problem (definitely
    life threatening) or a heart wall murmer (not necessarily life
    threatening)
    
    Wish him luck.
    
    JoAnn

    JoAnn,
    
    My thoughts will be with you and Jessie....Good Luck, and please,
    let us know the results.
    
    hugs, when you sometimes need them most...
    cin
    

    Sure hope the murmur is not serious.
    My thoughts are with you both.
    
    			Debbie
    

    
    
    Only the best wishes to you and your little one.  Let us know how
    it goes, Ok?
    
    

    
    
    JO ANN
    
     If your still out there, there's a Joanne here who though a little
    late hopes Jesse's ok.
    
    Please tell       
    
    Jo
    Reading, UK

    I'll answer briefly for Jo Ann since she's still catching up on
    notes and she can add any details she wants to later.
    
    Jesse James is alive and well and living with our mom.  Although
    I'm not totally up on what his current medical condition is with
    regard to the heart murmer, I know that every time I visit my mother 
    he seems to be in great health and is very happy playing with mom's 
    two dogs, lazing in his cat tree and giving massive doses of attention 
    to all visitors.
    
    Jan
    

    Well, it is time for an update on Jesse James.  He is in fact alive
    and well and living with our mom.
    
    Last October, while I was out of town at a cat show, our cat sitter
    called in a panic because Jesse was very ill.  She rushed him to
    the vet for me, he was vomiting and having severe diarrhea.  They
    gave him a barium swallow and x-rayed him and found him to have
    some type of blockage between his stomach and intestine.  I rushed
    home, it was a four hour drive, and went straight to the vet's office.
    I called my regular vet and transfered Jesse from the emergency
    vet's office to my vet's office.  The blockage looked like it wasn't
    going to pass on it's own and surgery would be necessary to save
    his life.  
    
    I was very worried about putting him under anesthetic due to his
    advanced years and previously mentioned heart murmur.  I had the
    vet run a full blood panel on him to see how good of shape his liver
    and kidneys were in.  
    
    This is where the horror started.  Jesse liver and kidney tests
    came out okay, not good, but okay.  But the devastating thing was
    that his routine leukemia test came back POSITIVE!!!  He had been
    tested regularly for years with never a positive result.  He had
    been an indoor cat since I rescued him, about five years previously.
    
    Well, considering his advanced years, heart murmur, so-so liver
    and kidney function, and positive leukemia status, I made the very
    difficult decision not to have him undergo surgery.  Instead, Dr.
    Bahnson and I decided to take a very conservative approach to his
    treatment.  Neither of us felt that he would survive surgery.  We
    fed him large amounts of laxatone and hoped for the best.  He wouldn't
    eat for several days, but finally he started to pass the barium.
    
    He had to stay at the vets office for 3 weeks.  I couldn't bring
    him back to my house because of his positive leukemia status.  I
    never considered putting him to sleep as an option.  I knew I had
    to find him a very special home, were he would be loved as much
    as if I had him myself.  God, after all this time this story still
    chokes me up.  I finally talked my mom into taking him for me because
    time and money were running out (I couldn't keep him at the vet's
    office forever, and besides, they had to keep him in an isolation
    ward.  I visited him for a hour every day but I could tell he was
    lonely.)
    
    Mom has one other cat also.  She was a stray that adopted us about
    17 years ago when we were all still living at home.  Her name is
    Momma Kitty (funny name... she never once had kittens in all the
    time we had her).  I tested Momma Kitty and then vaccinated her
    against leukemia.  I gave my mom explicit instructions to keep them
    totally seperated at all times.
    
    Jesse and Momma Kitty are now living together in total harmony.
    They love each other very much and mom couldn't bear to keep them
    seperated.  She is aware of the risks involved in letting them be
    together.  But she thinks that since they are both getting on in
    years, it is more important that they are happy during these last
    years.
    
    Jesse still tests positive for leukemia, and Momma Kitty still tests
    negative.  Jesse shows no symptoms of his illness other than an
    occasional bout of vomiting.  He is very happy with my mom and I
    get to visit him whenever I want to.  I miss him very much.  He
    was/is the most gorgeous cat I have ever seen and he is so lovable.
    
    The vet thinks that Jesse may have been harboring the leukemia virus
    for years, and that the stress of his intestinal blockage may have
    caused him to revert to positive status.  I have talked with the
    vets at UC Davis and they concur with this explanation.  All of
    the other cats in my house were seperated for a month, then tested
    and then tested again a month after that.  I have been testing them
    at regular intervals and none of them have had a positive test.
    Jesse had a negative test just one month before all of this started
    so the vets feel that we caught it early enough and removed him
    before anyone else could be exposed.
    
    I am sorry that this is so long.  It really is a long story tho.
    
    Jo (aka Jo Ann in California)
    
    

    Whew.  So glad Jesse has a happy place to be.