Cats of all abilities can live a good life with proper care. Here I share about Miss Kitty and the adaptations I’ve made for her.
You see it all when you work in animal shelters. Every breed and color of dog and cat, all ages and body types including some that are unusual! One day in San Martin, CA we took in two kittens, a tortie female and a black male, with limb abnormalities.
The male’s front paws looked like the claws of a crab. His hind legs and the rest of him were normal, and he was adopted quickly. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of him because this was a long time ago.
The female’s differences were greater. Her front paws were missing some digits, and two of the toes and nails were fused together. Her hind legs look like they are on backwards, with her paws bent and inflexible at the hock. Other than that she was healthy, but adopters passed her up. I sat in my office as the shelter supervisor looking at her adorable face in the cage, watching as she reached out to visitors with her tiny paws, to no avail.
Fortunately, I was able to find a foster home for her so she could at least get out of the shelter. As often happens, the foster mom fell in love and decided to keep her. She called her Miss Kitty. All was well until several years later when her life changed and she was unable to keep her. The adoption business is full of surprises, and that includes sometimes being reunited with old feline friends. So it was that Miss Kitty came to live with me.
Her owner of several years brought her to me with a special litter box and diet. She had done her best to keep her comfortable and healthy in her unique body. These are the things I want to talk about today.
As the owner of a disabled pet, you will need to make some adjustments to keep your unique companion happy. I will share Miss Kitty’s story and I would love to hear about your pets in the comments. Here is a list of common things you will need to be aware of.
Housing/accessibility
The first order of business in caring for any pet is housing. If your pet has mobility issues there are steps you can take to make it easier for them. Miss Kitty can walk, but she is essentially walking on her knees so she needs a soft, grippy surface.
As a multi pet owner, wall to wall carpeting just doesn’t work for me. I have vinyl floors that are easy to clean, but they are of course hard and slippery. I have used a few different floor coverings over the years, but lately I discovered full-size area rugs that are machine washable! Miss Kitty can walk across the vinyl floor, but give her a rug and she will walk around a lot more and lie down in places other than her bed.
Another housing factor for a disabled pet is proximity to other pets. Animals are not necessarily nice to other animals, especially when they seem weak. The other day I caught one of the black kittens, Mac, picking on old Elf. For this reason it is important to give pets who can’t fight back or run away a safe place to hang out.
Because Miss Kitty can’t jump, I set her up in my spare bedroom/office. I gave her a bed, her special low-sided litter box, and her food on the floor. I put a pet gate in the doorway to keep dogs out or the food would have been eaten in seconds … as well as the contents of the litter box! The dog door has an opening for cats to go in and out so she could leave the room, but she doesn’t because she is more comfortable in her own space.
Toilet
Miss Kitty seemed to be using her litter box at first, but after a while she started using her bedding. I’m unsure if she is actually incontinent as part of her disability, or if it was just too much trouble to climb into the box. In any case, I had to adapt to this preference. I bought a bunch of easily washable cat beds and incontinence pads and just change them out daily.
At first I was using washable pads to produce less trash, but I found that they smell bad – and I don’t need any more odor in a house full of cats – and were wasting a lot of water and electricity in the laundry. I switched to disposable puppy pads with carbon and they are working much better for me. They have much better odor control and are thin and don’t take up a lot of room in the garbage can.
Grooming
Disabled cats can have difficulty grooming. Miss Kitty does clean herself, but she can’t reach all of her parts and so gets a buildup of fur. If you’ve ever had an old cat who stopped grooming, you are aware of the colossal amount of fur they produce! Without regular brushing, they will become dirty and matted, even with short hair.
A furminator-type brush is ideal for a shorthair cat. It removes copious amounts of dead fur and can be used daily. A slicker is good for finishing, and a comb is good for removing tangles.
Never use scissors to remove tangles or mats! If your cat will tolerate it, you can use a small clipper for pets or for men’s beards to remove small mats. If your cat won’t tolerate this or is matted all over, just take them to the vet where they can be sedated and safely clipped down. Then you can start over with regular brushing to prevent it happening again.
Because Miss Kitty uses her bedding for a toilet, she also gets smelly. For that problem I bought these cat wipes and use them to freshen her up after brushing. If you use something like this, I recommend you buy one specifically for cats because cats lick themselves. The ones commonly available for babies or for household cleaning may contain ingredients toxic to cats.
Another grooming factor is nail trimming. Most cats need their nails trimmed unless they are very active outside, but an elderly or disabled cat can grow very long nails. Miss Kitty hates nail trimming so I have to fool her (see demonstration in the video above). I keep the clippers on my desk and at a random time, pull them out while she’s in my lap. If she sees me coming with nail clippers she will hiss at me and run away.
So it’s a good idea to check your cat’s nails at least once a month, especially if they are indoor only or inactive.
Food and water
It goes without saying that your cat will need access to food and water. When I brought Miss Kitty home, her former owner gave me the food she was eating. It was soft moist, the kind you get in the refrigerator section of the pet store. Miss Kitty also has a pretty pronounced overbite, so she felt she could eat this food more easily than canned or kibble. So the type of food will be one factor in keeping your disabled kitty healthy.
The other important factor is location. Since Miss Kitty can’t jump, her food and water are kept on the floor in her room. There are also several other feeding stations for my other cats. In any multi-cat household you want to have different locations for food, water, and litter so the cats don’t bully and fight. This is important for any cat, but especially for one who isn’t strong or mobile. If they can’t get to their food or have to fight off other cats, they won’t eat.
Companionship
Aside from basic bodily needs, disabled cats also need companionship. Although they aren’t pack animals like dogs, they are social to some extent. Many enjoy the company of another cat and most enjoy the company of their person.
It is easy for a disabled cat to become isolated because they can’t run around the house or because the other cats avoid them or pick on them. Setting up my office in the spare bedroom where Miss Kitty lives works well for both of us. She likes to just hang out while I work on articles and videos, and when she wants to sit in my lap she taps me with her paws and I pick her up.
We both lucked out when Mini came into our lives. I found Mini as a tiny kitten outside a pet sitting client’s home. To keep her safe I put her in my office and closed the door. She immediately bonded with Miss Kitty who hissed and looked horrified at first, then accepted her little friend. Now a year later they snuggle and spend a lot of time together, and I think it improves Miss Kitty’s quality of life.
Conclusion
Do you have a disabled cat? I would love to hear about him or her in the video comments. You can also email me at info@firststreetpets.com.