Natural Aging

Studying the physical aspects of aging, Professor Jacob Mosier at Kansas State University found significant changes in the brain.

In its prime, a cat depends on its swift mental and physical reflexes for survival. Messages travel along its nerves at approximately 6,560 yd (6,000 m) per second. With aging this slows down to as little as 1,420 yd (1,300 m) per second.

At the same time blood vessels, including those in the lungs and the brain, lose their elasticity. Oxygen exchange in the lungs becomes less efficient, and as a result the brain receives less oxygen, affecting memory and learning.

At the University of California, Professor Ben Hart has studied the behavioral consequences of aging changes to feline design. He found that cats experience changes similar to those that we undergo, including the changes that in humans produce senile dementia.

He found that while cats may live 20 years or more, loss of some brain function is natural by 16 years of age. Age-related behavior changes may include increased irritability, increased hissing and spitting, sleeping pattern changes, loss of toilet habits, and disorientation.

He found that by 16 years of age, 70 per cent of pet cats become disorientated, forgetting how to use a cat-flap or simply staring into space; 60 per cent are more irritable with members of their human family, with strangers, and even with family dogs, hissing or spitting with little or no provocation. Seemingly pointless, plaintive meowing tends to increase.

About 25 per cent of elderly cats change their cycles of sleeping and waking, sleeping more in the day and less at night when they are more restless and demanding of their owners. An additional 20 per cent develop toileting problems for no apparent medical reasons