Ways To Help You Cat Deal With Their Arthritis
Posted on: 14 July 2016
When you are a cat owner, your cat becomes an integral member of your family and almost like another child. As such, when they get older and begin to develop health conditions such as arthritis, you may wonder what you can and should do to help them deal with and cope with their arthritis stiffness and overall discomfort. There are many veterinary treatment options available for your arthritic cat. All you need to do is get to know some of those treatment options and work with your veterinarian to get your cat the care that they need.
Prescription Pain Medications
One of the ways that your veterinarian may recommend you treat your cat's arthritis is to give them pain medications. These medications are available through a pet pharmacy and are designed to help reduce the inflammation in your cat's joints as well as their overall pain.
Some of these medications can be crushed up and mixed into some wet cat food while others will need to be administered directly into your cat's mouth. If you have a particularly stubborn cat, the process of administering these medications may be extremely difficult and could possibly be more traumatic to your cat than the pain their arthritis causes. However, if you have had success giving your cat oral medications before, they can make a big difference in their pain levels and help them to act and feel more like themselves again.
Pet Laser Treatments
Laser treatments for pets, also often referred to as cold laser therapy, is a non-invasive treatment that can help your cat with their arthritis symptoms. This is a non-surgical treatment, meaning that the laser in question is not hot enough to cut through the skin (as it is in laser surgery) which is why it is called a cold laser.
The concentrated light energy of the laser is instead harnessed to stimulate the cells in and around your cat's arthritic joints. This will have multiple effects inside your cat's body including increased blood flow. When the blood flow increases, the cells in the area will get the nutrients from the blood that they need to fight against the inflammation and irritation in the joints.
Simultaneously, the laser will affect the nerve cells, blocking pain receptors and reducing pain signals. And, of course, laser treatments in cats can also trigger their bodies to release hormones known as endorphins which also reduce pain. These laser treatments are completely painless for your cat and can greatly increase their activity levels and overall well-being that are greatly affected by arthritis.
Now that you know a few of the treatment options available to your cat for their arthritis, you can be sure to talk to your vet and get your cat the care that they need to improve their quality of life and reduce their pain and discomfort.
For more information, contact Cherokee Hospital for Animals or a similar location.
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