“Just get them through the winter,” my vet told me when I recently took one of my furry dears in for arthritis pain.
Winter, even in the gentle weather of Los Angeles County, is hard on older pets. As soon as it starts to get cold, he said, patients bring him their arthritic pets in droves. “Even if it feels warm to us, they know it’s winter.”
His simplest remedy is doing so well for all of my pets that I must share it: keep them warm. Day and Night.
An electric blanket, my vet counseled, is perfect for night. Toss it over your pet’s sleeping area. Make sure it’s the type that will stay on at a very low setting all night (some switch off after only an hour).
I’ve tried many, many things and continue to explore ways to make my best friends comfortable. The electric blanket has afforded them most dramatic relief.
Have you found arthritis remedies that work?
da-AL is a soon-to-be self-published novelist. For more about her and her writing, visit her blog: HappinessBetweenTails.com
But, I like to be their electric blanket! Cheers,H?
haha – all the better! & they’re yours too, no?
One of my friends came up with a great solution that worked for her cat. There was a chair in her living room that he liked and she attached a task by lamp and every time he sat there she turned it on. It wasn’t long till he got the picture and slept there all the time. It has to be the incandescent type bulb that gives off heat which are hard to find these days but it worked for them at the time. You may have more luck finding an electric blanket. But it’s worth a try. Tootsie Bear highly recommended it.
great clever trick! thanks for sharing, mvaden1948 🙂
Our last cat loves heat but we also give her a tiny dose of Gabapentin which seems to really help with her arthritis.
haven’t heard of that – interesting 🙂
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many thanks for posting this — a happy 2018 to all 🙂
Yes, the task lamp was my arthritic cat’s favorite! Only his buddy was always trying to budge him out of it. Currently no one in the house has arthritis but they all love a donut-shaped cat bed right by the baseboard register. We call it “Heatybed.”
The best thing for my old guy (we lost him in 2009 at age 19)
https://sledpress.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/the-best-cat-in-the-world/
was veterinary acupuncture. I miss the vet, who retired shortly after Apricat Beezler left us, because he would come to the house; I don’t think it would have worked if a trip was involved. But Apricat would sit peacefully on my lap stuck full of needles for a quarter hour and it helped his arthritis, his skin irritations and his kidneys too. We never put away the lamp though.