Cats develop dementia in a similar way to humans with Alzheimer’s disease, leading to hopes of a breakthrough in research, according to scientists.
Experts at the University of Edinburgh carried out a post-mortem brain examination on 25 cats which had symptoms of dementia in life, including confusion, sleep disruption and an increase in vocalisation.
The team believe the discovery in cats could help them get a clearer understanding of the process, offering a valuable model for studying dementia in people.
The study, funded by Wellcome and the UK Dementia Research Institute, is published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, and included scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and California, UK Dementia Research Institute and Scottish Brain Sciences.
I had a cat with dementia when I was a kid, she didn’t make it past 7 years old. Now I have a 16yo cat who is starting to show the same signs. Today she nearly ran out of the house when I got home, and didn’t seem to recognize me. It’s rough.
She’s curled up next to me rn, but I’m still thinking those hard thoughts like when do I make the choice to put her to sleep? I’m not ready for that, maybe never will be, but she’s always been a very frightened cat and she doesn’t deserve to feel more frightened because of dementia.
If you’re afraid you’ll be unable to put her to sleep when she needs, one thing I’ve learned is that having another pet helps, it’s not substituting them, it’s having someone else to keep company when they’re gone. When I put my older dog to sleep, the one year old mut, I hugged her so much and I cried into her fur a lot, but she helped me through the pain and kept me going because I still had to take care of her
:(
:((((
