Has She Stopped Climbing Because of Her Age? X-rays of 100 Cats Over 12

Last updated: August 15, 2026

Age may not be the whole of it. In radiographs from 100 cats over the age of 12, joint changes showed in 90 — while only 4 had an owner concern recorded in the chart. Showing up on film and being in pain are still not the same thing.

Of 100 cats over 12, 90 had signs of worn or deformed joints
Only 4 had "slowing down" or "limping" recorded
A separate study of 100 cats aged six and over: 61% in at least one joint, 48% in two or more
Cats rarely show it by limping; it appears first as hesitating to jump up

An older cat stops jumping onto the chair or the bed. She spends more of the day curled up asleep. What gets read as her settling down is sometimes a story about her body.

Articles about joints in cats often cite a figure of "nine in ten senior cats." Tracing where it comes from, we found a 4 sitting next to that 90.

What gets said

"Almost all senior cats have arthritis." You see it in descriptions of supplements and therapeutic diets for cats. As a number, it traces back to research done in the United States in the 1990s.

What usually gets dropped is the rest of the sentence: that almost none of it had been noticed, and that appearing on a radiograph is not the same as being in pain. Both are the parts an owner needs in order to decide what to watch for at home.

How the study was built

Researchers went back through radiographs from 100 cats over the age of 12 that had been brought to a veterinary practice. One assessor graded the degree of change joint by joint.

A retrospective study works backward through records that already exist rather than collecting new ones. It gathers numbers quickly, at the cost of any control over why those animals came to the clinic. Skew enters the group that results.

So these were not healthy cats gathered up and photographed. They are records of cats who came in for some reason, which means the figures do not represent all cats living at home. That belongs up front.

What keeps the study in circulation is that, for the same 100 cats, it set what appeared on film beside what was written in the chart. A study that counts only one of those never finds the gap.

The numbers

Joint changes in 90

Of the 100 cats, 90 showed signs of joints that had worn or deformed. The findings were reported most often at the shoulder, elbow, hip, and the joint corresponding to the heel.

These are the large joints close to the trunk rather than the ends of the limbs — and they are also the ones least visible as a disturbance in how a cat walks.

Four had been noticed

Looking at the charts for those same 100 cats, only 4 had an owner report of "slowing down" or "limping" on record.

What was found in 100 cats over the age of 12
What was looked at	Number
Joint changes visible on radiograph	90 cats
Concern about movement recorded in the chart	4 cats

The gap between what was on the film and what was in the chart is 90 against 4.

Six in ten even from age six

Another study looked at a slightly younger group. Among 100 cats aged six and over, 61% had changes in at least one joint and 48% in two or more. It is a clue that this does not begin suddenly in old age.

Why it goes unnoticed

A dog may show it plainly, by limping or yelping. Veterinary guidance agrees that cats tend not to. What appears instead is hesitation before jumping up, and shorter jumps.

In a report on 28 cats with joint disease, close to three quarters were reluctant to jump up and two thirds were not jumping as far. It shows in height and distance, not in gait.

And the change is slow. The family who sees the cat every day is the least likely to catch that difference. Routing via a slightly lower surface, or moving her bed from the upper shelf to the lower one, can look like a cat becoming mellow. What reads as settling down with age is sometimes the body changing.

What is not known

Appearing on a radiograph and being in pain are not the same thing. Ninety cats with visible changes does not mean ninety cats living in suppressed pain. Radiographic findings and how much a given cat is suffering are known not to line up reliably.

This is also a look back at records of cats brought to a clinic. It is not a random sample of cats doing well at home, so stating flatly that "nine in ten senior cats have arthritis" stretches it. Cited accurately, the number comes with its preface: among cats over 12 brought to a veterinary practice.

The four chart entries can be read two ways as well. The owners may not have noticed, or they may have noticed and not raised it because they had come in for something else. What the chart holds is the number four, and nothing about which.

The gap of 90 against 4 stands either way. Something findable was almost never being discussed.

What this study is good for

Watch height, not gait

At home, watch height rather than the way she walks. No longer getting up to a place she always used, or adding an intermediate step, is something only the owner can see.

These changes are described as useful signals too:

Her sleeping spot has moved from an upper shelf to a lower one
She is more careful about jumping down than she used to be
She now reaches high places by way of furniture in between
There is a place she does not want touched

How to describe it at the clinic

"She has stopped going all the way to the top of the cat tree." "When she jumps onto the sofa, she starts from lower down than she used to." That level of detail gives your vet a place to look.

Adding roughly when it started makes it more specific again. Photos or video from six months ago work directly as material for comparison.

Things you can do before any diagnosis

There are changes to make on the house side. Non-slip matting along her usual routes, a low step where she lands, a litter box with a lower rim. All of them can be done without waiting for a diagnosis, and none does harm if you turn out to be wrong. Reducing steps and drops is covered on the home setup page.

If she has gained weight, the load on the joints rises with it. On feeding amounts, the study on food intake and lifespan is worth reading alongside this — though note that one is research in dogs.

How this number gets misread

Misreading 1: "Nine in ten senior cats are in arthritis pain"

Nine in ten had changes visible on a radiograph. It does not mean nine in ten were feeling pain. Radiographic findings and how much a cat is suffering do not reliably match.

The moment "has findings" becomes "is in pain," the claim gets a notch stronger. In descriptions of supplements and therapeutic diets, that substitution sometimes happens.

Misreading 2: "Nine in ten, so my cat has a 90% chance"

The subjects were cats brought to a veterinary practice. Weighted toward cats who came in because something was wrong, this is a group you would expect to show more findings than cats doing well at home.

Because it is not a random sample of cats at home, it cannot be used as a probability for your own cat.

Misreading 3: "Not noticing means the owner was not paying attention"

The four chart entries admit more than one reading. The owners may not have noticed, or may have noticed and not mentioned it because the visit was about something else. The chart does not go that far.

Cats are hard to read for pain to begin with, and the change is slow. This study is not material for blaming yourself for missing it. What it is good for is what to watch from here.

Common questions

Does this mean nearly all senior cats have arthritis?

It supports saying that changes show up on X-ray in a lot of cats. Of 100 cats over the age of 12, 90 had findings. But this was a look back at records of cats brought to a veterinary practice, so it does not represent cats doing fine at home. And showing up on a radiograph is not the same as being in pain.

Why do owners not notice?

Cats are less likely than dogs to show pain by limping. It tends to appear instead as hesitating before jumping up, or not jumping as far. Because the change comes on slowly, the family who sees the cat every day is the most likely to read it as "she has mellowed" or "she is just getting old."

From what age should I be watching?

A different study of 100 cats aged six and over found 61% with findings in at least one joint and 48% in two or more. It does not appear to begin suddenly in old age. That said, both studies looked at records of cats brought to a clinic, so neither is strong ground for drawing an age line.

Is there anything I can do at home?

Laying non-slip matting along the routes she uses, putting a low step where she lands, and switching to a litter box with a lower rim are all adjustments you can make without waiting for a diagnosis, and they do no harm if you turn out to be wrong. Treatment for pain is a decision for your vet.

What should I tell the vet?

Height carries better than gait. Framing it against what she used to do — "she has stopped going all the way to the top of the cat tree," "when she jumps onto the sofa she now starts from somewhere lower" — gives your vet a place to look.

Sources

Hardie EM, Roe SC, Martin FR. Radiographic evidence of degenerative joint disease in geriatric cats: 100 cases (1994-1997). J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2002;220(5):628-32.doi:10.2460/javma.2002.220.628

Note: we could not reach the full text of the original paper for the figures of 90 and 4. We confirmed agreement across two sources that cite it — a later peer-reviewed paper (Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2020, on the prevalence of osteoarthritis in cats) and a veterinary trade journal review. The figures for 100 cats aged six and over come from Slingerland et al. 2011, and the jumping figures for 28 cats are quoted from the veterinary review. (accessed August 14, 2026)