How long do cats usually live? Do indoor cats live longer than cats that can go outdoors?
When I was a young veterinarian, you didn’t see older cats. You didn’t see many cats at all. There were barn cats. But now, I know a cat-only hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where, every time a cat reaches its 20th birthday, they put it up on their reader board and there are lots and lots and lots of reader board messages. It’s like Willard Scott on The Today Show. There are lots of people celebrating their cat’s 20th birthday. We kind of as a rule think of cats above the age of 10 as older, that any of these serious age-related medical issues could affect them. And if you keep your cat lean, that’s going to keep it on the longer side of that. But if it’s overweight or obese, it’s going to be sooner than that. Another thing. Indoor cats live a lot longer than outdoor cats. There was a study done at Purdue a few years ago that said indoor-only cats live 2.5 times longer than outdoor cats or indoor/outdoor cats. It’s just because they don’t come across poisons and infectious diseases or
