THE CAT OWNER

HEALTH · BEHAVIOUR · SENIOR CATS · NUTRITION

Home › Health › Senior Cats

My Cat Was "Just Getting Old" At 13. Then My Vet Asked Me One Question About My Kitchen

A Manchester cat owner shares the small change that got her old girl back up on the windowsill.

Senior ginger tabby asleep on a kitchen chair

Bella, 13, sleeping through another afternoon.

Susan H., 58 · Manchester
Published 8 September · Sponsored

I thought I was losing Bella to old age.

If your cat sleeps more than she used to...

If she's gone quiet, or stiff, or stopped jumping up where she always sat...

If anyone has ever said "well, she is getting on"...

Then please read this before you accept that.

Because something is happening in millions of homes right now.

And it's happening in the one place nobody thinks to look.

The water bowl.

Here's the frightening part. The fuller you keep that bowl, the more certain you feel that nothing is wrong.

One in three cats over the age of ten develops kidney disease. And by the time you can see the signs, most of the damage is already done.

I found that out the hard way.

The £940 Night That Changed How I Look At My Kitchen

My name is Susan. I'm 58, I live outside Manchester, and I've had Bella since my daughter was at school.

Ginger tabby. Loud. Bossy. She used to sit on the windowsill above the radiator and watch the street like she was in charge of it.

Then, somewhere around her twelfth birthday, she just... stopped.

She slept more. She got thin along her back. She stopped coming down for her tea.

I told myself what everyone tells themselves.

"She's thirteen. She's allowed to slow down."

Then one night I found her in the litter tray, straining, over and over, with nothing coming out.

We were at the emergency vet by half past eleven.

Four hours and £940 later, Bella was stable.

The bill was the least of it. What she told me next was worse.

And then the vet sat down next to me and asked me something I still think about.

"Susan. When did you last actually watch her drink?"

I opened my mouth to answer.

And I couldn't.

Not that day. Not that week. I refilled that bowl every single morning, and I had no idea whether she ever touched it.

"This isn't her age," the vet said. "This is water."

Why A Full Bowl Can Still Leave Your Cat Dry

Here's the bit I'd had 99% right for thirteen years — and the 1% that was hurting her.

I thought a cat drinks when it's thirsty. Like we do.

They don't.

Cats came from the desert. Their ancestors barely drank at all. They got nearly all their water from the prey they ate.

So a cat's thirst signal is weak. Very weak.

By the time your cat actually feels thirsty, she's already behind.

Now add the second problem.

That still, flat water sitting in a bowl on your kitchen floor? Her instincts don't trust it.

In the wild, still water is old water. Moving water is safe water.

That is exactly why cats sit in the sink and stare at the tap. Why they drink from the shower tray. Why they'll ignore a fresh bowl and go for a puddle in the garden.

It was never fussiness. It was instinct.

Not a funny little habit. A complaint.

And there's a third one nobody mentions. Wash that bowl with washing-up liquid and your cat can still smell it. Their nose is not remotely like ours. To her, that bowl smells wrong.

What Being A Little Bit Dry, Every Day, For Years, Actually Does

This is the part that made me feel sick.

Slightly dehydrated is not dramatic. There's no emergency. Nothing to notice.

It just quietly makes everything harder.

• The kidneys work overtime, every day, filtering thicker waste

• Urine gets concentrated, which is how crystals and blockages start

• UTIs become more likely

• Energy drops, and we call it "old age"

• Constipation and a dull coat creep in

That's what I'd been looking at for two years and calling thirteen.

It wasn't her age. It was her water.

Why I Nearly Made It Worse

I came home that night and ordered the first cheap fountain I could find. £22. Plastic.

Bella sniffed it once and walked off.

Two weeks later I took it apart to clean and found a slippery film inside the tank. You couldn't see it. You could feel it.

That's what plastic does. It scratches, the scratches hold bacteria, and her nose finds it long before your eyes do.

So I did what I should have done first. I researched properly.

I kept landing on the same three things: it has to move, it has to be filtered, and it has to be steel.

The One I Ended Up Buying

It's called KittySip, made by a company called PetHaven, and it was the only one that ticked all three.

It runs like a tap. A proper falling stream, not a puddle with a pump under it. That's the bit that switches her instinct on.

It's medical grade stainless steel — bowl and tank, not a steel lid on a plastic tub. Nothing to scratch, so nothing for that film to grip on to.

Triple-layer filtration takes out the chlorine taste and the grit from the tap.

It holds 2.2 litres, so I'm topping it up, not refilling it daily.

KittySip stainless steel fountain running on a kitchen floor

The tap-style stream is the whole point. She heard it before she saw it.

Here's exactly what happened.

Day one: she circled it twice and ignored it.

Day two: she sat and watched the stream for about ten minutes.

Day three: I heard her drinking from the next room. First time in I don't know how long.

Week two: she was going to it four or five times a day.

Week six: she was back on that windowsill.

At her recheck, her bloods had moved in the right direction and her vet asked me what I'd changed.

She's fourteen now. She's noisy again. She wakes me up at six for her breakfast.

I got my old girl back.

See The Fountain Bella Actually Uses »

What Comes In The Box

When I ordered mine, PetHaven were running a sale, and as far as I know it's still on:

Included with every fountain

✓ The KittySip steel fountain — £59 instead of £118

✓ A full year of filters, free — 12 filters, one a month

✓ The Cat Hydration Guide, free — what to look for, and how to get her drinking more

✓ Free tracked delivery, 3–7 working days

2.2L capacity · Medical-grade stainless steel · triple-layer filtration · dishwasher safe

A full year to decide. If she never uses it, you get your money back.

I paid £940 in one night because I didn't know what I know now.

This is £59.

Title

Two Choices

You can keep filling that bowl every morning and hoping.

Or you can spend £59 and find out, in about three days, whether "getting old" was ever really the problem.

I know which one I wish I'd picked at twelve instead of thirteen.

If she's slowing down, don't wait for the 11pm drive to the emergency vet like I did. Every month she spends slightly dry is a month her kidneys don't get back.

Get Bella's Fountain — Check Availability»

Click above to check availability and apply the discount.

P.S. — If you take one thing from this: go and watch your cat's bowl for a day. Not the level in it. Her. If you can't remember the last time you actually saw her drink, that's your answer, and it has nothing to do with her age.

This is an advertisement and not an actual news article, blog, or consumer protection update. The story depicted and the person depicted are illustrative and based on results some customers have achieved. Individual results may vary. This page may receive compensation for purchases of products featured. If you are worried about your cat's health, speak to your vet.

KittySip™ Stainless Steel Cat Water Fountain

KittySip™ Stainless Steel Cat Water Fountain

£59 | 365-day guarantee

See Bella's Fountain »