🐈 Cat Arthritis Screening Tool
Answer 6 quick yes/no questions from a validated veterinary screening checklist to check for signs of arthritis in cats. Takes about a minute.
Answer each question based on your cat over the past few weeks, and compare them with how they moved a year or two ago — not with other cats. Each question asks whether an activity still happens normally, so a "No" is the answer that gets flagged. This is a screening tool, not a diagnosis.
How This Screening Was Built
The six questions above are the Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Checklist, published by Enomoto, Lascelles and Gruen in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery in 2020. The researchers, working at North Carolina State University's pain research program, started from longer questionnaires already used by veterinarians and cut them down question by question, dropping the items that contributed least, until only six remained.
The underlying data came from more than 300 cats with and without confirmed joint pain. According to the researchers, shortening the questionnaire this far did not meaningfully reduce its screening accuracy compared with the longer parent version. The rule they proposed is deliberately simple: if any one of the six activities is answered "no," that should prompt further evaluation.
It was designed as a conversation starter between owner and veterinarian, not as a diagnosis. That is exactly how this page uses it.
Why Cats Are Screened Differently From Dogs
If you have used our Dog Arthritis Screening Tool, you may notice the questions here are not simply the cat version of the same list. That is intentional — the two species genuinely need different questions.
| Dogs | Cats | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical first sign | Limping or stiffness after exercise | Hesitating before a jump they used to make easily |
| Limping? | Common and often obvious | Uncommon — joint disease is frequently bilateral, so there is no "good side" to favor |
| What owners notice | Trouble on walks, slow to rise, reluctance to jump into the car | Reduced jumping height, avoiding stairs, less play, more sleeping |
| Usual misattribution | "He's slowing down with age" | "She's just gotten lazy / mellowed out" |
| Question format | Asks whether a problem is present ("yes" flags) | Asks whether an activity is still normal ("no" flags) |
Radiographic studies illustrate the gap starkly: joint changes show up on X-rays in the majority of older cats, yet across several studies only a small minority — under 17% in the figures most often cited — showed any lameness their owner or vet could see. A screening built around limping would simply miss most of them.
Signs That Are Not on the Checklist (But Still Matter)
The six questions were chosen because they screen efficiently, not because they are the only signs that exist. Several others are worth mentioning to your vet even if all six items came back normal:
- Grooming changes. A matted or greasy coat over the lower back and tail base often means twisting to groom there has become painful. Some cats go the other way and over-groom a single sore joint until the fur thins.
- Litter box accidents. A high-sided box that used to be nothing can become a real obstacle. Missing the box, or going just outside it, is sometimes a mobility problem rather than a behavior problem.
- Change in resting spots. A cat who has abandoned the top of the wardrobe for a chair, or who now sleeps on the floor, may not have changed preferences — they may have lost access.
- Being less tolerant of handling. Reacting when picked up or brushed, hiding more, or becoming grumpy with other pets in the house can all be pain-driven.
Our Senior Pet Care Checklist covers the home setup side of this in more detail, including ramps and low-entry litter boxes.
This Tool vs. the Cat Quality of Life Calculator
PetPawCalc has two tools that both ask about how your cat is doing, and they are for different moments. This screening is for finding a problem you do not yet know about — a cat with no diagnosis, where you have a vague sense that something has changed but cannot name it.
The Cat Quality of Life Calculator (Paw Score) is for tracking a cat you already know is unwell — it scores hurt, hunger, hydration, hygiene, happiness and mobility over time, and is generally used alongside a veterinarian during ongoing care. If your screening here comes back positive and your vet confirms a diagnosis, the Quality of Life Calculator becomes the more useful of the two from that point on.
Weight Is Part of the Picture
Every extra pound on a cat is proportionally enormous — a 15 lb cat that should weigh 10 lb is carrying 50% more load through every joint on every jump. Weight management is a first-line recommendation in veterinary pain management guidelines for exactly that reason, and unlike most interventions it costs nothing and has no side effects. If you are not sure where your cat sits, our Cat Weight Calculator gives you a healthy range by breed, and the Pet Food Calorie Calculator has a weight-loss mode that works out target portions. Any weight-loss plan for a cat should be checked with your vet first — cats lose weight far more slowly than dogs must, because rapid loss risks hepatic lipidosis.
When to Skip the Screening and Call the Vet
This screening is built for gradual, chronic change measured in months. It is not the right tool for anything sudden. A cat who becomes acutely lame, cannot use a leg at all, drags a back leg, cries out when touched, or suddenly cannot stand needs to be seen the same day — sudden hind-limb weakness in particular can be an arterial clot, which is a genuine emergency. Likewise, a cat who stops eating for more than a day or two needs prompt attention regardless of what this screening says.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the signs of arthritis in cats?
The signs of arthritis in cats are almost never limping. Instead, cats keep doing the same activities but do them worse: hesitating before a jump, jumping onto a chair instead of the counter, taking stairs one at a time, running less, and losing interest in chasing toys. The validated screening above checks exactly those six activities, because they are the changes owners can actually observe at home.
How to tell if my cat has arthritis
How to tell if my cat has arthritis comes down to comparing your cat with their own past self rather than looking for obvious pain. Ask whether they still jump up, jump down, use stairs, run, and chase toys the way they did a year ago. If any of those is no longer normal, that is a positive screen worth raising with your veterinarian, who can examine your cat and decide whether X-rays or a treatment trial make sense.
Why is my cat not jumping up anymore?
A cat not jumping up anymore, or a cat who stopped jumping on the bed and counters they used to reach easily, is one of the single most common owner-reported signs of feline joint pain. Cats rarely refuse a jump outright at first — they hesitate longer, gather themselves, pick a lower landing spot, or break one big jump into two smaller ones. Because it happens gradually, it is very easy to write off as your cat simply getting older or calmer.
Is there a cat arthritis test at home?
There is no diagnostic cat arthritis test at home — degenerative joint disease is confirmed by a veterinarian through an orthopedic exam and often X-rays. What you can do at home is a validated screening like the one above. It does not diagnose arthritis, but it gives you a structured, research-backed way to decide whether the changes you are noticing are worth a vet visit, and it gives your vet something concrete to work from.
How common is arthritis in cats?
Very common, and very under-diagnosed. Researchers at NC State have estimated that around 45% of all cats and roughly 90% of cats over the age of 10 are affected by degenerative joint disease to some degree. Radiographic studies have found joint changes in the majority of older cats while only a small minority — in several studies under 17% — showed any lameness at all, which is exactly why owner observation at home matters so much.
Do cats limp when they have arthritis?
Usually not. Feline arthritis is very often bilateral — affecting the same joint on both sides — so there is no good leg to shift weight onto and no visible limp to spot. That is the core reason a dog-style check for limping misses most arthritic cats, and why this screening asks about jumping, stairs, running and chasing instead. A cat who is genuinely limping on one leg should be seen promptly, since that pattern points more toward injury than chronic joint disease.