The signs your cat is in pain

Cats are so good at hiding pain that many suffer it for months while their owners, who love them dearly, have no idea. There is rarely a yelp or a limp to point at. Instead there are small changes, easily missed or explained away, and one in particular that catches almost everyone out: the slow, aching pain of arthritis in an older cat, dismissed year after year as the animal simply slowing down. Learning to read the subtle signals of feline pain is one of the kindest things you can do for a cat, because pain you cannot see is still pain, and much of it is very treatable once it is found.

The usual honest note first: I am a writer, not a vet, and pain in a cat always warrants professional assessment. What follows helps you notice what a cat works hard to hide, and know when to seek help.

Why cats are such experts at hiding it

To take the subtle signs seriously, it helps to understand why a cat conceals pain so thoroughly, because it runs deeper than mere stoicism.

A cat is both a predator and, to larger animals, prey, and for a prey animal showing weakness is dangerous, it marks you out as an easy target. So evolution has wired cats to mask pain and illness, to carry on as normally as they can no matter how they feel. Your pet cat still runs this programme faithfully. It is not being brave, it is doing what has kept its kind alive. The consequence for us is that a cat in genuine pain often looks almost fine on the surface, and the signs it does show are quiet and easily rationalised away. This is exactly why chronic conditions like arthritis so often go undiagnosed for so long: the cat is hiding it, and the changes are subtle enough that we attribute them to something else. Knowing this changes how you watch your cat, from waiting for an obvious sign to noticing small shifts from its normal.

The subtle signs to watch for

Because the signals are quiet, they are mostly changes in behaviour and habits rather than dramatic symptoms, and knowing your cat’s normal is what lets you spot them.

Watch for a cat hiding more than usual or withdrawing, or sleeping in new, often lower or more tucked-away places. Look for reluctance to jump up to favourite high spots, or hesitation and stiffness going up or down stairs, which is one of the clearest arthritis clues. Notice grooming changes: a painful cat may stop grooming and look unkempt, or over-groom one spot that hurts. Watch appetite and litter tray habits, since pain can change both, and a cat that struggles to climb into a high-sided tray may start toileting outside it. Increased irritability, flinching or objecting when touched or picked up, or a generally shorter temper can all signal discomfort. And a hunched posture, sitting tensed and tucked rather than relaxed, is a classic sign. Any one of these might be nothing, but a change in several, or a clear shift from how your cat used to be, is worth taking seriously.

The “grumpy old cat” trap

One misreading is so common and so consequential that it deserves singling out, because it costs a lot of cats a lot of needless suffering.

A great deal of what we fondly write off as a cat “slowing down”, “getting lazy”, or “turning grumpy” with age is, in fact, undiagnosed pain, and very often arthritis. Feline arthritis is extremely common in older cats, far more than most people realise, and because cats hide it and the decline is gradual, it is massively underdiagnosed. The cat that no longer jumps on the bed, has become snappy when stroked over its back, or has started missing the litter tray is frequently not just old, it is sore. This matters enormously because arthritis, though not curable, is very treatable: with veterinary pain relief, weight management, and simple home changes, many cats become visibly more comfortable and active again. Accepting stiffness and irritability as “just age” leaves a treatable pain untreated, which is why it is worth pushing past that assumption and asking the vet.

What to do

If you notice these signs, the path is straightforward, and the main thing is not to wait or explain it away.

Alongside the vet’s help, there is a lot you can do at home to make a sore cat more comfortable, especially an arthritic one: provide easy-access litter trays with a low side, steps or ramps to favourite spots, soft warm beds, and food and water that do not require jumping or stretching to reach. These small changes, combined with proper veterinary pain management, can transform an older cat’s quality of life.

The heart of it is simply this: your cat will hide pain for as long as it possibly can, so it falls to you to notice the quiet signs and to resist writing them off as age or temperament. Learn your cat’s normal, take a change from it seriously, and above all do not accept that a “grumpy, slowing-down” older cat is just getting old, because so often it is hurting, and so often that can be helped. Noticing is the whole battle, and it is one you can win with nothing more than attention and a willingness to ask.