Moving house with a senior cat — stress tips

Moving house with a 15-year-old cat is genuinely one of the trickier situations — senior cats are deeply territorial, and upheaval hits them harder than it does younger cats. That said, cats do tend to age more gracefully than dogs in some respects, though by 15 they're very much in their senior years and worth watching closely for kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, dental disease, and arthritis, all of which can flare under stress. How is she doing health-wise day to day — any known conditions, changes in appetite or drinking, or anything you've been keeping an eye on?

Borderline kidney values at 15 are really common and worth taking seriously — stress is one of the things that can genuinely make that worse, because it affects blood pressure and appetite, both of which matter a lot for kidney function. The quiet behaviour could just be age, but it's worth flagging to your vet before the move so you have a baseline. When are you moving, and is she an indoor-only cat or does she go outside?

Indoor-only cats with a fixed routine are often the most unsettled by moves, precisely because their whole world is the house — there's no outside territory to fall back on. Three weeks gives you a good window to start managing this proactively. One thing I'd strongly recommend is a Feliway Classic Diffuser. It releases a synthetic version of the pheromone cats produce when they're comfortable and marking somewhere as safe — it doesn't sedate them, it just takes the edge off. You'd plug one in at the new house before she arrives, and ideally run one in your current home in the weeks before the move too, so she's already in a calmer state going in.

It's not a miracle but the evidence is solid — it's one of the few cat calming products with decent veterinary backing, and it's consistently recommended by vets for exactly this kind of situation. It won't work on every cat, but for an indoor cat with a strong routine, it's the best first tool. The key is running it continuously for at least four weeks rather than just for a day or two — that's where people often feel let down by it. Given her kidney situation, keeping her stress low and her appetite stable through the move is genuinely important, so this is worth doing properly.

Yes, that's exactly the right approach. Start one in your current home now — ideally in whatever room she spends most of her time — and have a second one ready to plug in at the new place the day you get the keys, before any furniture or boxes arrive. The Feliway Classic Starter Kit comes with a diffuser and a 48ml refill, which covers about 70 square metres for 30 days, so one kit per location is what you need. On moving day itself, keep her in a quiet room with her bed, litter tray, water, and the diffuser running, and let her come out and explore at her own pace rather than being carried around. That routine-first approach really does help.