Research overview: geriatric care of captive big cats

Captive big cats now routinely reach advanced ages, and zoos have developed geriatric care programs addressing arthritis, dental disease, kidney and heart disease, cancer, and quality-of-life assessment in elderly lions, tigers, and other felids. Managing geriatric big cats requires adapting domestic-cat and human geriatric medicine to large, dangerous patients, often using training for cooperative care to reduce anesthesia. This overview compiles the zoo-medicine literature rather than one source, describing the spectrum of age-related conditions in captive felids, why cooperative-care training and welfare assessment are central, and how end-of-life decisions are approached. It matters because the success of modern husbandry in extending big-cat lifespans creates a population of geriatric animals whose comfort and welfare depend on increasingly sophisticated veterinary care tailored to old age.