A 0-12 Home Pain Score for Cats, Scored Daily

Pain in a cat is scored, not guessed. This 4-item, 0-12 scale takes 90 seconds a day and turns a vague worry into a number you can compare across 30 days. Score at the same hour, keep the sheet on the fridge, and let the action bands below decide whether you call the clinic at 9 a.m. or wait 48 hours.

Why a Number Beats a Feeling

Cats hide pain by design. A cat with a fractured femoral head will still jump onto the counter at 6 p.m. for dinner, then sit in a loaf for 4 hours afterward. The 3 signals owners miss most cost nothing to measure: total sleep (a painful cat may log 18 of 24 hours in the same 1 m2 patch), jump count (a drop from 5 jumps an hour to 1 is data, not mood), and whether the tail tip answers your voice. Memory flattens all of it into she seems fine. A written score keeps the raw numbers, and over 30 days it exposes a 2-point drift that no owner can feel. That drift is usually the first sign that a plan written 6 weeks ago has stopped working.

The 4 Items, 0 to 3 Points Each

Four items, 0-3 points each, maximum 12. Score the last 24 hours, not the best 5 minutes of the week. Half points (0.5, 1.5) are allowed when the cat sits between two anchors.

Item	0 points	1-2 points	3 points
1. Mobility	Jumps to 3 usual spots, stairs in under 10 seconds	Uses a ramp, 1 slow jump, 5-10 seconds to lie down	No jumps, walks 2-3 m then stops, drags a leg
2. Posture and face	Loose loaf, ears forward, eyes open 80% of the time	Hunched 10 minutes after rising, ears at 45 degrees, squinting	Rigid tuck, ears flat, muzzle tense, head below the shoulders
3. Contact and grooming	Meets you at the door, grooms 5 minutes or more daily	Hides 4 hours or more, stops grooming the lower back	Flinches at a 10 cm approach, growls, no grooming for 3 days
4. Food and litter	Eats 90-100% in 2 sittings, 2-3 urine clumps a day	Eats 60-70%, 1 clump in 24 hours	Refuses 2 meals, no urine for 24 hours

Take item 2 from 1.5 m away, in daylight, before you touch the cat. Ears and whiskers reset within 2 seconds of a hand coming down, so a score taken mid-cuddle reads 1 point better than the cat deserves. If you are unsure between 1 and 2, watch for 10 more seconds and score the worse of the two.

How to Score in 90 Seconds

Same hour every day: 30 minutes after the house wakes, before breakfast, so food and litter data stay comparable.
Watch 60 seconds from 2 m. No calling, no second hand on the phone.
Film 15 seconds of the cat standing up and walking 3 steps. Video settles item 1.
Score the 4 items, add them, write the date and the total.
Add 1 word of context: cold snap, vet visit, new food, guests.

A 15-second clip shot from the same angle each week shows a change in stride that a photo cannot. Keep the last 4 clips on your phone; at the appointment they carry more weight than a paragraph of description.

What the Total Means

Total	What it usually means	What to do	Recheck in
0-3	Comfortable on the current plan	Keep the plan, keep scoring	7 days
4-6	Plan slipping, or a new problem	Call the clinic in 24-48 hours, send the sheet	24 hours
7-9	Poor control, needs hands-on exam	Book within 24 hours, bring the video	12 hours
10-12	Emergency level	Call now, same-day visit or ER	2 hours

Two rules override the band. A cat scoring 8 or more on 2 days in a row gets a phone call even if it is eating. A cat scoring 3 on item 4 for 1 single day is seen within 24 hours, because 48 hours without food puts a cat at risk of hepatic lipidosis, and that is far harder to treat than the pain that started it.

The 7-Day Average Is the Real Number

One spike after a car ride is noise; 3 days in a row at plus 2 is a trend. A 7-day rolling average that climbs 1.5 points above your baseline month means the plan needs review even when every individual day looks mild. Weigh weekly on the same scale, at the same time: 0.2 kg off a 4.5 kg cat is 4.4% of body weight, and in a cancer or kidney cat that alone justifies a call. Photograph the sheet on day 1 and day 30 and put both photos in one folder. Ten seconds of scrolling beats 20 minutes of trying to remember September.

Free Changes That Move the Score 1 to 3 Points

Ramps to the 3 favourite spots (60 cm rise, 25 degree slope, carpeted), a litter box with a 10 cm entry wall and a floor 1.5 times the cat's body length, 4 small meals instead of 2, a bed held at 26-28 C, non-slip mats on the 2 floors the cat actually uses, and a night light on the route to water. Most owners watch 1-3 points come off within 7-10 days, which also tells you how much of the score was the house and how much was the disease. If nothing moves after 14 days of these changes, the score is measuring pain, not furniture.

When to Skip the Score and Go Now

Open-mouth breathing, a resting rate above 40 breaths a minute, no urine for 24 hours, a cry when lifted, a leg held 3 cm off the floor, or a cat that hides and refuses food for 24 hours are not scoring questions. Neither is sudden hind-leg paralysis with cold feet: that is a 2-hour window to the ER, not a 12-point scale. Score the stable days so that on the unstable ones you already know what normal looks like.

Five Steps for Tonight

Draw 4 rows and 31 columns on one sheet, or photograph the tables above.
Score tonight, 30 minutes after dinner, and write the time next to the total.
Tape the sheet where you feed the cat, not in a drawer.
Set a 21:00 alarm named score the cat, so the hour stays fixed.
Book a 6-week review and bring 30 days of numbers plus 4 clips.

The number does not replace the vet. It replaces the guess, and a guess is what most cats are managed on for the 8 weeks before anyone notices. For the drug side of the plan, see pain medication classes; for the daily log itself, the care calendar has a printable 31-day grid.

Frequently asked

Can I score pain at home without a vet?

Yes, for tracking, not for diagnosing. A 0-12 score built from 4 observable items gives you a trend line your vet can act on, and a rise of 2 points over 3 days is meaningful even when the cat still eats. It cannot tell you whether the cause is arthritis, a dental abscess or bone cancer, so any score of 7 or more still needs an exam within 24 hours.

How often should I score, and at what time?

Once a day, at a fixed hour, ideally 30 minutes after the house wakes and before the first meal. Consistency matters more than precision: a score taken at random hours mixes up normal evening activity with a real change. If daily is too much, score 3 fixed days a week, but never skip 2 weeks in a row, because the slow drift is what the sheet exists to catch.

What if my cat hates being watched?

Watch from 2 m and do not interact for the 60 seconds, then leave the room. Cats read a staring owner as pressure, so a score taken while you hover reads worse than the cat is. Use the 15-second video instead of standing there, and score item 3 from whether the cat comes to you at feeding time rather than during the observation window.