The short answer for a Devon Rex
A Devon Rex is usually treated as a senior cat from about ten to eleven years old. Vets class cats broadly as senior from eleven and geriatric from fifteen, but the Devon Rex lifespan commonly sits in the low to mid teens, so waiting until fifteen to change anything would waste the years when screening helps most. From ten onward, think of your Devon as an older cat who still deserves play, warmth, and close observation, not as a cat who has suddenly become fragile.
Why the Devon Rex clock runs a little fast
The Devon Rex is a small, lightly built cat under a very short, rippled coat, and that build shapes ageing. With so little fur, an older Devon feels the cold sooner, loses body heat faster after sleep, and shows weight loss quickly because there is almost no coat to hide a thinner ribcage or hip bones. The breed is also one where heart muscle thickening is watched for, and where kneecaps and skin need attention across life. None of that means a ten-year-old Devon is unwell. It means the margin for noticing drift is smaller than it is in a heavily coated, longer-lived breed.
What changes at ten and eleven
Shift to vet visits twice a year rather than once, and make each visit count. Ask for a weight recorded every time, a heart listen and discussion of whether a heart scan is worthwhile for your cat, blood work that covers kidney and thyroid function, a blood pressure check, and a look at teeth, because dental pain in a small cat often shows only as slower eating. At home, run your hands gently over the ribs and spine each week while your Devon is settled. You are learning what normal feels like now so that a change registers early.
Warmth becomes practical care rather than pampering. Keep a draught-free bed away from doors, add a low-sided option if jumping up looks effortful, and expect longer naps in the warmest room. Keep play, but shorten sessions and use soft wand toys on the floor instead of encouraging repeated high leaps onto furniture.
Signs in a Devon Rex that should not wait
Book a vet promptly if your senior Devon starts eating less, drops weight you can feel through that thin coat, breathes faster at rest, hides in a warm spot and stops greeting you, or develops sore, greasy, or flaky patches of skin that were not there before. A cat who once demanded laps and now avoids being picked up may be sore rather than moody. Because Devons stay playful late, a clear drop in play interest is itself a meaningful sign worth raising at the next visit, or sooner if it arrives with appetite change.
Keeping the record straight
Senior care works on comparison, and comparison fails when results live in scattered emails and paper slips. Keep a single running packet with visit summaries, weights, blood results, and a note of when appetite, litter habits, or sleep shifted. That habit turns a vague worry into a timeline a vet can act on. Gathering those Devon Rex records in a KinsLe Pet Passport means the full senior history travels with the cat to every appointment, sitter, and house move.