Old Kitty ...

[CountAllVotes]

:hi:
My old kitty is about to turn 18 years old.

She seems fine most of the time (eats/drinks well; seems to have great energy, etc.).

However, since the weather has changed to lots of cold rain and cold weather, she has gotten into the habit of beginning to meow at about midnight. This goes on for hours and is driving the household here crazy. :crazy:

We've checked her out and she seems to be just fine physically but I fear she is going sort of senile.
I don't know what to do and the idea of having her on any behavior modification drugs does not appeal to me at all.

The bad part about this meowing is that Old Kitty is 1/2 Siamese and wow can she yowl like a banshee!

It was so bad last night that she was taken out to the garage and left there. However, this did not last long as Mr. Flame (who is also a Siamese cat ... yowl yowl yowl again!) came to her rescue quickly and managed to get her let back inside within a very short period of time. So much for that.

I'm at my wits end in case you had not guessed.

Any advice as to what to do?

[yellerpup]

1. Kitties do get senile in old age. Not all of them

but some do. From other accounts, meowing at unaccustomed (to human) times is a sign of it. It could be from pain, too, but not necessarily. :hi:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Poor old thing. She might be confused. Does she know where you are

when she starts howling? Maybe she's trying to find her humans. Maybe you should check with the vet about giving her a sedative? It might be just enough to calm her down so she isn't as anxious and noisy.

[CountAllVotes]

3. yeah, poor ol girl (all 7 lbs. of her) ...

She seems well-oriented and certainly knows who is who around here (that includes the other 2 cats).

I think she is howling like that because she is cold as the heat is turned off at night and she wants the heat turned on (what next?) ...

Seems that this began when the clocks were set back.

:shrug:

Working on a picture of her to post here soon.

I wonder if rescue remedy might help? I have some of that. :think:

Thanks for the idea and will keep you posted.

She definitely needs to calm down!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Old people feel cold more; maybe that's also true of old cats.

You can get electrically-heated cat beds (I have one, and it gets a lot of use). She might like that, and stop howling at night.

[CountAllVotes]

5. that is a great idea

She spends a lot of time on the electric blanket at night in the bedroom.

I bet she'd love an electric cat bed! I know what it is like getting old and achy! :D

[phylny]

7. I use Rescue Remedy for one of our dogs during thunderstorms.

Works like magic. It's worth giving it a try. Good luck, and how cool that your kitty has lived such a great life for so long!

[TygrBright]

6. Does she have a favorite sleeping place?

Maybe with the colder weather it's not as comfy. Try putting a heating pad on low with plenty of padding under her favorite sleeping place, see if that gets her comfy.

My dear old boy (passed last March, still miss him) used to love the radiant-heated downstairs floors, but the tile wasn't comfy for his old bones, so we fixed him up a nest under the sideboard where he could keep an eye on things and still enjoy the warm floor.

Old kitties are very dear, but they do have their issues.

helpfully,
Bright

[CountAllVotes]

8. she was better last night

I turned the heat on when I went to bed (so what!). She heard the thermostat kick on and that shut her up (she was starting the moaning thing).

I'm pretty sure that the moaning is from her being cold and wanting the heat turned on.

I do have two electric blankets.

I'm checking out cat beds that are heated but the problem is that I'm not sure I have enough accessible electrical outlets for one in the places she sleeps.

One spot is on an ergonomic outdoor lawn chair that I bought for the backyard a couple of years ago. As soon as I had that set-up and was about to move it outside, well, that chair got nailed quick by Old Kitty of course. Maybe a heated pad/mat would be good for this chair (?).

It is funny really as people come over here and they wonder why does someone have a lawn chair in their living room?

Well the answer is simple: Old Kitty of course.

I love my Old Kitty and my other two cats as well but when they live to be this old, they are really treasures. The oldest cat I have had the pleasure of having lived to be 17 years old. She was a huge short haired grey cat named Missy. I found her in San Francisco and a man and his wife living on Ashbury street had her and they were moving and looking for a home for her (she was 6 mos. old at that time). And along came me and I adopted her. She was a very happy friendly cat whereas Old Kitty is shy and your typical rescue cat that was left to die in the cold. I adopted her on Christmas Eve in 1994 and she was close to being dead weighing 3 lbs. at the age of 10 months!

Old Kitty has been with me for some of the most severe/traumatic changes in my own life ranging from the decline in my own health through the deaths of both my Dad and Mom and little brother. When mother's dog died, I cried and Old Kitty came to me and licked the tears off of my face. Sheesh, I'll never forget her, never. My mother loved her too and paid for a veterinary bill that I couldn't pay because mother said, "She's worth it!". And, yes, she was/is worth it!

I know she won't last forever but I want to make what is left of her life to be good. :)

Thanks again for the kind words and ideas for her. :)

[TygrBright]

11. I often wonder if traumatic memories from kittenhood come back for Old Kitties.

I know that it's true for many humans that as the brain ages, the memories from childhood and youth become much clearer and recent stuff is harder to remember.

Maybe the cold temps are reminding your old girl of those skeery times all alone in the cold before she adopted her wonderful human.

I love those ergonomic outdoor loungers. I understand that if you're willing to spend buttloads of moola there are analogous hi-tech indoor chairs, but why bother? See if a nice warm nest on Her Chair helps your old girl spend quiet nights.

Old Kitties are very special indeed. I still miss my Old Boy who moved on last March.

encouragingly,
Bright

[CountAllVotes]

13. I believe that she does remember

The poor old thing was abused so badly it was not funny. We lived for a long time in a duplex situation with neighbors that were not all nice. Many of them were always trying to catch Old Kitty being she is all white. No one could ever catch her however because she grew up learning to run away and be afraid always.

When I take her to the vet we cannot take her inside. We have to leave her in the car in the carrier and wait until the vet is ready to see her and then we smuggle her in via the back door. This way she doesn't see the other animals and get even more scared.

When I take her to the vet all of her hair begins to fall out and she foams at the mouth. For this reason, I don't take her very often but I took her for a physical about one year ago and she checked out fine.

So to answer your question, I believe the trauma never goes away to anything living that deserves to be treated in a kind way and this most certainly includes humans of course.

[rox63]

9. My friend's 16 year-old kitty was yowling for several days last month

Took her to the vet, and they said she was having a bad arthritis flare up. A few days of pain meds and prednisone, and she was much better. She's off the meds now and doing fine. The flare up may have been related to change from warm to cold weather.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. My brother had an Old Doggie that started yowling in the middle of the night

and would not be consoled.

[Warpy]

12. My 18 year old non Siamese does that when I'm out of sight

and when I call her, she greets me like she hasn't seen me in years. I think it is kitty senility, my old tomcat started to do it when he turned 16, a year before he died.

All I can suggest is keeping the cat, her dishes, and maybe a litter box very close to you so she doesn't get lost in some other part of the house and forget where you are.

There's been a good side to my old lady cat's senility, she no longer remembers the people who abused her and doesn't flinch from an approaching hand, ever.

[CountAllVotes]

14. luckily the house is very small

She'd never get lost in it and she certainly knows where the 3 litter boxes are (out in the garage).

I do believe she is getting a bit senile but nothing really awful.

Her problems seem to be related to the cold weather.

Right now she is racing madly around the house and chasing the younger 5 year old kitty Jules around. You'd never know she is 18 years old if you didn't look at her.

I took a picture of her and it came out awful. She looks horrible but she is very old and bares the scars of three cancer surgeries and chronic feline herpes of the eyes. ugh.

I glad I'm not the only one with an old yowler around! ;)

[ginnyinWI]

15. My 16 (or is she 17) year old is doing the same thing.

She was a stray so we aren't sure of her exact age. And her voice has gotten very raspy in her old age!

She yowls in the morning to get me up, she yowls after I feed her too,for good measure, and any time the house is too quiet. When the radio or the TV is on, she seems to settle down better. I'm thinking that maybe she is going a bit deaf and yowls in order to hear something. It's worse since the windows and doors have been closed; not only is it too cold to go out much (she never strays more than a few feet from the house), but it is much quieter inside the house. So it creeps her out and she yowls.

But I can easily distract her with a toy or brushing her or talking to her or putting on some music, so I don't think she's in pain. She just wants something to be happening and not to feel lonely and isolated. I can sneak up on her and she will startle when she sees me, not having heard me come up.

Another theory is that she is getting a bit hyper-active from possible kidney failure. Have not had this tested out, but she is eating more too, and not getting fat from it. So we'll have to see about that.

edit: she is the calico in my sig picture.

[CountAllVotes]

16. interesting info. there

Lovely Calico you have there! :loveya: Calico cats! :D

Last night was HELL. Non-stop yowling and moaning. I had a very bad night myself with a horrid pain on the upper right side of my back/shoulder. While the pain was sucking every ounce of strength as I popped pills all night, I hear this very loud moaning going on ALL NIGHT.

Finally, I got up at 6:30 a.m. and there she was sitting on the table in the kitchen waiting for her hit of first thing in the a.m. tuna (my husband got her going on this crap and now she MUST have it) as if absolutely nothing is wrong at all and just looking at me as if to say, "I want my tuna"! I am certain she is not deaf; in fact positive of that. If anything she hears too good (just gently rustle the covers in bed and oh yeah, she hears ya!)!

Anyway, no more moaning or anything now at all.

I'm wondering if she is doing it for attention.

There is a lot of bidding for attention around here being I have three cats. Who knows? :shrug:

I told her to shut-up when I got up this a.m. as this is getting very old very fast. :(

However, you are quite right it could be a sign of something else but why does it magically disappear as soon as she gets her fix of morning tuna (and oh yeah, it must be real tuna (Albacore preferred), not the stuff you buy as cat food and she only likes other types of very expensive food like organic cuts of chicken, turkey and wild and/or smoked Alaskan salmon -- no wonder she is pushing 18 years old!)? :crazy: = me.

I have many things to do today and when I get home I'll see how things are going around here and if this continues (and wouldn't you know a 3/4 day weekend is approaching fast), I'll be calling up the vet to see what he has to say this time around.

The last time I took her there he gave me a tin of cat food for her to eat for cats that are close to death and/or dying. That was over 2 years ago and no, she did not like that very expensive and stinky cat food in the tiny little tin one tiny little bit (far prefers the grilled Alaskan salmon). :argh:

Happy Thanksgiving she'd say (there is a turkey waiting to be cooked -- maybe that is the culprit as you can bet she smells it and oh how she loves turkey (moans the whole time one is cooking of course)).

Here she is as of the day before yesterday:

[ginnyinWI]

18. aw, a white kitty-- and not deaf either!

I think our old "ladies" are getting rather set in their ways and like a certain amount of attention. Camilla has to have her day just so: she will eat part of her breakfast, then walk away and if I don't rescue it, the other two cats will finish it off. Then she comes back later as if to say, "I'll have the rest of my breakfast now, Jeeves."

She's more active and restless in the morning and wants me to play with her or brush her, and I do if I have time. Her rule is that brushing comes after eating, and if that doesn't happen, she hangs around me acting like something is wrong! Then comes the afternoon snooze, and then waiting at the food bowls until getting fed at 5 p.m. But that isn't enough to last her through the night. She demands a little nightcap before bed--either some more food, or a bit of milk or tuna juice, just to tide her over until time for the 6:30 a.m. yowl! I refuse to get up before 7 a.m. and if I'm lucky she will hold off until 7:15 or so. But she manages to get her way the rest of the day.

Maybe at some point she noticed yowling gets her some attention, so she keeps it up.

[CountAllVotes]

21. yes she is a white kitty and odd eyed at that

She has one blue eye and one green eye. The vet said when he first saw her some 17+ years ago that "God was kind to her and that she couldn't be deaf being she was odd-eyed".

She hears just fine, that much I do know!

Isn't it amazing the way they control US? :rofl:

[yellerpup]

23. Oh, what a pretty kitty!

The girl kitty we adopted from a shelter three years ago is becoming louder and more demanding, too. They told us that they estimated her age to be 'about 5' at the shelter, but I noticed that the vet had removed her back teeth (rare for a 5-year-old cat with no trauma). When I took her to the vet for the first time, she asked me how old Penny is. I repeated what we were told at the shelter but added, I think she's probably quite a bit older. The vet agreed. I don't know how old she is, and I don't care how old she is, and I wouldn't have cared if they told me she was fifteen when we rescued her almost 4 years ago now, she's still my baby. Lately, she has turned up the volume on her meows and talks to me a lot more. I think she is slipping somewhat due to her age. It seems to bother her if I fall asleep on the couch. She will meow loudly and softly poke at my eyelid until I get up and do whatever it is she wants me to do. I know she's spoiled but I don't care. Penny is a white cat with a copper cape and mask. Your pretty baby sort of reminds me of her. I wish you lots of deep, refreshing sleep and yowl-less nights.

[ginnyinWI]

27. Are her eyes still clear or are they getting cloudy?

I had one cat whose birthday I knew, and at about 17 he developed the cloudy eyed look. The back of the eyes become opaque (and I think it dims the vision somewhat too). Anyway, it might be a way to tell how old your kitty is. The old, formerly stray cat I still have has those eyes now too, and we figure she is most likely 17, by this and other calculations.

[CountAllVotes]

28. well, the heated cat bed is here

and none of the cats seemed interested until it was moved elsewhere in the house. Now Mr. Flame has claimed it. Old Kitty seems to like the thermo mat best I can tell.

Oh how I long for a yowl-free night! ;)

[haele]

17. My Moggy became senile the last three years of his life (he died at 17)

He would wake up and walk around the house confused and yowling until he saw someone, then run up to them, chirping as if he hadn't just seen them hours before. At night, it was worse, he'd get up to go to the litter box or be hungry, then get lost and frantic, crying, once he left the room he was in (usually our bedroom, sleeping on my legs) until someone got up and walked with him to the litter box or food dish.
We ended up putting a litter box in one side of the closet and leaving that door open. where he could see (and smell it) when he got up and put some food and water on the cat-tree near the bedroom.
His world kept getting smaller and smaller, until he was pretty much just happy staying in our bedroom with the occasional trip to the front room to be with family.

It's just part of getting old.

Haele

[ginnyinWI]

19. some of this is familiar

Maybe my calico (see previous post) is also a bit confused.

We had a problem with her pooping in the house, but it was always done in the night and found in the morning, hopefully not by stepping on it. Never had a problem during the daytime. And this is why: the litter boxes are in the basement, and she has no trouble with stairs. But she does have trouble seeing in the dark now that she's older. To her, it was a pitch black hole down there, and who knew if the steps were really still there? So she didn't go down, and did it upstairs instead.

We installed a low wattage fl. bulb down there, and keep it on all the time. No more poop in the living room!

[CountAllVotes]

20. I think you guys are on to something

Here it is 2:00 a.m. and she is moaning a bit again. She was asleep in the other room with the tomcat all curled up then she woke up and stared this moaning thing.

She came to see me and licked me on the hand and then went back to the other room where the tomcat is. I think she might be asleep now.

As for lighting, I have LED lights throughout the house as both my husband and I are visually impaired and we need it to get around so I'm pretty sure Old Kitty can see ok and the vet said she had no cataracts.

I'm thinking she knows there is a turkey in the house too and between that and this new moaning thing she has reason for it.

She may also be getting senile I hate to admit. :(

It was a busy day yesterday and I am exhausted so I'm going back to bed myself and I hope she stays quiet.

[TuxedoKat]

22. You might try

giving her a little coconut oil mixed in with her food, or just leave some next to her food.
It is supposed to be helpful for people with Alzheimer's and other brain issues. It is not toxic to cats either. No need to buy it any place special or spend alot of money, an 8 oz jar at the grocery store is about $8.00, and would last quite awhile. Ha! I just read that it can help with fleas and hairballs too!

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5512916_coconut-oil-cats.html

http://www.coconutdiet.com/pet_nutrition.htm

[CountAllVotes]

24. actually I have some coconut milk

I never thought to give it to a cat however! Will try this!

I got the cat beds (one is a plug-in heated electrically and other ones generate heat via body temperature). Two of the cats have found them but Old Kitty hasn't yet. When she does, she'll have her pick.

Tomcat Flame really likes the thermal cat mats. I bought two of these on eBay for $20.00 and they have been in constant use since they arrived a few days ago (Flame takes up the entire mat so don't be deceived by this picture!). He was snoring so loud last night I got up and closed the door!

[TuxedoKat]

25. I have some of those mats too

my cats love them. :) I don't know if the coconut milk would work as well as the oil but it is worth a try or at least until you can get some of the latter. The actual substance that is beneficial in the coconut oil is the MCT portion of it, the medium chain triglycerides. I don't know how much MCT is in the milk. Some places sell straight MCT oil derived from coconuts too. Good luck with your kitty. :)

[ginnyinWI]

26. I have been supplementing her canned food with a bit of raw

chicken giblets. Seems to fill her up and help her sleep longer into the morning. Well at least until 7 a.m. !

[CountAllVotes]

29. for anyone still here

We are taking her to the vet today to have her put down.

Nothing is working -- tried Rescue Remedy, etc.

I noted some a pink tinge to some clear vomit the other day.

I think that pink tinge was blood. :(

It is totally out of hand now at night. Non-stop moaning all night long.

We are all exhausted except for her.

:cry:

Its been a long 18 years there ... long ... :cry:

[Rhiannon12866]

30. Oh, I am so sorry!!!

I am especially sorry that your vet couldn't find a solution. Eighteen years is a long time. I've had two dogs that lived to 18, but I adopted both of them when they were older. You have my deepest sympathies. Losing a beloved pet is just heartbreaking and leaves a big hole in your life... ;( :hug: