Howling in Geriatric Cat

mom2rtk

Invented the term "Characterpalooza"
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
Our cat is 18. She's been in good health. I took her to the vet in December because of a lump near her jaw. The vet said it was a harmless cyst. That seems unchanged. They did also say that her teeth on that side look bad but she's too old to put under for an extraction. (She had some pulled on the other side of her mouth 4 years ago). They had me start giving her antibiotics the first 5 days of every month to help keep any potential infection at bay. That's gone fine.

Just recently she has started a habit of howling loudly a few times a day. It's a worrisome sound. But I go pet her and she stops, and starts purring pretty quickly. I'll be gone Monday and Tuesday this week and will likely take her to the vet on Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm looking for thoughts.

ETA: She's not losing weight and she's not howling for food (sometimes she does it soon after being fed, but also at other times of the day.
 
Is she hard of hearing or losing her sight? Maybe she just wants some comfort.
She doesn't seem to be. I can wave my arms and get her to look and I can tap on something to get her to hear me. But no way to know if she has a degree of loss I just can't detect.
 


It is so hard to see pets get older. My cat is 15 and every day that goes by makes me kind of sad. She is doing very well...she is still as feisty as ever. I just worry about her though.
 
Possibly in pain?
I worry about that. It's the primary reason I'm taking her to the vet next week. I really didn't want to because it will be stressful on her to go, but I need to see if we can rule that out.
Cats can get dementia, that could be the cause for the sporadic yowling.
I've read that and wondered about that as well. She hangs with me the most so I've been trying to give her extra attention. She sleeps on top of me most of the night.
It is so hard to see pets get older. My cat is 15 and every day that goes by makes me kind of sad. She is doing very well...she is still as feisty as ever. I just worry about her though.
15 seems so young to me now! ;) This is the oldest we've had a pet live so it's new territory for us. My advice to you as the owner of a 15 year old is to get her checked out thoroughly (especially the teeth) so you can address anything while she can still tolerate anesthesia.
 


My dog is 13 and that's up there for his breed. He will go in spurts where he does odd things like getting up throughout the night to walk around the house and scratch at wierd places. Like he is lost. I suspect dementia and that could be your cat too.
 
You say it's a few times a day but is it at all times of the day? Or is it more in the afternoons/evenings? My first dog started getting dementia and he would get sundowners syndrome like the way old people do in nursing homes. Every day around 3-4pm he would start rounds of howling and he would do it a few times until 8-ish. If your cat isn't in pain, I'm going to guess based on age the howling is somehow dementia related. Momentary confusion.
 
My cat lived to be 19 1/2 and had some dementia the last few years. She would howl if she was in a different part of the house and couldn’t see us. She was confused and all we had to do was let her see us and she was fine. She just couldn’t figure out how to get to us.

She also lost weight because she had no interest in eating. I had to give her appetite stimulants the last few years.
 
The explanation I have heard is a dementia type one, saying they get temporarily disoriented, not knowing where they are, so start howling.
My dog is 13 and that's up there for his breed. He will go in spurts where he does odd things like getting up throughout the night to walk around the house and scratch at wierd places. Like he is lost. I suspect dementia and that could be your cat too.

Yeah, I think dementia is a definite possibility. I have tried not to over respond for fear of encouraging the howling. But now I think I'll start responding every time I can to offer some reassurance.

You say it's a few times a day but is it at all times of the day? Or is it more in the afternoons/evenings? My first dog started getting dementia and he would get sundowners syndrome like the way old people do in nursing homes. Every day around 3-4pm he would start rounds of howling and he would do it a few times until 8-ish. If your cat isn't in pain, I'm going to guess based on age the howling is somehow dementia related. Momentary confusion.

I'll start making a note of when it happens, but I think it's mostly afternoon/evening so far. Some of what I read online had cats doing it at night, so I'm lucky she's not doing it then at all. I have a hunch it's because she's either sleeping on me or very close by.
My initial thought is she is in pain.
Still a concern, so I'll go get her looked at this week.
My cat lived to be 19 1/2 and had some dementia the last few years. She would howl if she was in a different part of the house and couldn’t see us. She was confused and all we had to do was let her see us and she was fine. She just couldn’t figure out how to get to us.

She also lost weight because she had no interest in eating. I had to give her appetite stimulants the last few years.

19 1/2 is definitely a good run! My MIL had a cat live to 22. The oldest we've had one live is 13 so this is new territory for us. I'm going to try and see if me showing up and give her a quick reassurance will consistently end the howl. Thankfully her appetite is still very strong.
I don't know cats very well, but I don't like it!
I wish I had more to offer. :hug:
Thanks Pea. It's definitely worrisome.

We got this cat when our daughter wasn't even a year old yet. Now she's getting ready to leave for college and I need my other girl to hang in there a while longer.
 
Our 16 year old Weimaraner barked whenever my ex husband wasn't home with her the last year of her life. The neighbors complained. The vet said it was most likely dementia. That was my first thought about your kitty.
Our pets just don't live long enough
 
Dementia is my first guess.

My cat is so vocal that sometimes I worry that when he gets old that will be the indicator that something is up, meaning he's not being his normal chatty all the time self. Seriously the cat rarely shuts up lol.

I hope everything goes well though :hug: .
 
Our cat started howling at night around the age of 18. It was overnight and it scared me so much the first time he did it.

I would call to him or go get him and then he would calm down. It broke my heart actually. The vet started him on melatonin, seemed to work.

Soon after we did discover he was in kidney failure, but the vet didn't think there was a connection.

Good luck, that was a really difficult time for us. :(
 
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I think if it was pain that picking her up and petting her might not make it stop because moving her might make the pain worse.

I’m leaning more toward dementia.
 
I agree it sounds like dementia is the most likely explanation.
Hopefully the vet can give you some tips.

:hug:
 
It doesn't sound like the same thing at all but I just had to add my story. My elderly altered male cat started a new hobby a couple of years ago that involved howling. I hear him in my closet howling so i went to check on him and he was humping a stuffed toy. Well, apparently it was rather...um, er, satisfying because it is his new favorite activity. We will be sitting at the dinner table and he will start up his howling upstairs in the hallway. It cracks my up every time.
 

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