? Cat dementia / cognitive issues

[squeem3]

Does anyone have experience with cat dementia / cognitive issues? Leroy may be starting to have cognitive issues, as if his current issues aren't enough He recently has started yowling randomly while wandering around, sometimes bothering civvie in the process He does eventually settle down. He can do this right after eating a meal so it's not like he wants to be fed Cognitive issues would explain why he poops on the (pee pad covered) litter mat instead of inside the litter box. That's been on and off for the past year-ish. He seems to have stopped peeing in the kitchen sink anti jinx That was a recent thing. I do have two litter boxes, a covered one in the bathroom and a basic open box in the living area. He can get in and out of the litter boxes just fine. Both cats get along.

He had full blood work and urine done just a few weeks ago. No issues were found. Vet says we can try Prozac if the yowling gets worse. He doesn't think cognitive supplements help. Plus with Leroy's sensitive IBD tummy, who knows what might happen

 

[Ailish’s Brother]

Hey, Ailish went through a yowling phase that had us worried about cognitive issues in late 2023/ early 2024. She would just start yelling at night, until someone came to check on her and then would stop.

It went on for a few months. Doc was worried about dementia, did labs and found nothing. His best guess was stress from traveling owners/ family medical issue set her off. He said we could try gabapentin at night, but that just lead to her screaming quitly to herself, which was heartbreaking, so we went back to nothing. She lost the habit after another month or so.

Hope you find something to help or it works out on its own like it did for us!

 

[squeem3]

There isn't anything that happened in the past few years that would have stressed Leroy out. I did change jobs at the end of last year and my commute is a bit longer now but the same as years ago when I worked in the same area at a different company. So Leroy is used to that. The rat crew changes (one leaves, one comes in) but Leroy doesn't care for them. I don't travel since Leroy is too complicated for anyone to take care of. I'm tempted to have an animal communicator or psychic try to figure out what goes on in his head but I'm not sure how trustworthy and accurate those people are.

 

[JL and Chip]

Have you checked his blood pressure, hearing, vision, and thyroid?

My ancient old man started doing the yowling thing in recent years. I never determined a cause but his vocalizations would have a distinct change the moment he saw me, from a pitiful/angst-ridden, extended yowl to a questioning-type, warm meow. I believe he had become deaf at that point and it’s likely his vision had worsened, although he clearly wasn’t blind. Perhaps he was simply reassured by my presence or had lost his bearings. Or maybe he was simply cold (he was rail thin and older cats often can’t regulate body temp as well). I don’t think it was dementia but vets like to suggest it once a cat reaches a certain age. I don’t remember if I ever asked an animal communicator. After ruling out obvious medical issues, I resorted to simply gave him a heat disk to snuggle up with or cuddled him up under my outer shirt (he loved the warm snuggly “cave” environment under my flannel shirt or sweatshirt and would sleep there for hours). Those things always seemed to settle him.

Do you use Solensia? I’ve also seen/heard of some weird mentation issues after injections.

 

[squeem3]

It's all been checked. Everything is normal. No Leroy doesn't use Solensia. I have SnuggleSafe pads and a plug in pad but Leroy has no interest in them. Maybe he sees invisible things or something

 

[Gracie85]

We have an older cat who has called out at night, for years. I simply call back, "It's okay, go to sleep" and hearing my voice seems to settle him.
He used to start as soon as the last light was turned off at night. I think he's just wanted reassurance that he was not left alone; that he needed to know his people were still there.
We now have a younger cat who sometimes raises his head up from a sound sleep and mews quite plaintively. Clearly he is having bad dreams. Again, we just call out and reassure him, and he goes back to sleep.
We have also had two older cats who clearly went through a dementia phase their last couple of years. It wasn't the calling out, it was the inability to deal with ordinary events, like finding a toy blocking their usual pathway across the living room, or moving the food bowl (no, it wasn't vision problems) or just anything from what they knew as usual.