El... Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 Our cat is about 16 years old. We moved (internationally! Hotels! Airplanes! New house!) this spring, and have been in our new home for two months. She's suddenly a lot more prone to yelling. She makes demands for more food, fresh water, and petting in a strident yowl. However, she also seems to randomly yowl while walking around, indoors and in the yard. She woke herself up from a solid nap today by sleep-yowling. She's significantly louder than ever before. She seems normal otherwise. She's getting lazier, but still runs and plays occasionally. Do you think she's going deaf? Any experience with older cats doing this? She has a vet checkup soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 I don’t know but our old cat really started talking after the other cat died. We were rather surprised. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 Could she be more confused? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted June 2, 2021 Author Share Posted June 2, 2021 6 minutes ago, Terabith said: Could she be more confused? Hmm, I don't know. She seems to have taken ownership of the house in her usual way. She doesn't look lost. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 When one of our cats died (your sweet kitty reminds me of her), the remaining cat started the yowling. She just kept doing it for months--maybe a year or close to it. I thought, still think, she was sad. We moved and my in laws, who had just lost one of their cats, took her (my son was allergic, we wanted the new house to be cat free, and it was clear that our little Aubrey was just super sad). She stopped crying there, and made freinds with their remaining cat. Anyway, I'm glad your kitty is having a check up. At that age I would be concerned she might be having pain causing it. But it could just be the move. I hope it's something like that and subsides soon. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 I noticed that our cats' personalities seemed to change when we moved to some extent, even when they were rather young adults. It really made me wonder about the intersection of personality and environment. Maybe the new house makes her feel more confident in her ability to make demands? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 Some cats who lose their hearing will vocalize more and louder. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 9 hours ago, elroisees said: However, she also seems to randomly yowl while walking around, indoors and in the yard. She woke herself up from a solid nap today by sleep-yowling. She's significantly louder than ever before. My 16 year old cat is the same. As soon as she wakes up, she yowls until someone comes to find her. She used to come looking for us, now she stays and meows till we come to her! It's not fun during Zoom meetings and really not fun at night!!!!! She's been to the vet and there's nothing that's significantly wrong, other than generally old age arthritis and stuff. I do think she's not seeing or hearing well anymore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GailV Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 Many older cats tend to wander around yelling. If you google it or talk to a vet you'll see a lot of recognition of this. Our 19yo (my avatar) does it from a combo of losing his hearing and dementia. I think the 14yo does it because she likes to hear herself. For example, when we ripped up the carpet in the bedrooms and installed wood floors, before we got all the soft furnishings in, she liked to go into those rooms and listen to the echo she could make. As we got the beds and all back in she stopped. Sometimes I wonder if the kids' voice lessons gave her the idea of going off by herself and making big vocalizations. Another of our cats did the random loud meows as she aged, too. She was around 15 or 16. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emba Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 10 hours ago, Terabith said: I noticed that our cats' personalities seemed to change when we moved to some extent, even when they were rather young adults. It really made me wonder about the intersection of personality and environment. Maybe the new house makes her feel more confident in her ability to make demands? I have noticed that with cats too. One cat completely changed from social to Not-social and the times of day he was active. It was so strange. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 My 22 year old cat became more vocal a few years ago. She's also pretty much deaf. All demands ( and there are many) are made with loud yowling. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 Does your new place echo more than where you lived before? I had an older cat that loved to yowl in the stairwell, where it was louder. She would entertain herself that way for quite a while until she realized we were listening. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OH_Homeschooler Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 1 hour ago, regentrude said: My 22 year old cat became more vocal a few years ago. She's also pretty much deaf. All demands ( and there are many) are made with loud yowling. My 17 year old cat has been yelling a lot more (always was vocal but it's extra now). She is deaf. And she is very demanding, yowling to let us know the water in her own special bowl is not up to the very tippy top and such. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 33 minutes ago, OH_Homeschooler said: My 17 year old cat has been yelling a lot more (always was vocal but it's extra now). She is deaf. And she is very demanding, yowling to let us know the water in her own special bowl is not up to the very tippy top and such. Or that there's a tiny piece of fuzz floating in it. Not acceptable! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted June 2, 2021 Share Posted June 2, 2021 Being more vocal (and hungrier) can be signs of hyperthyroidism, pretty common in older cats. Some bloodworkd would tell you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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