My Screaming Cat (feline, kidney, blood, canned food)
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We have a 17 1/2 year-old cat named Annie. She has always been a pretty non-vocal cat. However, for the past several months, she often wakes us in the night with an extremely loud meow. It's actually kind of hard to describe, but it is pretty distressed sounding. It's a low-pitched meow and to hear it, you'd almost think that someone has just slammed her tail in a door or something. It also sounds a little bit like a newborn baby's cry -- the way they sound before they even start to shed tears. At any rate, she has been meowing like this almost every night for a couple of months at least. It's almost always in the middle of the night when we're fast asleep, and it lasts for maybe ten or fifteen seconds. If we get up and go to where the sound is coming from, we see her sitting or laying peacefully as if there is nothing wrong, looking at us as if to say, "Uh... what are you doing up?" Sometimes, we just call out to her and the meowing stops, but it's hard to say if it's hearing our voices that does the trick or not, since the meowing generally only goes on for ten seconds or so regardless.
We found out last summer that Annie is in early renal failure. About three weeks ago, we took her to the vet specifically because of these horrible crying episodes. The vet did a complete blood workup and said that her kidney function really doen't seem to have changed much in the past six months, but that she had a pretty bad URI that we could treat with antibiotics. We just finished giving her a three-week course of the antibiotics, not missing a single dose, so I'm assuming that the URI is now cleared up. The horrible "Help! I'm being tortured to death" meowing has not stopped, though. We've even started considering that maybe there is something mental going on -- like nightmares. I don't know if this is even possible, though. Any thoughts?
These types of behavioral changes during illness or advanced age are always heart breaking, and many times cannot be well understood. I've gone through this with several dogs and cats and I think the best you can do has already been done [assuming your vet has covered all the bases] and that is you've given your feline many years of love and care and with the diagnosis of early renal failure, which is typically irreversible, offering comfort care is key. Felines tend to decline in a saw tooth fashion, they have good times, and not so good times, sometimes they get put on meds that help, their blood work improves, hope rises only to be dashed later when things don't go well. It can be an emotional roller coaster. My best advice would be to savor the good times coming your way, try to temper the anxiety and angst that would come with screaming, and just be there for your baby, physical presence goes a long way during these times as she may not want to be handled, petted or nuzzled if she doesn't feel well. And just know you're doing all you can do and she loves you and she won't be alone. I know how heart breaking this is, especially when you love your "kids". My girls are 5 and 8, and every time I hear an unusual meow, I jump up and check it out worried that something is wrong. I know there will come a day when something will be wrong but until then, I savor each day with these incredible creatures. Hang in and we'll hope things turn around as felines can live into their 20's even with chronic disease. But she will pick up on your worry and sorrow, give her your comfort and love, nothing better than that if there's nothing else to be done.
jud2401's advice is good. I do know that senior dogs can get a type of canine dementia; I'm more of a dog than a cat person but a quick google of feline demenita indicates it can, and vocalization is one sign.
Annie IS a very pretty feline and very lucky to have you. Many animals suffer so without any love or attention, just alone. Annie will never be alone and is obviously well cared for, nothing better than that!
First, the kidney disease. I don't really know if this could contribute to the yowling or not. Either way, this is a great compendium of info that you may have already seen, but if not you'll want to check it out: Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Cat I don't know if your cat is under any treatment (there is no cure) for the kidney disease, but it's possible that such treatment with the sub-q fluids would help her feel better than otherwise and because of that she may stay in better health for longer.
Now one of the things that comes right to mind with the yowling is hyperthyroid, but I'm going to guess you've already had her checked for that. At least, I hope at your 3 weeks ago visit they would have included that in their blood workup, if not sometime earlier as well. If you're not sure, call the vet and ask. If they didn't, you should have that checked (and you probably should be wondering why they didn't include it).
Assuming that's ruled out though, here's another thing I think happened with my cat: hearing loss. Now I don't know for sure that it was the cause of her yowling. She also has hyperthyroid, but at the time she did the night yowling she had already been under treatment for that for a year or two with well-controlled levels. We did do an adjustment of dose somewhere along the line, so it's not impossible that that was the culprit. But we're also pretty sure she can't hear at all anymore, or if she can it's very very little. She's not startled by loud noises right behind her, doesn't hear us coming, etc. One thing we started doing was trying to remember to leave some light(s) on at night. Small lights will do, might be worth trying. We figured that with no hearing she might want a little bit better chance at seeing. Only thing is in our case the yowling did not go on for more than a few weeks I don't think. But it seemed to correspond with the time when we were discovering that she couldn't hear. She gets on quite well, we gesture to her and do other things that are visual since she can't hear. Here's a fun writeup (really!) about a cat with hearing loss: Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats » Blog Archive » Senior Cats and Hearing Loss
I'm not as familiar with the dementia as I don't believe either the prior 17-year-old cat or my current one had that, but it does seem like a possibility. Either this or the hearing I think could leave the cat disoriented at night and thus vocalizing about it. Although the scenario you describe maybe doesn't exactly sound like she is disoriented. Amber used to turn up in the hallway near our bedroom with the yowling.
What a pretty kitty! At her age, she's probably getting a little confused in the night. Elderly cats tend to get hard of hearing, too. I know my Silhouette did, and so she got great sleep with no noises waking her up! But it made her meowing ... different.
I really do appreciate everybody's input so far, and will look into the things you all have suggested. I'll also be checking back for additional comments. Annie's such a sweetheart. I just wish she could tell me what's going on.
Our cat will cry out sometimes at night when she wants to play. At times I have to get up and swing the mouse for a while till she gets it out of her system. Its just in their nature to come alive when we go to sleep.
Annie is a beauty! Hope she stays reasonably healthy for a long while.
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Hope she stays reasonably healthy for a long while.
