Do cats get more vocal when they are getting old?

his_missus

My eldest cat (we think he's 14 as he's stray) has started howling more at night, it's like having a baby waking us up every couple of hours. The vet said it is probably due to him waking up in the dark and feeling disorientated, he may also feel too stiff in his joints to initially come look for us, so he is howling to help find us. Usually it's Hubby yelling "shurrup! bloomin' cat"
We tried ignoring it and he usually came to find us eventually, the howling lessened for a while...just for a while though. He's taken to sleeping on my pillow at the mo but will get up during the night then start howling. He must know where we are, he's just left my pillow :rotfl: He doesn't snore but his purrs vibrate through the whole bed.

miffy257

Our cat Daisy is 16 and has been yowling for some time, we put it down to old age and deafness. It drives us mad at times as she just goes on and on, thankfully she doesn't snore. She is gorgeous when she's quiet and very friendly and cuddly, she spends quite a bit of time draped round DS's neck when he's on the PC, painful when she slips though!!!!! She was quiet as a young cat too.

ellay864

My Holly is 9 and has always been horrendously loud. I've had several cats before her but NEVER one that makes a noise like she does. It's like she just shouts for attention. But then if you try to pick her up for a cuddle it's all claws and wriggling. My DH likes to pretend to ignore her if he's sat at the table on his laptop and she jumps up on the chair next to him. She shouts, he doesn't respond; she shouts louder, he ignores her...so she usually just bites his arm then just to remind him she's there!
She's always had the run of the house day and night, and has catflap so comes and goes outside as she pleases, but we've had to stop that at night and keep the door shut so she has the kitchen and conservatory. The shouting when she did come home at 3am was getting ridiculous...it was only very rare times she'd just creep into our room and lie on the bed. She yells at us to let us know she's home and yells all the way up the stairs. If she wasn't doing that she'd have caught mice or birds, brought them home alive and then chased them round the house leaving varius bits of them for us to find next day. I was getting so fed up of clearing up dead things or being woken...my kids are grown up now but it's like having a baby again, and I'm so tired at work after being kept up with the cat that we just had to stop it. She does like her big bed under the kitchen radiator but still gives me 'that look' in the morning to make me feel guilty!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

gettingready wrote: »

I hope not. Macius is only 4 months old and NEVER shuts up - does my head in.....

Neither does Dizz. Well, apart from when he's eating or sleeping.



The friendly chirrup from a cat clawing at your face at 3.42am because he's decided that he loves you and wants a cuddle [glares at the old boy] is the only reason he doesn't get launched - you realise you aren't being savaged, you're being pestered for fuss instead.

gettingready

Nah, Dizz called me at 3.14 am - from your mobile.. you got the time wrong LOL

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

gettingready wrote: »

Nah, Dizz called me at 3.14 am - from your mobile.. you got the time wrong LOL

Yeah, wasn't impressed with him for that.

But I meant Oggs - the old boy - for chirruping. Dizz just attaches himself to my foot, climbs under the covers against my back for an attack/sleep or flumps himself on the backs of my knees if I roll over - or last night, crashed across my right knee so I couldn't move all night.

Mitzi is beside my head purring and fussing right now, Oggs sounds like he's on the rug, Sqeek is on the chest of drawers and Dizz has just bounced from the chair by my bed across my legs and up to the windowsill.

Now he's back beside the bed again, looking for something to torture. It'll be me or one of the other cats, I suspect. Although he did march in with DD's sock the other day. Then deposited a shoelace on the bed, then a doll's dress, a bit of kitchen roll and a plastic bangle, chirruping each time to announce himself.

gettingready

You are lucky I do not have a voicemail... imagine what a phone bill he could have run then LOL

faerie~spangles

My old girl (in her 20's) when she passed away was quite vocal in her last five or so years.

She spoke and I fed her, she was fed on demand and tbh in her latter years she ate less than a can per day.

I did give her little treats fresh cod, chicken, liver.

I miss her.

Laconic

All joking aside, if your cat has been getting louder of late, please get his hearing checked. Cats that are going deaf will often miaow more and louder as they can't hear themselves. It might be something readily sorted.

his_missus

Don't think my old man (cat not hubby) howls loudly because he's deaf - rattle a packet of treats and he canhear it a mile away!