[BadCat]

My cat is almost 18 years old. She is arthritic and deaf as a post but has decent quality of life.

But I'm horribly afraid that if we can't get her night time yowling under control she may not have a life to have quality of.

Every night she hops up for a feed in the middle of the night and then yowls at the top of her lungs as she wanders around the house looking for attention. She'll sit at the foot of our bed and yowl even though she has a step to help her onto the bed and her own heated pad sits on my bedside table so she can sleep right beside me in a warm place. She claws her way around the bed base and then yells some more.

She has been like this for months and while I am suffering the sleep deprivation largely in silence it is taking a major toll on DH and he is at breaking point. We both love our cat dearly but it's getting to the point where we are skirting around the suggestion of putting her to sleep for the good of our own health.

I really don't want to lose my cat but I'm at my wits end.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to help my cat settle quietly at night?


PS: We've tried adjusting her feeding times but no matter how much she eats during the day she always gets up at night and woe betide if you haven't put out fresh food for her. Leaving a light on so she can find us doesn't help. I've slept in the loungeroom to encourage her to stay out of the bedroom so DH can sleep, with patchy results (she still yells and wakes me but sometimes DH sleeps through).

This post has been edited by BadCat: 07/01/2013, 07:30 AM

[Missy Shelby]

One of my cats has started doing this as well for the last couple of weeks by she is about 7 years old and as far as I know in pretty good health.

I must admit if all the kids are sleeping and she wakes me up she gets told to BE QUIET pretty damn quickly!!

Will be stalking this thread...

[HollyOllyOxenfre...]

Is she actually eating the food in the middle of the night, or is it just the routine of getting you up to give her food? I only ask because our old cat used to yowl and carry on during the night, and while feeding him would shut him up, he wasn't actually that interested in the food, he just wanted the attention. We ended up having to suffer through a few nights of basically ignoring him when he did it, and then he eventually got the hint that we weren't going to get up to him through the night. We also introduced a new place for him to sleep that was just his, but by the sounds of it your cat already has this. He was also a lot younger, so much easier to break a habit.

Will she eat dry food through the night, or can you put her food out before you go to bed? I know our cat is very finicky with food and won't eat it if it's been left out, but not sure if yours will. Would it be worth chatting to your vet about her diet? Or could it be pain from the arthritis waking her?

[Jillian_10]

Poor puss. I assume you have spoken to the vet and considered a mild dose of whatever is equivalent to Valium for cats? And feliway?

My guess is she is looking for comfort and attention more than food, coz she forgets that night time is when people sleep.

One of my older cats occasionally comes and yells at our door, but it's not every night, and the cats haven't been in our room in this house. He also has three moggy friends to go to instead of us.

[BadCat]

She eats the food most niights. I do put food out before I go to bed and sometimes she is happy with that and doesn't require you to get up to feed her but she will still yowl when she's done in any case.

She's on drugs for her arthritis and is moving quite freely so I don't think it's pain that's causing her to be noisy.

I've not heard of Feliway? Is it a drug?

This post has been edited by BadCat: 07/01/2013, 08:01 AM

[Carmen02]

my 12yr old cat drives me nuts doing that, we find that if someone moves around during the night it sets him off his seeking the attention (we shut him out of bedrooms have all his life his used to it) his getting worse I hope he doesnt keep it up! we find after about half an hour of no one moving and no noises in the bedroom he calms down..he has his 10yr old mate to keep him company too

[ubermum]

Mine does this. She is fine once I get up and put her on the bed with me. Her eyesight is not what it used to be and I think that she is nervous getting up on her own. A nightlight in my room seems to have helped. She was still occasionally wandering down to the other end of the house and youwling because I think she got disoriented in the dark, so I put some battery operated candles in the loungeroom (another night light) and this has helped too.

[Jillian_10]

Ive not had to use feliway for anything, but have heard good things about it. The idea is that it's meant to soothe them by putting a calming scent in the air. Essential oils for cats, I suppose.

http://www.feliway.com/au/How-Feliway-R-ca...at-is-Feliway-R

[amoral lemur]

We have a 20 year ofl cat that does this. Our final solution was to lock her away in another part of the house overnight. She has been fine under this arrangement and if she does howl as least it is less noise (behind a closed door and a distance away)

[blackcat20]

My cat does this as well, but was born deaf, so its more of a "I cant find you" situation. She does it every night once we've turned out the lights but then heads to bed after a few minutes. She also sometimes gets up during the night and meows for a bit (loudly!), but we always make sure there is food available and she settles pretty quickly. Probably not much help, sorry.