Why does my old cat cry out at night?

My old lady cat

I am getting a little exasperated. Every night these days my 19 year old lady cat wakes me at 3:30 in the morning crying out. Sometimes her cry is a very deep one and loud. It is insistent. And sometimes it is a standard loud meow.

The deep cry is an interesting sound. She has only really started to make it fairly recently. She is not in pain neither is she ill. She is, however, very old and she is deaf or partially deaf.

One reason she calls out is for the simple reason that the food that I had put down for her has been eaten by a stray cat! She is hungry! Although she won't eat dry food these days unless it is Hills C/d.

Putting that reason aside, the reason she cries out is, I believe, to get attention and reassurance. She might also cry out after eating and after coming in from the outside. I believe that she feels isolated due to her deafness and needs comfort through contact with me to reassure her that all is well. During eating she is focused. When she stops she is a little confused and needs the reassurance of me around.

Another reason for a sense of isolation is senility. The vets call this cognitive dysfunction syndrome. It can cause a loss of awareness of the surroundings. This sense of disorientation and confusion results, I believe in a need for reassurance. She is crying out for that.

Once she has been comforted and eaten she settles down again. The major factor I believe is her insecurity due to her failing senses and particularly deafness.

She might want to be lifted up onto my bed for a cuddle as well. Of course I oblige. All this happens at 3:30 am. I am writing this at 4 am as I have just done all the above.

Apparently up to 40% of cats in the age bracket 16-20 years of age can suffer from disorientation due to cognitive dysfunction. There is nothing that can be done about it seems. A drug that is used for dogs, L-deprenyl (Anipryl), which improves the action of the brains neurotransmitters has not yet been approved for cats but is being tested (this drug was first used to treat Cushing’s disease in dogs - source: www.veterinarypartner.com). Things may have changed as at the date of this post. Personally, I would not prescribe drugs for something that is a natural consequence of aging. Plenty of tender love and care is the better treatment, I feel.

Here she is the night howler....! She has lost weight.

You can hear her cry at the beginning of this video:



Persistent crying in a young cat is probably due to discomfort or pain. For newborn kittens, an infection of the blood (kitten septicemia) will cause crying.



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