Siamese and night times!

[DrDolittlesParrot]

He's driving me crazy! He's 12 years old, and every night he wanders around the house, shouts at the top of his voice, scratches the carpet, walks all over me, tries to climb the curtains. I've tried putting lots of food down, making sure all internal doors are open. There it's no reason for all this noise except he's contrary. I live in a rented house, so the scratching makes me very anxious, I wouldn't care if it was my own carpet. But I also rarely sleep longer than a few hours at a time. He insists on sleeping in the bed with me, sometimes won't settle until 4 a.m, but wakes me at 8! If I shut him in the kitchen he just yowls to be let out. He's worse than he was as a kitten! He was quite ill in the summer and is now on daily painkillers.

Could this be the onset of some sort of dementia? I suspect if so there's nothing they can do about it.

Even if I play with him in the evening for quite a while it makes no difference. He wants to sleep all day, then is wide awake at night. I realise cats are semi nocturnal, but this is extreme.

I expect extreme behaviour from a siamese, but am really struggling with this.

Any tips?

[DrDolittlesParrot]

Sorry, forgot the obligatory photo.

[bettyboo40]

Have you had his thyroid checked? My elderly cat became very vocal and the vet said that yowling is a sign. He is better now he is on medication but he's still very loud in the morning. He's not even desperate for food, he just wants lots of fuss!

[bettyboo40]

Gorgeous cat by the way!

[DrDolittlesParrot]

@bettyboo40 interesting you should say that. He was diagnosed with thyroid problems a year ago, but when he was ill this summer the tests showed his levels were normal. The thyroid medication prescribed didn't agree with him, so I'd been feeding him special food. It's possible the food brought his levels down and that now he's on different food the problem has come back. The vet did tell me to watch out for him eating a lot and not putting on weight, but I think he's put on weight so I wasn't concerned. The first sign last time was diarrhoea, but he hasn't got that now.

I guess I need to book him in for a test again. I'm dreading it because the medication he was on made him vomit a lot. The food he had is expensive, but I'm reluctant to go back to it, as I'm unsure if that's what caused his illness in the summer. It's just been a very difficult year with him and the vet doesn't seem to know why.