My cat is driving me crazy! Advice please!

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Writing this on behalf of a family member who told me yesterday about the problems they have with their cat and needs some advice.
My relative has not had a cat before but loves animals. They have recently adopted a 15 year old cat who originally belonged to someone they used to work for who sadly died. The cat also had a sibling who died (I think, but certainly not with them). Anyway, they took the cat in to avoid it going into rescue.

Currently in the situation of keeping it in to aclimatise it. Seems happy enough, but, at night its going room to room (guessing looking for old owner & its sibling). Anyway its doing lots of yowling. It insists on coming in their room at night & again yowls - alot. They are pretty sleep deprived which is exhausting. I dont think theyve had the cat that long, but they are shattered & said to me yesterday its so bad that they are thinking about Rescues.

I know what some of you are thinking when I say that. But this family member is a nice, kind person & needs some helpful advice. Ive only ever had 1 cat myself (rescue from 1 year old), which we had till she died a few years ago, so havent come across thid problem.

My relative needs some advice & sleep! Help!

How recently?

If this is outside of normal settling in, given age of cat I would wonder if it has feline dementia.

Very similar situation with lots of advice here -

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_litter_tray/5440667-a-bit-of-new-rescue-cat-regret?page=1

Restrict to one room at night. Feliway may help. Vet check.

Has it been checked for hyperthyroidism? V common in older cats and they yowl for food as it makes them incredibly hungry. Thankfully quite treatable, so hopefully that and not dementia.

However if its a siamese or bengal then its probably just the cat 😅 they are very vocal.

Does it have anything from its old home. It's bed, a blanket it used to lie on. Even a jumper it's old owner used to wear? Just something that can bring a familiar smell. Might provide some comfort.

Cats do get a burst of energy at night. Do they have set feeding times? Cats understand schedules, mine is howling at 2pm when it’s lunchtime, they just know. Getting an automatic feeder is good as they often want food at dawn, so you can set that the night before.

also they may be bored. You should play with them before you go to bed to wear them out a bit, especially if they’re kept indoors.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Ive passed this on & the Mumsnet link to this thread so that my relative can look at your replies and comment if they want to.

In response when I spoke to them just now, they had brought some things from the previous owner. The cat previously had free range of previous owners large garden & woodland so it may be very frustrated about being shut in. They have had it for I think 6 weeks, so still all quite new.

The cat apparently used to yowl sometimes at its previous home.

They have a vet appt booked so will ask about the hyper thyroidism & explain what is happening to get Vets opinion.

Cant say more as I only had limited info, so will leave any other replies for them to make if they would like to. But big thanks to all of you who replied. Very much appreciated. 🥰

We took on an old cat after the owner died. He’d been in a nursing home with her and had been mistreated by other residents.
this cat needs a vet check to rule out problems, ours had bad teeth. I suspect he is desperate to be out as well.
our cat was a lovely old chap but it took 6months for him to settle so it’s early days.