Cat with dementia

[DrCoconut]

Does anyone have any experience with this? Our cat is at least 10, could be more and is losing his faculties. It has been especially pronounced over the last couple of months or so. He prowls around yowling, is having lots of toilet accidents and often seems confused. The vet has ruled out any serious physical conditions though she thinks his eyesight is starting to fail, and says it is most likely dementia. We could pay for an MRI but it would not really alter the outcome, just put a definite name to his condition. She says he could well be older than we thought and it is now just a matter of time but certainly no grounds to PTS or anything like that. Could be weeks or years, we just don't know. He is also on medication for arthritis and it is awful to see him becoming such a frail old man. To be honest I'm struggling with his toilet accidents the most as they stink the house out and are obviously a hygiene issue, especially since we are expecting a baby soon. Does anyone have any tips for dealing with this?

Perhaps more litter trays and get a Feliway diffuser to reduce stress as dementia kitties seem to get stressed easily.

Are the loo accidents poo or wee or both?

Mine is about 18 and has dementia. We give her lots of reassurance. She hasn't started having loo accidents yet.

Has your vet checked his thyroid activity?

Both wee and poo . No thyroid check done.

Ask your vet about a thyroid test. Overactive thyroid can cause yowliness, also weight loss. Can be ascertained through a blood test I think.

I second more litter trays. How many do you have at the moment? Is there at least one on each floor?

I third extra trays, our demented cat went through a stage of messing around the house which was solved by having many trays. My previous cat when very elderly developed an intolerance to cat food in jelly which meant she produced incredibly smelly poos all over the house, swapping to gravy based pouches cured this completely and she went back to reliably using her tray. I'm finding with the present cat that making sure curtains are closed at night is helping with the dawn yowling session, she seems to be being fooled into believing dawn is at 6.30, rather than 4am. She also does better sometimes if confined to one room, seems to be more secure in herself. Mine haven't shown dementia signs until they were beyond 15 years old, I think thyroid is worth investigating.

We took our cat to the vet and after a short discussion, the cat was put to sleep.

I think DrCoconut is hoping for more positive advice than that Marianne, given that her vet has already said that the cat's condition doesn't warrant being pts. I took both my senile cats to the vet regularly and we discussed and implemented regimes which helped them, and me, to cope with their condition and improved their quality of life. There does come a point, I agree, where things become impossible, we came very close when our old cat was spraying all over the house. Luckily we found a way through it. Came close again recently when she woke me at 4am every day, again we seem to have found a solution.

I was also going to ask if he'd had a blood test to check thyroid. My first thought was "overactive thyroid", he's presenting in exactly the same way as my elderly cat did when his thyroid was overactive. In addition my cat lost weight & was drinking loads of water & seemed very anxious/on edge. The eyesight thing could be due to high blood pressure (from overactive thyroid) causing blindness - this also happened to my cat in the end - so please do ask your vet if they would consider blood tests

On the bright side if it is a thyroid problem there are treatments available, mine had surgery & lived for another 2 yrs, the blindness happened later but we were able to keep his quality of life quite reasonable for a long time (although not always easy with young children around I do admit)

I have a dementicat, too. He is 20 this year and has been showing signs for about 18months. I would agree re thyroid checks in the first instance, mine had his checked and removed about 5 yrs ago, now it is purely old age, though he is going deaf rather than blind.

His behaviour swings between 'vacant' and clingy and he can be wobbly on his feet when he's less lucid. His toiletting is ok in the main, though he is predominantly an indoor cat at this stage with the odd jaunt into the garden on a sunny day. His grooming has gone downhill too, so I have to groom him daily with a brush and wet rubber gloves. That said, at the moment, he seems happy, is eating well and seems to be enjoying life. We take it a day at a time at his age and I'm aware that we're very much in the winter of his years and when the time comes the decision needs to be made, will be made in his best interest.

We lost Shadow a couple of weeks ago. He got a lot worse and lost the use of his back end. He also may have had a stroke. The vet said there was nothing could be done other than to let him go peacefully. DS2 has been upset by it and has asked a lot of questions about death etc but we know we did the right thing and he had a good life.

Sorry to hear that Dr.

Best wishes to you & yours, Dr