Senile or daft? How to tell?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

First post here in litter tray!

We have 3 cats, and I’m a bit concerned about the oldest one. He’s about 12/13 yo. He’s always been an odd animal, more dog like than cat (begs for food, comes running to see visitors etc), these days he rarely goes out and never out of the garden. Last few weeks he’s started doing odd things, (but not ridiculous as in he’s always been a bit of an odd ball) -
Walking into Windows, licking himself so vigorously he rolls over (?), misjudging jumps onto the worktop and scrabbling about or having to try again, eating/licking really spicy food plates and very unsuitable foods. He tried to jump onto the treadmill while I was running and then tried again (luckily didn’t get onto the belt or he could have really hurt himself or me)

I wonder if this is him losing his marbles a bit, but due to his previous unusual behaviour it’s nothing too outlandish. For context, he’s the sort of cat who will sleep in the bath tub, drink from the toilet, those kind of things and is something of a character/attention seeker so these oddities could be just an extension of that.

Not really sure how senility presents itself in cats and whether this could be the start of it?

12/13 is a bit young to be thinking senility - typical age these days of a pet cat is nearer 18-20 so yours is in his prime still.

I'm completely paranoid about my kitties, so I would probably get him checked by the vet as walking into stuff, losing balance & misplacing jumps are all things I would be worried about myself.

What Allergic said. I do recall a neighbour's cat did get senile, but he was much older than this (used to forget his way home, silly boy).

Worth getting a vet check, but they don't sound overly unusual behaviours for a cat.
The mis-timing jumps could be something like eye problem or stiffness.
Cats actually get a buzz from chilli, so curry eating cats are relatively common ( old girl used to love it, current boy reacts with horror to the idea of eating anything outside of his one brand of food - chicken flavour only - and a limited list of approved snacks).

He might have sore joints, missing the jump and tumbling over when washing. He might need meds for his joints - a painkiller?

Can we see him?

Thanks everyone

I suppose it’s not the behaviours oer se but that these particular things seem to be unusually clumsy I guess. It’s hard to explain, but they just don’t seem normal for him

Here’s a pic! His name is Ro-Ro. His current ‘spot’ is the kitchen counter so today we got him this nice padded bed to try and contain some of the fluff!