Cat with dementia and his quality of life.

[Zireael]

I was wondering whether anyone has been in a situation like this and how you made the right decision for them.

My beautiful boy is 20 years old and we have had him since he was 12 weeks. He is in good physical health, but is showing his age - he doesn’t go out much, moves a little stiffly and can’t jump up very well. Has his annual vet checks and no concerns noted.

But we have seen significant behaviour changes in the last year. He yowls when he is alone, but stops quickly once one of us is with him, often worse at nighttime, and we now have to shut him out of the bedrooms as he wakes us all up. He even seems to have forgotten that he doesn’t like our two dogs; he would avoid them like the plague, but now will walk into the room they are in, get scared when they come close, and then scarper.

The vet says that dementia is the likely cause. I am concerned that, just like with people, his dementia is causing him agitation and distress.

I’m dreading having to make a difficult decision soon, and wondered whether anyone has any similar experience, and how did you know when the time had come?

my senior cats did/do the yowling thing. (and as an aside, my horse did it in the field too - unril you pointed him towards the rest of the horses behind him that hed forgotten were there when he wandered up to the water trough for a drink, and once he noticed them he went back to them)

Cat yowling is very loud and sounds like a sad lonely call to missing family. whether it’s missing human or cat mum/siblings from the past i dont know. sometimes she stops if i shout to her that im in whatever room. sometimes not so i guess it’s not me she wants

i have to shut mine out of the bedroom or i get rudely awakened at 5am and every 20mins thereafter so i can get back to sleep.

i think as long as they have company they should be ok. as long as they are not distressed.

maybe your cat cant see things very well and mistakes rhe dogs for large cats, unril she gets nearer and sees they are NOT cats and thinks oh shit 🤣

While he continues to seem happy, and is eating and interacting with you I would not worry too much. He will just need a bit more reassurance than usual.

I suspect that at that age he also has some hearing impairment, all my older cats did. If so, he will miss audible cues from your dogs, so along with his cognitive problems it would explain he only realises when he gets close up they are something he wants to avoid!

As long as he seems happy, and is eating and interacting with you I would not worry too much. He will tell you when it's time.

Our old boy clearly had dementia for the last few years of his life, and as it progressed we kept having the same conversations as you are having. The last 18 months or so were difficult for us - the yowling in the early hours and his increasingly missing the litter tray (a previously fastidious cat) were hard work, but he was happy enough snuggled up in his spot on the sofa most of the time and he was such a special cat that we accepted it. It suddenly became obvious that he was struggling more often than not, and we think he had a series of small strokes that took his legs in the last week of his time with us - it was that which made us make the appointment. I think what I'm saying is that you will know when you need to call the vet - if he's not happy or in pain, you will see it. Hugs to you, it's the terrible price to pay for loving our pets.