Bubz is squawking and screaming

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Am sure you're not ignoring her.     You're trying to figure out what's wrong, because you've recognised this is a departure from "normal."   You've detected that when cats cry, it's almost always either a kitten response to a parent, or their attempt to let us know they have a want or a need that isn't being met, and with cats, that basically amounts to the same thing.

They have no concept of inappropriate.  They rely heavily on us to have their needs met.

Often losing their sense of hearing is massively scary to a creature that relies on heightened senses in a way we don't appreciate.  When Paddy went deaf, he would cry for us in the night.  As he struggled to mount the stairs, we would get up, pick him up and carry him to bed with us.  We put a litter tray in our room too.  I would sing to him, and rest my throat on the back of his neck, which would make him purr and calm him down.  It will take some work to discover what Bubz needs are, but well done for realising she's unsettled. 

[Helena]

I'll do that and see what happens.

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

Sounds like either deafness or hyperT.  I definitely think she needs a vet check to rule out illness before considering offering any advice  on behaviour.

[Helena]

Its not just food Sue, it appears randomly. I'm more worried in terms of her disturbing my PAs although it is getting to me now. My current PA has been not reacting to Bubz's noise, and that has reduced her (Bubz) noisiness. We aren't ignoring her, just reminding her that it's *me* that Bubz has to ask, not my PAs because i've had one or two PAs who have done what they had to and no more.

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

 Thanks Helena.  That's helpful.  Given her age and that her vocalisation surrounds food and is often prevalent at night, I'd suggest a vet visit to check for hyper-t. 

It can be a symptom, especially if she is wanting to eat more often. 

Another possibility could be a mini stroke, or onset deafness, both of which can cause a cat to be more vocal.  It happened to a 15 year old cat we had.  He had hyperthyroidism and suffered a stroke which left him deaf.  He went on to live a further 5 years quite happily but we did gave to make adjustments to our care routine for him.

[Helena]

Hi, Helena.  When you say "wants attention" can you give examples - if you could contrast it with "before" and "after" it might help to narrow down the possible causes.  Screaming worries me.  I'd be looking at getting her vet checked as that suggests pain. 

You could try Zylkene supplement in with her food, and try a different pheromone such as Pet Remedy, but you need to distinguish what is causing the vocalizations.  It can sometimes be triggered by hyper-t and other illnesses, so I would try to rule out any physical cause first. 

If you can outline examples though it may help pinpoint what s giving rise to the new behaviour.

She's always been eager to have food put down if she's hungry but now instead of circling either my PA or standing in front of my computer monitor or head butting me so she can stand on my keyboard, now she makes such a racket as well as circling me or my PA on and on that sometimes she'll get her food down and promptly walks off.

At night she is waking my PAs at anything between 3 and 6 a.m by howling but I'm fairly sure it's not boredom.  I sleep heavily due to my medication that its not often that she wakes me unless I'm already waking up slowly, though she has clawed my hand till she has woken me which is rather futile because I can't get out of bed without a lot of help. I wouldn't put it past Candice to have got out of bed to make  a fuss of her on occasion - not every time.

Bubz has got more vocal as she's got older (she's been with me 12 years with another year added by the vet at Cat's Protection) but she's never made this much noise consistently.

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

 Hi, Helena.  When you say "wants attention" can you give examples - if you could contrast it with "befire" and "after" it might help to narrow down the possible causes.  Screaming worries me.  I'd be looking at getting her vet checked as that suggests pain. 

You could try Zylkene supplement in with her food, and try a different pheromone such as Pet Remedy, but you need to distinguish what is causing the vocalizations.  It can sometimes be triggered by hyper-t and other illnesses, so I would try to rule out any physical cause first. 

If you can outline examples though it may help pinpoint what s giving rise to the new behaviour.

[Helena]

Hi all, I hope you can help Bubz and me. in recent months Bubz attitude has changed radically. She has been/is screaming and squawking whenever she wants attention day or night.

I can trace it back to a particular PA who is bonkers about cats. For those who don't know I'm disabled and rely on carers or Personal Aassistants for bulk of life's activities.  I've always made it clear that PAs aren't to make any fuss over Bubz no matter how cute she is -- and she *is* cute. But this particular one, Candice, hasn't taken the tiniest bit of notice. She hasn't been here for about 6 weeks and Bubz has howled as though she is in heat (not possible).

What do I do? Feliway doesn't work, btw.