senile ??

[Janeyk]

Hiya 

The best way to post pics is to attach them to your message so eg when you reply to a post just underneath it says attach and if you click on that then you can attach a photo from your documents or pictures, hope that makes sense? 

[tuppence]

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/p1049560/Desktop/yet%20more%20013.jpg

Hi Janeyk. Thanks to you and other posters for advice. Penny seems a bit better, perhaps these things come and go. I've tried to attach picture of Penny on the above link, but seem to be having trouble with IT set-up.

[Janeyk]

Hi Tuppence and  glad you found us,

If your cat has high salt levels then the water obsession would make sense and I hope the diet helps her.  We adopt oldies and a couple of mine have loved water, sometimes this has been when their kidney's have been failing or because of thyroid problems but our Smokey was water mad and our cat Byron loves water too and both of their bloods were fine - with Smokey we bought him a water fountain which he just adored. 

Regarding the howling the first thing which came into my mind was hearing loss because a couple of our oldies who have had compromised hearing have made peculiar howling sounds although some old cats do this when their hearing is ok.  The link which Dawn has attached should be helpful too 

It would be nice to see a photo of your Penny (our very first cat was called Penny  )

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Were kidneys OK?

Try looking on Vet UK for the food that the vet has recommended, it will be much cheeper from there if she will eat it 

[Kay and Penny]

welcome to Purrs Tuppence

sounds to me as if Penny should  be putting a Drinking Fountain on to her Christmas wish list

[tuppence]

Yes, she was checked for thyroid etc and pronounced ok. The only thing that showed on the blood test was the high salt level.

We are giving her the vet's low salt diet where possible, but of course being from the vet it's expensive, and they only have a couple of varieties. Therefore we are still giving her some normal foods as well. She's so obsessed with water she even jumps up onto the sink and attempts to drink from the tap !!

Still, at least that shows she's still fit and supple. Hopefully, we'll have her for some time as we also have her younger sister, and I wonder what the effect on the younger one would be if Penny were to die.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Hard of hearing will be enough to cause this but did she have blood tests for kidneys and thyroid cos they could be the reason for obsession with water.

She sounds like my late Kocka who started this at 18/19 and she aslo started to go blind around 19 1/2 due to high blood pressure, so not just hearing to check but also sight and blood pressure.

Kocka used to splash and flick water every where  and had kidney and thyroid probs and vet aslo said she was suffering with old age and some dementia.


Kocka lived till 20 yrs old and got gradually more noisy and the other things got worse 

[tuppence]

Hi folks,

Thanks for swift responses and warm welcome.

The cat's name is Penny ( sometimes known as Penny Pumpkin !! ).

The vet did mention possible deafness and tried handclaps, but results non- specific. She may be a little hard of hearing but not completely deaf.

[Rosella moggy]

Beat me to it Christine.  Cat's becomming hard of hearing do have a tendency to make howling noises.   

to Purrs Tuppence 

[Christine (Blip)]

  to Purrs, Tuppence: glad you found us.

We have a number of members with older cats who'll be able to share experiences.

Did the vet check your cat's hearing when s/he examined her?  What is her name, by the way (your cat, that is, not your vet!)?

[Dawn F]

Hi and welcome, 18 is a good age, this is an interesting link on the subject not sure if you've seen it

http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/index.php/topic,26920.0.html

[tuppence]

Hi- my first post. Our female cat is pretty old, about 18. Lately she has been obsessing with water, occasionally peeing on the floor rather than her litter, and making an eerie howling sound instead of the usual mioaw.

The vet says nothing wrong apart from too much salt in her diet, and we've changed to a low salt food but to no effect.

She's eating well and seems lively, but her behaviour is worrying us.

Just senile ? if so, is this fairly normal in an old cat ?

Any advice would be very welcome folks.