Add another human condition I had no idea cats could suffer from. Acne, arthritis, allergies...my cats have had all of these things and we might soon be adding dementia to the list.
Molly, my middle child, is 15 years old. In the last couple of months, she's started howling at the top of her lungs, for no apparent reason. In the beginning, I would jump up to go see if she had gotten her head stuck between the rungs of a chair or if she had a bumble bee stuck in her mouth. Each time, she was casually sitting in the middle of the floor, staring at me. No distress. No blood. No limp.
It's a seemingly random behavior. She doesn't do it all the time, but usually when she does, it's late at night. I wondered if she was seeing something outside, but she was never in front of the window or rushing back and forth from one window to the other.
My husband was sure the behavior was being caused by more than her generally surly disposition and he went looking for answers.
A few mouse clicks later, he sent me a link to a google search for feline dementia for which this was the first
article.
Of the seven symptoms, Molly shows signs of 6 of them. Thankfully, the loss of litter box training isn't one of them.
We haven't taken her to the vet for an official diagnosis as some of these symptoms may also be related to her inflammatory bowel disease. Molly is generally irritable, but as the article suggests, we are watching to see if she's more irritable than what is normal for her. Certainly many of the symptoms of dementia are signs of other illnesses and injuries, so it's important for kitty to see the veterinarian to rule out other medical conditions.
