The Cat of the Baskervilles

[fjm]

Cat advice please: is it normal for a cat to throw back her head and howl like a dog? Miss P has been getting louder but this was Anguished!

Comments

[ithiliana]

Some of our older cats cry/how very loudly--often around litter box issues, problems with urination, etc.

I'd be worried (after experiencing the loss of ten of our thirteen babies the last few years--now down to three cats). One, elderly, does the howling/crying.

[fjm]

thanks! She wanders round the house and howls if she can't find us, but this time I was in the room, and she was sitting in front of the fire and just threw her head back. I've never seen anything like it. She's quiet and sleepy now.

[movingfinger]

Our 19-year-old cat has been making ghastly noises often. At first it was associated with using the litterbox, we think because her arthritis makes that painful (and she was getting constipated, which hurt even more, poor animal). We seem to have gotten through that, though, but she does let us know when she is about to go up stairs, especially, we think because again it hurts and she wants company and support. She does it first thing in the morning when she has jumped off her bed on the desk, but not during the night unless she has barfed or is going to barf. From this we think her "yowlywowhowhow" is primarily communication.

There are other yowls old cats can do, which I've heard diagnosed as warning Mr. Death to keep his distance. If Miss P was asleep, possibly her waking up was disturbing or disorienting in some way. It is possible too that some internal event (like gas---do cats get gas? indigestion?) panged her, but not enough to make her get up and leave a comfortable spot.