Why does my 16 year old cat howl at the top of her lungs at 3am? She never used to do this

Right so this is our girl Poppy, she turns 16 this spring and up until a few months ago she slept through the night like the rest of us. Now most nights, always somewhere between 2 and 4am, she plants herself in the hallway or at the bottom of the stairs and just HOWLS. Not a normal meow. This awful loud drawn out wail like something is really wrong.

I go down and half the time she just looks at me like why are you here, then trots off perfectly happy. Other times she seems almost confused, like she's forgotten where she is or why she called in the first place. Food bowl is full, litter tray is clean, she's not shut in anywhere.

Is this just old age? Part of me thinks she's going a bit senile bless her, but the other part is terrified I'm missing something. She had a check up maybe 18 months ago and was fine then. Has anyone been through this, does it settle down or is this our life now.

Oh the 3am opera, I know it well. My old boy Baxter did exactly this from about 15 onwards. Same thing, blood curdling yowl from the landing and then nothing wrong at all when you got there.

For us a night light on the landing helped more than anything else, I think he was getting disoriented in the dark. But honestly I would get her looked at before you write it off as age. When Baxter started up, the vet found his thyroid was overactive, and once that was treated the night noise dropped right off. I had assumed it was just him getting old, and it turned out it wasn't.

MillieAndOtis said:

she seems almost confused, like she's forgotten where she is

That line jumped out at me, because it is almost word for word what our Smudge was like before we found out what was going on. Ours turned out to be losing weight at the same time: eating like a horse but getting bonier by the week, and it was her thyroid too. The night yowling was one of the first signs, looking back.

Might be nothing like that for Poppy, but if she is dropping weight or suddenly ravenous I would definitely mention it. There is a decent rundown of what to watch for in the overactive thyroid guide on here that helped me know what to ask about. The confusion side though, that might be a separate thing, hopefully one of the vet folk will say more.

A few things worth separating out here, because sudden night-time crying in a cat of Poppy's age usually comes down to a fairly short list, and most of that list is checkable.

The short answer: please do book her in rather than assume it is simply old age. In an older cat, new loud vocalising, especially at night, is one of those changes that is worth screening before it gets filed under ageing, because several of the common causes are treatable.

The usual things I would want to rule out, roughly in order: an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism), which is common in cats over about 10 and often shows up as weight loss despite a large appetite, restlessness, and yes, calling at night; high blood pressure, which frequently travels alongside thyroid disease and kidney changes and can affect vision; pain, arthritis in particular, which a great many 16 year old cats carry to some degree and which makes the small hours miserable; fading hearing or sight, where a cat that cannot hear itself will genuinely call louder; and feline cognitive dysfunction, the nearest thing to dementia in cats, where the disorientation and the forgetting where they are that a couple of you describe really does fit.

That last one is real and more common than people expect. Studies put some degree of cognitive dysfunction in a large share of cats over 15, and the guide to cognitive decline in older cats covers what it tends to look like. But, and this is the important part, it is a diagnosis of exclusion. You arrive at it after the bloods and the blood pressure come back clear, not instead of them, because a thyroid problem or pain can look identical from the hallway at 3am.

What that visit usually involves is a physical exam, a blood panel that includes a thyroid level (often written as total T4), and a blood pressure reading, which is much the same set of checks a senior review is built around anyway. The actual numbers and what to do about them I will leave to whoever examines her, because that depends entirely on her history and what they find on the day. If she is otherwise bright and eating well, waiting a short while is reasonable, but the wailing plus any hint of confusion is a good enough reason not to sit on it until her next routine check.

One gentle correction on a belief I hear a lot: a cat crying at night is very rarely just being demanding or attention-seeking, and ignoring it seldom fixes anything, because in a senior cat the noise is far more often reporting something physical. Treat it as information rather than a habit.

Dr Sarah Whitfield said:

the wailing plus any hint of confusion is a good enough reason not to sit on it

Thank you all, this genuinely pushed me to ring the vet instead of googling on my phone at 3am. Took her in last week. Bloods came back with a slightly raised thyroid level so they want to recheck and start sorting it out, and her blood pressure was up a little too, which the vet said often go together exactly like Sarah described. No sign of the dementia side thankfully.

So it was NOT just old age, or at least not only that. A bit annoyed at myself for nearly leaving it, but so relieved we caught it early. Will update once she is settled on treatment. The night light is going up regardless, because two_tabbies is right, she does seem to fumble about in the dark.

So glad you got her seen. We left our old boy's yowling far too long thinking it was just his age, and I always wish we had checked sooner. Hope Poppy feels brighter once the treatment settles in, and that she gives you your nights back.