Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice. About two months ago I took in my boyfriend's 10 year old blind cat named Noodles. He is incredibly sweet, fearless, and stubborn especially for being blind (He loves being vacuumed with the upholstery attachment).

HOWEVER, this week he has begun waking up at 4 am wandering around the bedroom and crying. This is a new behavior that apparently he has never done before. He desperately wants to get into my closet, but gets stuck, and cries even louder. I've tried squirt bottle, putting him in the living room, putting him back on the bed with me, putting him on a blanket, and ignoring him. Nothing is working. This morning it started at 2:45 am. I have no idea what to do, and am terrified that me responding to it is creating a habit, but I can't ignore him when hes shout/crying.

We're thinking possibly creating soft spaces and Noodle-proofing the closet? Or kitty-cannabis? (Live in Colorado, USA apparently it is a thing).

If anyone has advice I'd be greatly obliged. He's very very sweet, and the last thing I want to do is rehome him, but I get terrible migraines when sleep deprived. Do not know what else to try.

Thank you in advance!

Zara & Noodles

I'd get a vet check and full bloods including thyroid. Has he always been blind or is it health related?

He just had full blood work two months ago and everything checked out fine. He went blind about 5 years ago, he had macular degeneration.

Thyroid would keep him up at night? I'll read into this. Thank you so much for responding.

Hi and welcome, there are two threads on hyperthyroidism on 'Health and Behaviour' atm - one concerns my Mouse lol.

While it didn't cause night crying, she did used to wake me up in the night yelling for food; HT causes increased, obsessive appetite. I just used to get up and feed her. She's cured now

But her 16 year old cousin, Emily, has been doing this night crying for a while ... I've put it down to feline dementia and while Mousey's crying distressed me, I knew that Emily was just in a dream, and could live with it. She never went on for that long, though, and the strange thing is, she's just stopped, for no real reason.

Sorry I can't advise much in Noodles' case but thought you might like to know about the HT threads - and I do sympathise with the sleep deprivation by the way, oh boy I'm EVIL if I don't get my sleep

All the best with Noodles and please let us know how you get on

I'd check to see if his bloods covered thyroid, as not all do. Feline dementia is a possibility, but if he lost his sight due to health reasons, has his blood pressure been checked?