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What a racket! My cat won't stop howling

By Dr. Pete Keesling MSN Article

Dear Dr. Pete: Our 10-month-old cat has been crying (meowing loudly) at all hours of the day and night for the past three weeks. She's playful, and is eating fine. She just seems extremely restless with her loud noisemaking. She even jumps in bed at night, yowls, and then licks my face. Is she sick, or just spoiled? —Tired of the Clamor

Dear Tired:

It's highly unusual for a cat, even a very spoiled one, to be this demonstrative. I doubt this is a normal behavior for her. You didn't say whether your kitty-cat has been spayed, but I suspect she is in estrus (in heat) and her "catty" behavior is a result of some high hormone levels. Most cats are spayed at a young age before they ever go into heat, so owners rarely get to witness a female in estrus. A cat in heat will make all sorts of unusual sounds, from throaty chortles to loud, spontaneous howls. She also may act unsettled, running from room to room, sometimes stopping to wriggle on the floor. I have received lots of calls over the years (many of these in the middle of the night) from cat owners who think their cat is in pain as she is rolling around on the floor and making these awful sounds. The bottom line is that your cat should be seen by a veterinarian to verify her "problem" and, if she hasn't already been spayed, to undergo this important surgery. Female cats will stay in heat for extended periods of time (sometimes for many weeks) unless they are bred. If your kitty-cat is indeed in heat, she will continue to be unsettled and somewhat hyperactive until you have her spayed. For your sake and hers, get your kitty to the vet right away.

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

Answers

Of course, the writer left out the fact that she's been feeding her kitty treats from PetsMart that contain Kitty Uppers. . .

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

Meemur,

That was cute. Not what I expected. Oh, and glad you are back home! Hope you had a good trip.

Sheeps

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

The cat cries every day and night for three weeks then she writes to this vet to ask if the cat is sick??? I say the owner needs to see a doctor!!! What a dipstick! My God, if one of ours starts crying for more than a few minutes (and we know it's not attention-getting behavior), the animal is taken to the vet or the emergency vet hospital. Plus, if the cat is ten months old and hasn't been spayed and the owner doesn't realize she's in heat, same thing. Quick, someone take this poor cat away from her!

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

Mine are all "its" now...and each one of mine, gets very vocal, they "talk in one tone as a greeting, then coo when they are grooming me,.. at din-din time, there is very throaty sounds, some just prr in different pictches, but I love the different "coos" they make.

Geeze...OH NO....I AM the old "cat lady" you never wanted to grow up to be!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

You too, huh?

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

Ginger was still a babe cat when I got her from the shelter. Actually, it didn't occur to me until later that Ginger and Bandit could have been pregnant when I got them, just that neither had been spayed yet.

Well, I had never been around a babe cat before. Ginger was a walking hormone. They were so skinny when I first got them, I didn't want them visiting the vets immediately. But, boy, I couldn't have gone through her heat again. She is really quite sensuous as it is with vital parts blessedly absent.

Bandit, OTOH, is quite the attention seeker. She follows me into the bedroom. Then she follows me into the livingroom. Then she follows me into the bathroom and scrambles up onto the sink vanity or begs me to lift her to the window sill. Then she stops following me, but she doesn't stop calling after me. Feels like hours sometimes. It's a sign of experience that she can sound so pitiful.

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001