a cat with dementia

[toadcatcher]

a cat with dementia, any ideas or medication that would help?

[woofgang]

have you spoken to your vet?

[inferno]

How do you know it has dementia?

[FP]

It's quite common in elderly cats, but you need to speak to your vet about medication.  Personally, I don't think there is much that can help as it is part of the ageing process.  Mum in law's cat used to sit in the middle of the road and completely forget where she was.  Cats also tend to walk around crying in the middle of the night if they have dementia, as do dogs, and get quite agitated for no reason.

I presume your cat is elderly toadcatcher. 

My advice would be to just to give him/her lots of tlc and try to avoid letting the cat out unless supervised.  They also need lots of sleep.

However, you need to get it checked with a vet to see if your diagnosis is correct.  You may, of course, have already done this.

[acw]

If this is a genuine question, and your cat is genuinely ill, then I would honestly say that the kindest thing is to let him/her be at peace and put it to sleep.  Still can't quite believe it exists in cats....

[FP]

It definitely does acw.  Have spoken to the vet about it and it is quite common, as it is in dogs as well.  That's how I have learned about it.  As long as the animal is well looked after and not unhappy (which is often the case) there is no need to put them to sleep, but going outside unattended is not advisable.  Elderly cats tend to sleep most of the time anyway.  It is very apparent when an animal is unhappy, and then I agree it is kinder to put them to sleep.

[FP]

Just found this on the web which has a paragraph on dementia in cats:

http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour_oldcats.html

[lindapinda]

I read an article about this a couple of years ago,and one of the things they advised,was to keep the cat's sleeping and eating(and litter tray if applicable)area quite near to each other.The idea was because their "world" is becoming smaller,it is more comforting to have what they need,close by.