Should I be worried about my greedy cat?

niceonetom

We have a cat who CONSTANTLY begging for food - it's come the point where I'm getting worried that there has to be something wrong with her, either physically or upstairs. She's relentless in her pursuit of more nom.

Each day starts with her her her yowling next to her bowl. I dutifully give her a good scoop of RoyalCanin. Within a couple of hours, after a wee nap, she's yowling again. She is properly loud too. I try to ignore her until it's time for her evening meal, but sometimes give in. If there to be any chance of not being pawed awake in the wee hours it's necessary to give here another little meal before bed too.

Having the discipline not to overfeed her is hard as any rationing is greeted with a prolonged and persistent campaign of yowling, begging and pestering - but I'm also trying to get her to lose a little weight - she's a bit fat you see. I try to give her what the measuring cup says is appropriate but I'm getting a lot of flack for it so I usually give her a bit more for a quiet life.

I've found out that she's waking the neighbours up now with demands for food. Foolishly, they've been giving her milk and now she's around there extorting saucers of the stuff at dawn. She's bloody shaming us!

So I googled. Everything I can see about excessively hungry cats seems to point to diabetes, hyperthyroidism or parasites. But she doesn't show any of the other symptoms listed - she's not losing weight, or hair, or showing any signs of vomiting, thirst or diarrhoea. She is the picture of ruddy good health to my eyes anyway; plump, strong, good coat and teeth etc. She is a bit neurotic though.

So is she just mental? I'd feel a bit silly bringing her to the vet just to be told that, yeh, she's just a pig and I should deal with it... but I also have this nagging doubt that it could be something physical and treatable.

Anyone got any thoughts?

dvet

Hey OP,

There could be a lot of things behind your cat's behaviour. You're right that it could be psychological, but it could just as easily be something medical. As you mentioned, there are a lot of causes of overeating (polyphagia), including a lot of potentially serious endocrine diseases. Hyperthyroidism and Cushings in particular are very common in cats, and your cat need not necessarily show any other obvious clinical signs even if there is something wrong. So I would be slow to rule anything out with a visit to the vet. It may still turn out to be just a psychological thing, but it's better to be safe than sorry!

anniehoo

Ok, you're having the exact same problem as me...and the problem is....me! My cat has unfortunately gotten into the habit of begging and has learned every single trick in the book to get more food, because i give in. I too thought "oh my god hes diabetic, hyperthyroid etc etc" but no. This is what i read from your post (im not being bad but it might be an eye opener)

niceonetom wrote: »

but sometimes give in.[

wrote:

so I usually give her a bit more for a quiet life.

wrote:

Foolishly, they've been giving her milk and now she's around there extorting saucers of the stuff at dawn.

wrote:

She's bloody shaming us!

Nope shes just a savvy cat whos learned the tricks of the trade.

wrote:

She is a bit neurotic though.

Nope either, shes a cat. Everything shes learned has been...learned behaviour. Believe me im copping on to that too with my own lad.

wrote:

But she doesn't show any of the other symptoms listed - she's not losing weight, or hair, or showing any signs of vomiting, thirst or diarrhoea. She is the picture of ruddy good health to my eyes anyway; plump, strong, good coat and teeth etc.

There ya go. If you've already ruled out every other medical symptom you're back to behavioural.

dvet wrote: »

Hyperthyroidism and Cushings in particular are very common in cats

Hyperthyroidism is, but is generally in cats >7yrs old and is followed by other symptoms like weight loss. Cushings (hyperadrenocorticism) is a common dog condition and is very (very) rare in cats.

dvet

dvet wrote: »

Hyperthyroidism and Cushings in particular are very common in cats

Sorry, i meant that they are commonly found to be the cause in polyphagic cats. Cushing's is a lot more common in dogs alright, but I've seen a fair few cats too!

My general opinion on people looking for pet advice online/even on the phone is that if they are worried, they should get things checked out. Especially where symptoms are vague or possibly subtle enough to be missed etc - it's hard to get the full picture from an online description. I'd feel better being safe rather than sorry.

anniehoo

dvet wrote: »

Cushing's is a lot more common in dogs alright, but I've seen a fair few cats too!

Really? We screen for endocrinology disorders everyday in my job and ive yet to see a cat tested for Cushings its that rare.

IvySlayer

Cats shouldn't be yowling for food. It's a bad habit you need to get rid of asap.

Milk is very, very bad for cats. Tell your neighbours to stop feeding her. Maybe get a vet to check her out. Is she wormed? Neutered?

Wisco

Definitely get a vet check, and possibly even ask for whatever blood profile your vet does in older cats to rule out the more common problems.
But if you simply don't give in to the yowling, you may find it resolves (my kitty had me letting her out to go to the toilet at 4am for a while until I simply let her whinge and use the litter tray if she had to go). It got a lot quieter after a couple days of me not giving in!
I would also get the neighbors to stop feeding her ASAP.
You can also get toys that the cat has to play with to dispense food- this may keep her occupied for longer as well as make eating more interesting.

Dixie Chick

IvySlayer wrote: »

Cats shouldn't be yowling for food. It's a bad habit you need to get rid of asap.

Milk is very, very bad for cats. Tell your neighbours to stop feeding her. Maybe get a vet to check her out. Is she wormed? Neutered?

How is milk very very bad for cats? Some cats might be lactose intolerant and milk might not agree with them, but very very bad??

ScallowayLass

Our cat was the same for a while, We were fairly worried, I tried to ration to what the recommended amounts were for fear of overfeeding but my pal said just feed on demand small amounts and it levelled out after a while. How old is she? Our one was about was about a year and a half and I reckoned that maybe a growth spurt going on? The pouches never seemed enough for him, so started using tins and dried food! Fussy thing changes his mind about the type of food he eats all the time, one week wont eat fish and just wants meat following week changes around, even brands, he's on felix this week, whiskas last week!!!

dvet

anniehoo wrote: »

Really? We screen for endocrinology disorders everyday in my job and ive yet to see a cat tested for Cushings its that rare.

Yeah, not to go off topic, but we had a run of cats that were turning up with diabetes for a while, and 1 or 2 of them were found to have underlying Cushing's when we referred them (they had poorly controlled diabetes even though the owners were great). There was also a client who used to breed long haired kittens of some type (can't remember what breed now), 2 kittens from one litter both ended up being diagnosed as adults. It was actually pretty interesting - and I'm in mixed practice so go figure! So it's just something i always keep it at the back of my mind.

IvySlayer

Dixie Chick wrote: »

How is milk very very bad for cats? Some cats might be lactose intolerant and milk might not agree with them, but very very bad??

Anything that can cause diarrhea & bowel problems is bad for cat imo.

niceonetom

Thanks for the all the feedback folks.

I told the neighbours to stop feeding her as soon as I found out that's what they were doing so that's the last milk she'll get. I don't really believe the excuse that they thought she wasn't getting fed enough at home.

She's 5 years old and this greed has, I suppose, been building slowly for a while now - it's not a sudden change in habit; that would be more worrying, I know.

I guess she's been more successful in training me than I've been in training her... I'll give it a couple of weeks of trying to ignore the yowling and histrionics and see if I can see any other signs of anything untoward before bringing her to the vet. The lack of any other symptoms does make it look to be behavioural, but if she can't adjust to a more strict regimen then I'll get her down the vet's.

If any of you have any suggestions as to what to do with a cat screaming for food on the landing at 4am, do let me know. Earplugs? Even by cat standards, she's really quite dim so making her get the message might be tough.