How to handle a stone deaf cat ?

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Mark

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#316301 3-Oct-2024 15:21

Anyone here with a deaf cat? I need some pointers on how to keep mine alive and not accidently scare the poor girl to death!

Last night it took me ages to get down the driveway as she couldn't hear me in the car behind her :)

Every time someone comes into visual range from the side or behind her it makes her jump in surprise, as she is hitting 18 soon I don't want to give the poor girl a heart attack!

She's not always been deaf, she lost it over the past few years, nothing vet can do.

Any tips ?

Jase2985

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#3290551 3-Oct-2024 15:57

Keep it in inside, then at least you have control over it. Outside others dont know its deaf and expect it to do normal cat things.

jonathan18

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#3290558 3-Oct-2024 16:11

It may be a sad indictment on me and/or my reading skills, but I initially read that title as 'stoned deaf cat'!

But totally get the seriousness of the situation. My parents' cat of about 18 years went totally deaf; my father accidentally ran her over (and killed her) when she didn't hear (or even feel) the car approaching and he didn't see her lying there in his usual car park.

Rikkitic

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#3290590 3-Oct-2024 16:54

jonathan18:

But totally get the seriousness of the situation. My parents' cat of about 18 years went totally deaf; my father accidentally ran her over (and killer her) when she didn't hear (or even feel) the car approaching and he didn't see her lying there in his usual car park.

That is terrible! What an awful thing to have happen.

My own feeling is the cat should be kept confined for its own sake if that is possible. 'Possible' means confinement as spacious and pleasant as possible, not a cage or small dark room. Since the cat can't hear, give it extra visual and olfactory stimulus to keep it occupied. I keep one of my cats in the house with access to a large part of a screened-in veranda with sights and smells of the outdoors. I made a platform it can lie on to watch the birds and a planter full of grass and weeds to sniff and chew. A big hit is a plastic bin I filled with hay. The cat just loves to sleep in that and roll around.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Mark

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#3290618 3-Oct-2024 18:23

jonathan18:

My parents' cat of about 18 years went totally deaf; my father accidentally ran her over (and killer her) when she didn't hear (or even feel) the car approaching and he didn't see her lying there in his usual car park.

That's what I want to avoid! Luckily we live rural and out of 10acres she roams maybe 20m from the house so no road risk for her really, most of her time is spent on chairs, on people who stay still too long or in the nearest box (see attached photo for evidence) and neither of the cats are allowed out at night (got Morpork, and all sorts of birds here they would have chowed down on ... now they are to old ... maybe!)

I'm thinking issuing laser pointers to family might work, something to catch her eye and make her look about and then "discover" the human or car near by ... cute as she is, she's never been the brightest so might take a bit to get her to work out the dot, bit of an inbreeding we think :-)

gzt

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#3293083 4-Oct-2024 20:15

Mark: Luckily we live rural and out of 10acres she roams maybe 20m from the house so no road risk for her really,

Driveways are the risk. One kid under two injured in NZ every two weeks apparently. If anyone kept a count of injured household pets it would be high.

Mowers and lawn tractors are another huge hazard for deaf pets.

If there are few unannounced visitors and the cat is amenable to a collar - the cat gps collar/tags are small and reasonably priced.

I'm assuming most come with a smartphone app that can be used by the family. + phone mount for the car, mower, weedeater jobs.

johno1234

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#3293089 4-Oct-2024 22:03

When we were renting been selling and buying a house we put a harness and AirTag on our cat which worked well. Collar was no use he worked out hire to get out of them like Houdini.

neb

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#3293113 5-Oct-2024 01:34

Aren't all cats almost entirely deaf except for the very specific frequency that Whiskas/Purina/Hills makes as it hits the food bowl, which they can hear from three houses away?