Old cat going senile?

Question
Hi there,

I have a cat that is 15yrs old, she loves going outside, the past few months she meow's to come in and a min later meow's to go out, we must let her in and out about 50 times a day. she just wants out/in not going to the bathroom.  she also has started something new, she can be sleeping and wakes up just meowing for no reason and wont stop.  she is generally a quite cat.  Is she going senile? my daughter said she woke her up at 3am meowing and once started attacking herself but i have not seen that.  please help this is my baby!

Answer
Has this cat seen a vet recently?  If not, taking her to one is my immediate recommendation, even if she doesn't appear sick and is eating properly.

It is not unusual for a cat that is experiencing some level of discomfort to behave like this, because they either tend to associate the pain/discomfort with their immediate surroundings and want to get away from them, or because they are looking for their people to do something to make it go away.  Hopefully there is nothing wrong but I'm not a vet and can't make any guesses as to what might be going on without a lot more information. All I can tell you is that you need to rule out any medical issues first in a case like this. If the vet doesn't find any areas of concern, then the next thing I would ask is whether there have been any changes in her environment lately. . . new people in the house, etc.  This could be a behavioral issue but if so, it is probably a response to some event that is disturbing her.

Write back after you take her to the vet and let me know what he/she thinks.

iris