Babycat may have been a "naturally occurring model of Alzheimer's disease," according to a new report in The European Journal of Neuroscience, from researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and California, the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Scottish Brain Sciences.
What I've long thought of as a curiosity amongst one of our 16 felines might actually have been dementia.
When Babycat began frantically and plaintively meowing at the corner of the ceiling in the bedroom closest to my head, we thought he was answering the scratches of rodents in the attic above, and searched. But mouse turds in an attic are a constant – what was provoking Babycat's distress? Our other six felines were undisturbed.
In retrospect, and after reading the neuroscience article, I think that Babycat had "feline cognitive dysfunction syndrome," aka feline dementia, an "age-related neurodegenerative disorder."
Cat parents and vets often don't recognize the condition, perhaps because of the overlaps with normal cat behavior. Cats can do strange things for awhile, and then stop doing them. But Babycat's behavior only worsened.
To continue reading go to DNA Science, where this post first appeared.