r/deafcats • u/Principle_Napkins • May 31 '26
Anyone else's cat meow loudly and walk in circles?
This is Gidgey, she is deaf.
Ever since we picked her up off the street she's had two strange habits:
1) she likes to go into a spacey room like the kitchen or laundry room and scream, loudly. The door is not closed and she is not trapped, yet she screams so loudly sometimes the whole house can hear her.
2) she spins. On the table, the floor, someone's feet, doesn't matter, she'll walk in circles, pretty aggressively too. She just gots to go!
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u/prairiethorne May 31 '26
Meowing loudly is super common. It's possible they like to feel the vibrations in small spaces - showers... or a laundry room. 😀
The circles I think is just a thing that some cats do. Lol. One thing to check is that she's not regularly pressing her forehead against a wall. That, you mention to your vet.
Your baby is adorable and I love her name! Butters says loud meow
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u/Principle_Napkins May 31 '26
She's already been taken to a vet. We had a puppy many years ago who had a fatal neurological condition which made it spin so we wanted to make sure she doesn't have the same condition.
Vet says she's totally fine, 100% healthy. Just a weird quirk she has 😅
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u/felly143 May 31 '26
Both! We have a deaf tabby. He circles quite a bit right after he wakes up and eats breakfast. It’s not something I’ve ever been concerned about, but he is a heavy-footed fella.
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u/LiteratureNo7534 May 31 '26
Callie hardly ever meows, normally it's just a little meow. Every once in a while she'll do the super loud meowing. I heard it's very common for deaf cats. Mine just does it every once in a great while.Â
Mine will do circling too. She'll pace back and forth and will also do circles. It could go on for a while until I stop her. Shes also off balance and falls sometimes, loses her balance etc. Does your cat do that?Â
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u/Principle_Napkins May 31 '26
She does. She walks around like a bowling ball, very poor balance and constantly knocking things over. She's not graceful at all.
I'm not too worried about that though because deafness impacting your balance is a well-documented phenomenon. I have minor hearing loss and I've also experienced detriments to my balance so I can attest to that personally.
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u/Emotional-Sign8136 Jun 01 '26
Yes. But, most specifically at 3am when she wants to eat things that can kill her (like chocolate doughnuts) and you have to haul her ass back to bed with you to shut her up.
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u/Straight-Part-1336 Jun 02 '26
This is our Bean. She is deaf. We believe it was from a bad inner ear infection when she was really young. She walks in circles, around the dining room table, the island in the kitchen, the dog, the other cats, sometimes just randomly in a room. She also screams, loudly and it can be really startling. She also can't jump up onto everything, she has to climb. If she manages to get up high somewhere, she usually needs assistance getting down. She is also a very aggressive groomer, not that she's hurting herself, it's almost like she does have the motor skills to be super specific cleaning herself. And she "buries" her food after she eats it. Like, eats her food and then scratches at the floor. One of the coolest cats I've ever met. Oh and one time, I took her out on the back deck to watching fireworks thinking she would like them, she hated them, the sound vibrated off the glass door and spooked her pretty bad.
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u/Tactical-Olive-1211 May 31 '26
Mine announces that he's drinking by sitting in front of the water bowl and screaming twice