Parent’s cat YOWLS. Loudly. Without rhyme or reason. Any time of the day or night. Just because.
It is a chatty cat. Clean bill of health. Vets have no suggestions.
The real question - will a bark collar work on a cat? I don’t see why it wouldn’t?
They are getting fed up with the volume coming out of this animal at all hours - which increases about 2 hours before sun up or down. Daylight savings make this so. much. worse.
Otherwise they adore her. But they also love their sleep. :lol:
I’d talk to an animal behaviorist first. I’m not sure cats respond the same way to negative stimulus that dogs do. It might work, spray bottles seem to and they work on the same principle, but I’d want to be awfully sure, before I tried it. I sympathize, by the way. I have a yowler. Luckily, I can sleep through a thunderstorm.
I’d be very careful with that.
I’ll bet your cat has a compelling reason for yowling. At least, it’s compelling to her. And cats can be hard negotiators: They don’t just give up on their agenda because you made the pursuit of it unpleasant. Rather, they still feel the stress of having some kitty need unmet and whatever level of stress or disappointment they got from the negative consequence you gave them. So the cat doesn’t just stop misbehaving and chill. I think the cat will find another thing to do instead.
So with cats (and really, in the name of justice, with all animals), you have to figure out what this cats wants so badly. FWIW, I have known a cat or two who would yowl like this. One I’m thinking of and know best was a bit lonely and also bored/frustrated (generally, all the time) and perhaps a little depressed because he wanted to be allowed outside sometimes. This cat was missing a brother who had died… so, yanno, yowling was somewhat in order.
I’d start with asking if this cat were lonely or bored.
That is the quickest way to insure that your cat urinates inappropriately.
I would look into puzzle games for the cat and increase availability of mentally stimulating cat toys, lots of climbing space. Play time, play time and more play time. If they are doing it in the early morning or during human sleep time they need to make sure they play with the cat until it is essentially exhausted before they go to bed. If kitty sleeps all day they need to reverse the cats sleep pattern, so day time= play time and night time = sleep. Cats are programed naturally reversed of humans sleep wake cycle.
I am absolutely shocked that your veterinarian has no suggestions.
There is too much chance that a cat would not connect the shock with yowling. It might connect it with what it was looking at at the time, with the feel of whatever it was standing on, with it’s physical location, or who knows what else.
I agree it could result in inappropriate elimination among many other possibilities for unintended consequences.
Sounds like the cat is bored. Some serious play sessions in the evening might help. Get the cat running and jumping till it plops down on the floor and doesn’t want to move anymore. A tired cat is a good/quiet cat.
Try some mental stimulation too. Make the cat work for its food. Put some dry food or treats in a food dispensing toy. I have different ones for my cats but their favorite is a small cardboard box taped shut with holes cut out on the side with dry food or treats inside. They love that box!
Does the cat have a cat tree and various other kinds of cat furniture to climb on and in?
Please, do NOT put a bark collar on the cat. That would be very cruel and I can’t imagine ever torturing a poor cat like that.
It doesn’t work with cats like that. I think you need to figure out WHY the yowling is happening (attention, boredom, hunger?) and address that instead.
My cat’s yowling went away when I got her a water fountain. Apparently all that yowling was cat for “I’m thirsty!”
Cat has always been chatty. It’s her personality.
She has a clean bill of health - was just in for her wellness check, did blood, etc. and she is fit as a fiddle. Hearing was good, teeth are excellent.
Vet said “some cats just have a lot to say.”
This is the cat who doesn’t care about the sssscat, tinfoil on counters, waterbottles are a joke. Cans with pebbles are noise makers and GIANT toys. She is fearless.
She’s had another cat friend for 3 years. They play and they spat - they’re cats. They have cat furniture. Her new thing is shredding paper towel… She has 4 scratching posts (sisal, carpet, cardboard, etc.). She has started dragging her nails on drywall (think nails on chalkboard).
They tried Feliway - no changes. Calming collars were another waste of money.
If she was a dog, she’s alpha female. Hands down. She really is the cat from hell.
Parents really have done everything right. They play with her to tire her out, they have tried everything from 1 meal a day to 3 meals a day to see if it’s hunger related. No changes - cat still screams. And she’s not even part Siamese!
They’re at their wits end.
Parents asked me about a bark collar and I said I had no idea how that would work for a cat. Mainly this cat. No other training methods have worked on her so far so… 
I would consider putting a shock collar on a cat to be animal abuse. Full stop. And I actually don’t have a problem with e-collars being used on dogs. Dogs and cats are very different.
Tell your parents to rehome the cat.
[QUOTE=teh_Kibbster;8936075]
Cat has always been chatty. It’s her personality.
She has a clean bill of health - was just in for her wellness check, did blood, etc. and she is fit as a fiddle. Hearing was good, teeth are excellent.
Vet said “some cats just have a lot to say.”
This is the cat who doesn’t care about the sssscat, tinfoil on counters, waterbottles are a joke. Cans with pebbles are noise makers and GIANT toys. She is fearless.
She’s had another cat friend for 3 years. They play and they spat - they’re cats. They have cat furniture. Her new thing is shredding paper towel… She has 4 scratching posts (sisal, carpet, cardboard, etc.). She has started dragging her nails on drywall (think nails on chalkboard).
They tried Feliway - no changes. Calming collars were another waste of money.
If she was a dog, she’s alpha female. Hands down. She really is the cat from hell.
Parents really have done everything right. They play with her to tire her out, they have tried everything from 1 meal a day to 3 meals a day to see if it’s hunger related. No changes - cat still screams. And she’s not even part Siamese!
They’re at their wits end.
Parents asked me about a bark collar and I said I had no idea how that would work for a cat. Mainly this cat. No other training methods have worked on her so far so… :)[/QUOTE]
She had a friend and now she doesn’t? I’d be getting her a new friend. I bet she’s lonely.
The yowling still means SOMETHING even if she’s a vocal cat. Vocal just means they express themselves that way, the expression is still a commentary on SOMETHING.
Did she have a pal and now lost the pal? That could very well be the issue if that’s the case. It was slightly hard to read the tense in your last post, I couldn’t tell if your parents still have both cats or if they’re now down to just one.
If not, maybe this cat needs to be a barn cat? Not every situation works for every animal.
I guess I’m lucky with my yowler. She only does it sometimes, for about ten minutes right after lights out and I usually find toys scattered all over the next morning. I commonly end up giggling because she sounds so funny.
Some good ideas about that yowling, I don’t have anything new to offer on that line. I just had a totally off the wall thought, however. Until, or if they don’t, get the yowling under control, how about some ear plugs for your parents when they sleep? I understand that they have some very comfortable ones these days.
Parents still have both cats. Sorry - that was not clear in my previous post. I meant that the intro of the other cat was not a recent occurrence (3 years ago). Screaming cat was 6ish, kitten was 6 weeks when introduced. They are now 9ish and 3.
Gotta love COTH though - Rehome the cat. 
No, sorry, not an option. We keep all our pets for their lifetimes. Even if they’re assholes.
Parents do use earplugs when sleeping. She’s THAT loud that she wakes my mother even with them in.
We are also wondering about “better living through medication” but Prozac seems to make cats more vocal. Vet did not want to discuss these options and went for Feliway instead.
They could try a water fountain - they have not tried that yet
There’s a product out there called “Composure.” It’s a natural product in treat form. I break it into three or four pieces because it’s pretty big, and mix it in the food for my slightly aggressive cat. I’m not sure it would work for their problem, but, it did for me, much better than Feliway. It’s not expensive and might be worth a try. They could break it up and feed it as treats, about an hour or so before they go to bed.
Is there a safe place away from their bedroom that kitty could spend her nights?
I have a cat that failed miserably at being in indoor cat, in every way possible. She is now the happiest barn cat ever. I don’t give away my pets either but if something about my living situation was really, really NOT RIGHT for an animal, I’m mature enough to realize it’s in the animal’s best interest to get it into the right environment. Maybe your parents aren’t there yet-- but if they’re debating putting a bark collar on a cat-- that is a far less kind option than rehoming the cat appropriately. That’s downright cruel 
Are you sure she’s not hyperthyroid? My cat was symptomatic for years without his t4 being elevated. We had to do a free t4 for diagnosis. He was much more pleasant to live with after being medicated properly.
Is the cat fixed? If not, start there. The thryroid t-4 test is a good idea as well.
Also, if cat starts yowling in the early morning, get one of those automatic feeders on a timer, and set it to deliver food about 10 min before cat usually starts.
Also, maybe do a window bird feeder, near a place that the cat can sit and watch the birds.
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