I really hope somebody here can help me. My family is going crazy from lack of sleep! It's my 8 yr. old cat. All right - she has always been an indoor cat. No matter how hard she tries to be an outside cat. :p She's the kind of cat who will also tear your house apart with her claws if you leave her alone anywhere. Because of this, we have to keep her in one of our rooms at night when we sleep. She has food, water, etc. so we're not mean or anything to her. She's always been fine with this. She was at a point where she would gladly go in the bedroom, and just chill on the bed all night. I'd say a couple of months ago, we had our brother, his dog and his baby stay with us for about a month. As mean as it seemed, all of our animals had to stay in a bedroom all day & night. The cat would claw at the baby, and the visiting dog was 4 times her size. But we did go up and stay with them so they weren't lonely, and again - they had clean litter, food, etc. It seems ever since the baby, brother and dog left, and now she's allowed to roam around - all she does is cry at night when she's in my bedroom. I was thinking about taking her to the vet, but that's the only time she cries. And when you let her out, she's fine. I even let her out for 5 minutes, let her back in, and most of the time she's fine. But not all of the time. 99% of the time, she just cries and cries. And like I said, she can't roam around because of her claws. During the day, she's fine. She's actually on my bed right now with the door open, and she's just relaxing. Anybody have any idea if what the problem could be or what to do?

I'd still call the vet and ask for an opinion. Most vets seem to have some insight into cat behavior.

One of my guys will sometimes call loudly for attention right after I hit the hay but will stop after a bit (say 5 minutes, give or take) if I simply ignore him. Are we to take it that you've tried ignoring and it does no good?

Ignoring just makes her cry louder. I actually did take her to the vet. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the couple of hundred dollars for blood work. But she said it's most likely behavioral. All summer we had my brother, his friends, his baby and his dog in and out of this house. She really didn't start crying like that until they left, so I think it's just a change for her. The vet said to give her a little bit of Benadryl before bed, and it worked the other night. Last night, she slept soundly all night only getting up once. I plopped her back on her blanket and she went right back to sleep! I found having her favorite blanket on the bed helps too, as she just stretches right out on that. Thank you. :)

Well, she's relegated to my bedroom at night, as before she was in my parents room. That's where she was kept for the better part of a month. She's fine in my room, even without Benadryl, which I gave up on. I don't know what it is about my parents room. Maybe it's because she was in there. Now she only wants Mommy's room. Hopefully if I just let her chill in my bedroom for a while, she'll feel better, and not give them such a hard time at night when I'm at work.

Ugh. I hate cats. No offense. But just take it to the vet and by god, get the thing declawed!!

With the previous advice about declawing. Please research this before you consider it. There is a lot to consider and other alternatives that are less invasive. Quite a few vets will not do it and you can not let your cat become an outdoor cat once it is done. Their claws are how they protect themselves.
I found this link for you that explains what declawing is. I am hoping one of the cat experts come on here as they will have better information about this.
DECLAWING: What You Need to Know

This thread is 3 years old. PLEASE check dates before responding, and DON'T respond if you have nothing constructive to add.