My grandmother's cat is acting like a classic hyperthyroid case. She is 16-17 years old. She eats ravenously but is losing weight. She is much more active and demanding than she used to be, crawling all over my grandmother and getting into her space at all times. She's always been an affectionate cat, but this is an entire other level of demanding attention.

She's also developed a very loud, demanding MEOW which she uses often.

Her drinking is normal, her peeing and pooping are normal. She vomits once a week or so, but she's done that her entire life, and we've never found out why.

WHen my grandmother described her behavior, combined with the weight loss, I immediately thought hyperthyroidism. I was very hopeful for a straightforward diagnosis, and even though it's likely to be masking renal failure at ehr age, I thought maybe we could get her some help since her behavior is driving my grandparents crazy.

Today I took her to the vet, and I'm less confident now about what's wrong. She had an exam and a senior panel run in August, and everything (including her thyroid) was normal. Just to be cautious, we ran another senior panel along with an additional thyroid test....I can't recall the name, but the vet said that a small number of cats have normal results on the T4 and abnormal results on the other.

The good news is that she looks really good for a cat her age. Her kidneys are a good size, her coat is soft and glossy, lymph nodes feel normal, no palpable masses, etc. The only abnmormal finding is that she has lost half a pound since August. The bad news is that if we get another normal panel we're back at square one.

At her age, we're not going to go nuts on diagnostics, but my grandmother is being driven crazy and I'd like to help her enjoy Posey's golden years with her.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going on or how I can help Posey mellow out??