Having a issue going on with my older cat who is16 years old..

Hi everyone, I have this problem that just started a couple days ago. I have 3 cats the brother and sister are 7 years old and my oldest is 16 years old , and all my 3 get along great. This past Tues I went out for a couple of hours and came back home and everyone was in a uproar my younger cats had there tails all puffed but my oldest didn't. My oldest cat was behind my bed and was growling etc... He was acting like he didn't know where he was and he acted like it was his first time at my place. I tried to pet him make him feel comfortable and he didn't even care, he just kept growling at my other cats when he saw them. So I kept him in my room with me with my door shut until the next day everything seemed back to normal until tonight. My daughter and I just finished eating and relaxing on the couch and out of no where we heard a cat growling and we seen my female ( 7yr old) and my oldest cat running down the hallway into the livingroom. My oldest cat was growling and hissing but his tail wasn't puffed but my female cat tail was all puffed and even her brother's tail was puffed cause he was startled by what was going on. Now my oldest cat is under my couch and when he sees both of my other cats he starts growling so I don't know what it could be???

You may want to have the older ones hearing and vision checked by a vet it's possible he's becoming hard of hearing. Also Is it possible there's a stray cat roaming around outside they could be seeing. Are there any changes in the household that occurred lately?

My cats are all indoor. I thought at first it could be the noises in the building that could of startled him or them but tonight it was quiet and it came out of no where.

I don't know if cats suffer from dementia or not but you say it's like it's the first time he's been in your house, maybe he's getting short term memory loss and forgetting the other cats are his friends and that it's their home?

Cats DO get dementia. And your cat is at the age that this could be the problem. Please go to the vet.

It very possibly could be dementia. Growing up we had a Somali who eventually got dementia. He'd wind up walking in circles (the house had a circle floor plan; so he'd walk through the kitchen, laundry room, the hall, living room, dining room, then back through the kitchen). He'd do this for several hours a day, and it was something he did when he got very old (like 15 plus). We just chalked it up to old cat brain.

But if your kitty is angry, something could be hurting him, causing him to suddenly lash out at your other cats (thinking they caused the pain). Definitely take him to the vet to make sure there's nothing like that going on.