A Reddit user has credited their two cats with helping to uncover a potentially life-threatening medical condition, after what initially seemed like nightly feline antics turned out to be potentially life-saving behavior.
A post shared to the platform by the pet owner under u/aria-du has been upvoted more than 30,000 times, with hundreds of viewers responding to the story and sharing their own experiences with perceptive pets.
The post details how the owner’s two cats consistently disrupted their sleep, only for it to become clear that the cats were responding to symptoms of undiagnosed sleep apnea, a disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.
The pet owner described being woken up “every hour or two” during the night, often by one cat sitting on their legs and staring, and the other knocking items off nearby shelves or tapping at the window blinds.
“They would go to the effort and then once they saw I was awake, they would run off and do their own thing, unless it was breakfast time,” they wrote. “I honestly thought they just hated the fact that I slept, in general.”
However, the owner discovered that they were suffering from sleep apnea, which shifted their entire perspective on their pets’ behavior.
“My sweet boys were waking me up because I would stop breathing,” they said. “I didn’t think I could love them more than I already do, but somehow I can.”
Speaking with Newsweek, Dr. Emma Choi, a veterinarian affiliated with Banfield Pet Hospitals and VCA Crocker, said that while scientific studies on cats detecting illness in humans are limited, there is growing anecdotal evidence of feline intuition in health matters.
“Cats can actually distinguish odors corresponding to different emotional states,” Choi said. “Although formal studies about their capability of detecting health concerns are limited, there are a lot of anecdotal reports of cats noticing the illness of their owners.”
Choi explained that a cat’s highly refined sense of smell may allow them to detect changes in a person’s body chemistry, which can in some cases indicate illness.
“Illness can alter a person’s body chemistry,” she said. “In a way, their sensitive olfactory system can detect the subtle chemical or hormonal changes experienced by their human.
“Cats can sense indirect indicators such as the heart rate through auditory cues and the person’s breathing pattern as cats are known to be sensitive to subtle shifts in behavior.”
The pet owner had added that since making adjustments to their sleeping environment and habits, the cats’ disruptive behavior has nearly ceased.
“Ever since I made some changes with how I sleep, they have only been waking me up for breakfast so something must be working,” they said.
In the comments, many viewers praised the cats’ behavior. Some shared similar stories of pets alerting them to medical conditions, while others expressed surprise that such actions could stem from concern rather than mischief.
“I feel terrible for just assuming they were a*******—ugh so much love for them,” the owner said. “Little service kitties.”
Newsweek reached out to u/aria-du for more information via Reddit.
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