VERY sensitive to TV sounds and noise?

[meeshfoster]

My one kitty Tako has off and on been sensitive to sounds on the TV but I feel like it’s gotten worse recently. We have high ceilings and I think sometimes he believes the sounds are coming from upstairs in our loft? He will hear a sound on TV and run upstairs, then run down, and back up. He does fine with a lot of shows or movies but for many others we need to keep carefully adjusting the volume the entire time because so many things set him off. Any insight? I’m taking him to the vet soon and am going to ask.

 

[maggie101]

Since a cats hearing is even superior to dogs that may be why if the tv is loud. Good idea taking him to a vet. My cats go in a different room if I turn the TV up

 

[vampiric_conure]

My guys hate loud noises, like the dishwasher going off, loud drill noises or even work on the street I live on. Poor guys. Must hurt like heck!

 

[meeshfoster]

Since a cats hearing is even superior to dogs that may be why if the tv is loud. Good idea taking him to a vet. My cats go in a different room if I turn the TV up

It’s not even that the TV is loud and that’s what confuses us so. It seems more often it’s music specifically or certain tones. I’m assuming it’s a frequency issue but it just happens with sooo many TV sounds.

 

[maggie101]

My cat likes high pitched music like Duran Duran's voice but not low pitched like George Michael. I kinda agree with her. I would worry if she started to not like his music!

 

[Caspers Human]

Some TVs, especially high-end home theater stuff, have surround sound. They use various acoustic and electronic tricks to make it seem like sounds are moving around the room.

If surround sound is good enough to fool the human ear, it might be good enough to fool a cat's ear, too.

 

[meeshfoster]

Some TVs, especially high-end home theater stuff, have surround sound. They use various acoustic and electronic tricks to make it seem like sounds are moving around the room.

If surround sound is good enough to fool the human ear, it might be good enough to fool a cat's ear, too.

yes for sure! We don’t have any surround sound though and just a normal TV so I don’t understand. I know modern sound mixing in movies and shows is kind of weird all around.

 

[meeshfoster]

I also wanted to mention for this issue that by itself it’s not really a problem, even though I don’t want my guy to be stressed or upset by it of course. Our main concern is him getting upset by a sound on the TV was a precursor a couple months ago to redirected aggression toward our other cat. We want Tako to be generally less reactive to the TV sounds to keep tension low. I also wanted to add that it’s not other environmental sounds that agitate him, it’s literally just sounds from the TV.

 

[maggie101]

My cat peaches is ok with cartoons on my tablet or tv. Maybe it's the high pitched voices? But not with TV or tablet hearing normal voices.

 

[Caspers Human]

We don’t have any surround sound

Some TVs, even if they don't have full-on surround sound, can bounce sound off the walls, behind the screen, to make the program sound better. My TV is just a "Plain Jane" model from LG and it does that. Sometimes, there is the sound of a doorbell or a siren or something that you'd swear is coming from some place other than the TV!

Whenever there is the sound of a cat coming from the TV, Elliot perks up his ears and goes to investigate the source. Casper, sometimes, does the same when he hears the sounds of birds and squirrels.

 

[Alldara]

Certain shows or some sounds are freaking painful to me also. I can't even count the number of shows anymore that have that high pitched shrieking in them. Movies used to just use it for mimicking tinnitus after a bomb went off or something. But now any time someone has something happening with their brain they use it. I literally can't watch most shows.

I'm wondering if that's the sound your cat is freaking out to. I can't imagine how much more painful that would be if you had high ceilings and a loft.