Feline Hyperesthesia

Written by Mary Anne Miller

Bacardi was four years old when she first began acting strangely. When we would go to pet her, the skin on her back would ripple like the tide coming in, and as we would get close to her tail, she would turn her head quickly and snap her jaws. A few minutes later, she would be acting normal again and allowing us to pet her. Bacardi had such a wonderful temperament, we really didn't worry about this quirky behavior, figuring that it would pass... we were wrong.

Bacardi was a Siamese mix that we rescued along with her four littermates when they were just tiny kittens. The entire litter was sickly and needed round-the-clock care, including bottle feedings every 2 hours. The four kittens survived and grew into sleek and wonderful cats. Never having to deal with major health issues after they entered adulthood, we didn't give Bacardi's behavior the attention it deserved at first, until she started biting her tail section and tearing out large chunks of her fur. We took her to our vet who said she had allergies, quizzed us on what we were feeding her, gave us some ointment to put on her tail section and sent us home.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Bacardi's behavior became more erratic. She appeared to be obsessed with her tail. Even while she slept, her tail would twitch almost uncontrollably. She would wake up periodically and attack her tail with the same vigor that we witnessed when she hunted mice in the barn. Her pupils would dialate, and she appeared to be frightened of common noises in the house that never bothered her before. One afternoon while we were out in the backyard, she dashed out the cat door and started running in circles, starting with wide circles and ending in small ones until she collapsed panting on the ground!

During these bizarre episodes she was seen by four different vets. Not one of them had any answers for us. They all determined it was behavioral, and she was put on different medications to try and calm her down. But the medications did not work, and worse of all, she started to have seizures, about one a week. At that point she was placed on anti-epileptic medication which stopped the frequency of the seizures, but did not stop them altogether. She still displayed the strange behavior.

I finally turned to the Internet to find the answer. Going to a main search engine, I typed in "rolling skin of cat" and hit Enter. Website links for Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome filled my screen. I began reading. According to some experts the disease is triggered by specific events and can be activated by feelings of either pleasure (petting) or pain. Some believe it is caused by a feeding a low-grade cat food, but Bacardi always got high-grade cat food. Although Feline Hyperesthesia is common in Siamese cats, the disease also affects other breeds as well.

Five months into the disease, Bacardi passed away during a particularly violent seizure. As we buried her near the oak tree she loved, I apologized to her for not reacting quickly enough. For not demanding more of the veterinarians that she saw when she had this disease.

Feline Hyperesthesia has been described as a sort of seizure disorder. If you suspect your cat might have this disease, please take the cat to the vet and demand a full physical and neurological work-up. Insist on blood work as well to find out if the cat has an underlying health problem which might be what triggers Feline Hyperesthesia episodes. If like us, you live in a farming community, then find a vet that specializes in small animals and stay on top of this condition until you have some answers. Don't make the mistake that we did, and end up losing such a precious feline life in the process.

Mary Anne Miller is a free-lance writer, and member of the Cat Writers' Association. She is a web copy writer, and passionate about feral cats/kittens and bottle babies. You can read more by Mary Anne at her Feral Cat Behavior Blog.

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