Unexplained loss of motor skills: August Disease?

Anybody ever heard of August Disease? I haven't done thorough searching yet, but I can't find anything on the Net about it.

This afternoon around 2:00ish, Shelly started vocalizing. Not the howl of a cat about to throw up - just talking and talking. Obviously we were very concerned.

He was eating, drinking, sort of playing - everything pretty normal. But he wanted extra attention, extra love, and would not leave us alone or stop talking unless we were petting him.

Then he fell off the bed. His back end was a bit wobbly. Then he seemed fine.

Then he stumbled jumping up onto the bed. A bit later, he fell off the bed again - his back legs slipped.

So I went to the bottom of the stairs and called him. He slid down a couple of the stairs.

His back end was intermittently not working properly.

We took him to the emergency animal hospital, and they called our vet, who said they could call him at home to consult with him if they needed to.

There was no sign of any neurological event. His blood chemistry indicated very slight dehydration and elevated histamines - but that's it.

Apparently our vet is an expert on "August Disease," a self-limiting thing - but there's no way to test for it, it is simply symptomatic.

Obviously we'll be making an appointment with our regular vet ASAP - but they sent us home with Shelly with nothing to do. Feed him some pedialyte, even though it was really slight dehydration. And he's still having that intermittent problem with his back legs. He stumbled when jumping up on to the bed after we got home.

It is REALLY hard not to be completely out of our minds with worry, but apparently x-rays or an MRI were not warranted.

Shelly's 5. Apparently this is the age and the season that this disease crops up. Warmer weather (thus the "August") is when it appears.

Anybody familiar with this or know anything about it?

Thanks,

Laurie

OK. We called the vet to ask if there was another name. In dogs, they call it "Idiopathic vestibular disease." So I looked up feline vestibular disease:

http://www.bobmckee.com/Client%20Inf...in%20Cats.html

And this - on dogs and cats: http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...r_disease.html

His head isn't tilting, his eyes aren't rolling or moving. So we'll see what Stan (his regular vet) says when we see him. AND - when we drove to the vet, for the first time EVER, Shelly didn't vomit, pee or poop (he usually does all three). So this doesn't seem to match the middle ear infection cause.

Shelly - I hope this is "idiopathic vestibular disease" that is happening for no known reason, and that it goes away in at most a couple of days!

Laurie

Hi Laurie - just caught this thread. I've not heard of the disease but am sending positive vibes for Shelly.

The only experience I've had with loss of use in back legs was either a stroke or cardiac disease (cardiomyopathy where a blood clot forms to the major arteries to their back legs). Did the vet look for a heart murmur?

Laurie, I have never heard of this, but I am sending many prayers for Shelly for a quick complete recovery

Originally Posted by Bella713

Laurie, I have never heard of this, but I am sending many prayers for Shelly for a quick complete recovery

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Same here, Laurie. for Shelly

When Maggie was about 6 or 8 months old, she had Idiopathic Vestibular Disease. I was terrified. She was walking around in circles (only one direction) stumbling and falling, but always getting back up and walking in circles. When I picked her up and looked at her eyes, she had terrible nystagmus (her eyes went back and forth, side to side, rapidly.) She had a head tilt (can't remember which way it tilted anymore, and I can't remember which way she walked in circles....I think clockwise and a right head tilt, but it was 5 years ago...) I thought she had a stroke or something similar. I took her to the vet as soon as they opened the next morning (it happened late in the evening) and that is when she was diagnosed with IVD. The vet gave us antibiotics (sorry...can't remember what kind) and said that it is usually a viral thing, but can occasionally be brought on by toxoplasmosis. Maggie's symptoms cleared almost completely within 2-3 days, and the nystagmus was resolved in about a week. She has no residual symptoms.

It's a terrifying thing to witness. I've never heard of anything referred to as 'August Disease', and Shelly's symptoms don't seem to follow Maggie's as far as IVD goes. I will certainly keep you and Shelly in my prayers for a complete recovery.

~~Hugs~~
Pookie & the girls

Thanks for the positive vibes for Shel!

Pookie, those sound exactly like the symptoms described on the sites I found. I'm glad there were no residual symptoms!

Doc checked for a heart murmur, but took no X-rays. His ESO level was very elevated, indicating high histamine levels, but that was it.

Today he's the same. Eating, drinking - but sleepy. Vocal, though not as much. He was all night every time he woke up though! Intermittent problems with his back legs - slipping, stumbling - but not a lot.

Guess we'll have to wait for our regular vet. Can't it be tomorrow already so we can make the appointment?

Thanks again for the positive vibes for Shel.

Laurie

Just sending some get well vibes for Shelly and some

Hi Laurie! I hope Shelly's doing better.... I don't want to scare you or anything, but the back legs not working, needing extra attention, etc, sounds exactly like what my little Iz went through a few months ago, she lost control of the back end of her body and it got progressively worse over a few days until she went into cardiac arrest and passed away.... one of the leading symptoms of dry FIP is neurological problems, which is what I strongly believe Iz had, just a suggestion. I really hope that Shelly does not have this

When my cat just recently lost the use of his back legs, they found out that he had intravertebral disk disease. Depending on were the disk collapses, there are slightly different symptoms. It is somewhat treatable, and will show up on an ex-ray. I would ask him about maybe doing some ex-rays at least to rule out a number or skeletal problems.
I'm sending good vibes your way. Please keep us updated.

That sounds so scary!! I'm sending many good health vibes for Shelly {{{ }}}

I hope Shelly is okay. I'm sending {{{{{healthy vibes}}}}} to Shelly and to you.

I cannot thank you all enough for the positive vibes for Shel!

GothicAngel, and KatieMae, I am so sorry to hear about your kitties.

Actually, Shel ended up sleeping most of the day yesterday. He did continue eating and drinking, but was still having intermittent problems with his back end.

However, we decided NOT to wait for an appointment, but to just show up at our vet's at 8:00am when he gets in, and left a message saying we were going to do that.

We woke up at 6:30am this morning, I called Sheldon downstairs to see how he was walking.

He came bounding down the stairs like he normally does! I got out the white feather wand toy - and he leapt up onto the cat tree and bonked out like he normally does!

I called him into the kitchen for treats, and he bounded down and into the kitchen - like he normally does!

So I promptly called our vet and apologized, but asked him to call when he got in. Which he did.

He thinks maybe it was a parasite that worked its way through his system. Where it would have come from because they don't go outside, I dont' know - but whatever it was appears to be gone.

So I can't thank you all enough for the information, and the positive vibes for Shelly! All I can say is - TCS Board Magic works again!

to all,

Laurie

glad to hear Shelly's back to normal!

I have just had this phenomenon happen to a second cat-- both females, middle-age.  Nystagmus, head tilt, inability to walk without falling  She is , panting and very rapid, open-mouth respiration,  frothing, loud uncharacteristic cries.  The first cat recovered completely.  This second, Mimi, was taken to the emergency provider, who gave her an Ivermectin injection.  The current hypothesis is that this may be caused by bot fly larvae or proteins crossing the blood-brain barrier, though it seems no one is sure.  She also received an antibiotic and is on prednisone for several days.  We just spent a very long night and she is quietly sitting, her head listing back and forth, eyes continuing to shift rapidly.  Thankfully her breathing is more normal.  She is not eating or drinking, so we will syringe some water in with her next prednisone.  This is a terrifying malady.

nanw said:

I have just had this phenomenon happen to a second cat-- both females, middle-age.  Nystagmus, head tilt, inability to walk without falling  She is , panting and very rapid, open-mouth respiration,  frothing, loud uncharacteristic cries.  The first cat recovered completely.  This second, Mimi, was taken to the emergency provider, who gave her an Ivermectin injection.  The current hypothesis is that this may be caused by bot fly larvae or proteins crossing the blood-brain barrier, though it seems no one is sure.  She also received an antibiotic and is on prednisone for several days.  We just spent a very long night and she is quietly sitting, her head listing back and forth, eyes continuing to shift rapidly.  Thankfully her breathing is more normal.  She is not eating or drinking, so we will syringe some water in with her next prednisone.  This is a terrifying malady.

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Oh I'm so sorry!!!! Many vibes to your baby! Please keep us posted on her progress!

Interesting this thread got bumped. I've never mentioned anywhere, I don't think, that after this event with Shel, that he developed a "tic" when resting - his head kind of ... "bobs" a couple of times really quickly and his eyes blink once or twice. Like a full head/facial "tic" is all I know how to describe it. His vet said we could do neurological testing if we wanted to, but most likely there would be nothing to do, so just keep an eye on it. If it starts getting worse, we'll revisit the idea. So far, while it happens a number of times a day, it doesn't seem to have altered in nature. :dk:

Also interesting... we used an animal communicator about two years ago to help work out a behavior issue we were having between Sheldon and a new rescue kitty (Chumley). In "chatting" with Sheldon, as she does energy work, we mentioned this "tic" thing (but didn't provide information about the background behind it). Sheldon "told" her that this murmur/tic thing doesn't bother him, he feels fine, but it started when he felt a sharp "sting" in his back, near his tail. So I wonder if what Shel was experiencing was some kind of reaction to a bee sting or bug bite that we couldn't see. :dk:

LDG, how does an animal communicator work? Are they able to diagnose illnesses in animals?

Sorry, I lost power so haven't been around as much; it's hard navigating from the phone. :lol3:

Ellen does energy work, which can help. :nod: But she refers people to a vet that does long distance work. He needs the medical records of the cat, and does a kind of communication thing himself. But he uses only homeopathic treatment remedies. I'm not sure if he works with your existing vet - though I'm pretty sure that as a VET he knows what remedies would work with what vet-prescribed medicines. I did not use him, but another member has. I'll PM her and ask her to post.

The way the animal communicator thing works is you set up a session. You email one picture of the animal. You tell Ellen as much as you want to - or not - but if you want to know something specific, she needs to know what to ask. When Lazlo was diagnosed with lymphoma, Ellen chatted with him, and he said his stomach hurt ( :lol3: ), that he felt nauseous (which makes sense, but he'd been given an appetite stimulant, not an anti-nausea med, and when we added an anti-nausea med to the arsenal, things really turned around with his eating), that he liked chicken (which actually was helpful in figuring out what would get him to eat), and that he understood we wanted to help him, and he was willing to do the treatment (which required weekly visits to the vet for two months, then biweekly visits for four months). She did energy work on him. Did she make the chemotherapy more effective? I don't know. But at the end of chemo, the mass was gone.

What she "gets" from the cat is completely depending on what the cat is willing to share. Some cats are really chatty - others aren't. :lol3:

This is her website: http://www.enlightenedaninmals.com She's helped us quite a bit. I've referred her to others on TCS, and she's helped them too. :heart3: (When one of our ferals went missing earlier this year, I contacted her to ask if he was wandering or dead. She "found" him, and he told her he was just on walkabout. He turned up two weeks later, lying on top of the feral villa, as if he'd never been gone. :lol3: ).

LDG said:

Sorry, I lost power so haven't been around as much; it's hard navigating from the phone.

Ellen does energy work, which can help.

But she refers people to a vet that does long distance work. He needs the medical records of the cat, and does a kind of communication thing himself. But he uses only homeopathic treatment remedies. I'm not sure if he works with your existing vet - though I'm pretty sure that as a VET he knows what remedies would work with what vet-prescribed medicines. I did not use him, but another member has. I'll PM her and ask her to post.
The way the animal communicator thing works is you set up a session. You email one picture of the animal. You tell Ellen as much as you want to - or not - but if you want to know something specific, she needs to know what to ask. When Lazlo was diagnosed with lymphoma, Ellen chatted with him, and he said his stomach hurt (

), that he felt nauseous (which makes sense, but he'd been given an appetite stimulant, not an anti-nausea med, and when we added an anti-nausea med to the arsenal, things really turned around with his eating), that he liked chicken (which actually was helpful in figuring out what would get him to eat), and that he understood we wanted to help him, and he was willing to do the treatment (which required weekly visits to the vet for two months, then biweekly visits for four months). She did energy work on him. Did she make the chemotherapy more effective? I don't know. But at the end of chemo, the mass was gone.

What she "gets" from the cat is completely depending on what the cat is willing to share. Some cats are really chatty - others aren't.

This is her website: http://www.enlightenedaninmals.com She's helped us quite a bit. I've referred her to others on TCS, and she's helped them too.

(When one of our ferals went missing earlier this year, I contacted her to ask if he was wandering or dead. She "found" him, and he told her he was just on walkabout. He turned up two weeks later, lying on top of the feral villa, as if he'd never been gone.

).

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WOW that's amazing. I've had energy work done on myself before but never thought to have it done on my cat. Thanks for the info

Wow thats amazing! I've had energy work done on myself before but never thought to have it done on my cats. Thanks for the info