Severe spasms during sleep

Corie, was your cat on any anti nasea medicines? My vet had mine on one a when he had a uri last winter, when I looked it up one of the side effects listed was muscle twitching, sometimes permanent. (In people it can cause them to even bite their own tongue off ). Serious stuff. It made my cat twitch, and that's why I looked it up. Wish I remembered the name.

I have a kitty who is having muscle spasms and twitching when relaxed and about to sleep.  The spasms continue while she's sleeping.  The actions you're describing have been coming up in my searches as symptoms of seizures, especially loss of bowel control, etc.

Someone here had a kitty with bladder stones, try feeding your cat an all canned diet.  My male kitty was blocked several times before a vet (after seeing several) finally explained to me that feeding him dry food exclusively was causing his problem.  No "special" dry food will help with crystals, only sufficient moisture.  Check out catinfo.org.

This is not simply twitching that seems to occur while cats are dreaming. This is a very violent twitching or spasm, more like a seizure. My cat is experiencing this quite often lately. She is almost 23. She has just recovered from a Urinary Tract Infection. She was on antibiotics. Now, I am giving her probiotics to restore the healthy flora in her gut. I totally understand how frightening this is to you, Bill, to see your cat jerking so violently. My cat is fine once she wakes up. The fear is that she may be in pain during the time of the jerking/spasms. Vet have no advise other than to spend $6K on an MRI. As much as I love my cat, I cannot afford to spend that kind of money on her at this stage.

Would love to know about some herbal solution that could alleviate this problem.

So sorry for your loss. I know my cat is way past her "expiration date" but as long as she is not suffering, I will not put her down. She is still playful, has a good appetite, practicing good hygiene, and going to her litter box as appropriate. She has some agility problems, cataracts, and seemingly some hearing loss, all issues that come with old age but she's still got a lot of life left in her. 

Vet told me that could be caused by strokes. Of course, he couldn't give me a definitive answer. I'd have to travel to another state and pay the $6K for an MRI>

I understand your problem, I dont think my cat is having seizures but she twitches a lot during a sleep, they can be violent but never enough that she falls of a chair, they appear really randomly and it isnt all the time when she sleeps. I seems like she is dreaming and she often looks like shes trying to run or play with a mouse of something (even though she ignores cats in mice in real life). Im also a deep sleeper and often twitch and talk so I wasnt as worried. But they do seem often uncontrollable sometimes and thats whats worrying me but I dont think she is as bad as yours.

Hi there,

What you are describing is indeed scary, I have a 6 month old kitten who is starting to do the same thing. She seems to be fine sleeping on the couch or on my lap when out of nowhere she jumps in the air, sometimes with a twist, and seems totally dazed when landing (always on her feet for now). It did remind me of an episode of Jackson Galaxy's Cat from Hell TV show. There was an older cat, what she was diagnosed with I cannot remember. What I do remember is that the owners also had pillows everywhere. What he suggested and what worked very well is to put sleeping 'caves' and other types of beds around the house with tall sides, almost like hatboxes. This did not stop de 'nightmares' or sudden jumps but it did stop de kitty from hurting herself.

Good luck

I looked it up, they gave the cat melatonin twice a day! Simple solution, cat did not have any more nightterrors!

Hi. I have an 8 year old male cat and he also started doing the same thing and has been doing it for a couple years now. From my research and from talking to different vets the conclusion is they are in REM sleep and are having hyper active dreams. My cat will start out twitching his whiskers then his ears and some slight twitching of his legs. He sleeps on my desk in front of my monitor so I am around most of the time when he does this. I do not wake him up. I simply place the palm of my hand gently on his back or stomach and the spasms stop immediately. I think this touching probably brings him out of REM but doesn't wake him up because he rarely opens his eyes or anything. Just keeps sleeping. Hope this helps.

Well, I know this is a really old thread, but I just received an email about it, so I thought I should update this to let everyone know how it all turned out.  Unfortunately, it's been almost two years now since we had to have Harry put down.  He was only 7 years old.  I guess the reason I never updated this thread is because it was just too difficult to talk about it after things got so bad with him.  Eventually, he followed the same path as his sister and began losing control of his back legs.  We had to move the litter box from the basement to a bathroom upstairs, but eventually, he couldn't even get in and out of a very shallow litter pan.  We used newspapers and absorbent pads on the bathroom floor for a while, and we had to block the top our stairway to keep him from tumbling down the stairs head over heels.  When it got to the point where he couldn't even stand back up by himself anymore, we had to make the decision to have him put down.  None of the vets we took him to had ever seen anything like it before, and our friend said all of her vets said the same thing about his siblings too, so we're assuming it was probably some kind of genetic defect since most of them eventually experienced the same thing.  So I suppose the good news is that the rest of you who have cats with similar sleeping problems probably won't experience the exact same things we did.  It's just always so hard when you lose a pet, it's like losing a member of the family.  Our other cat is still doing okay.  She's 12 years old now and still plays like a kitten sometimes, so I try not to think about what will eventually happen with her too.  Just taking it one day at a time.  Thanks to everyone for all your concern and well wishes.

My cat will be in a deep sleep on my bed or couch and all of a sudden, she jumps like she's been stuck with something or had a bad pain.  She just sits for awhile and sometimes gets a drink and comes back to bed. She does have arthritis in her hips, and I'm giving her adaquan injections which make a world of difference.  Also, occasionally I give her metacam between doses of adaquan, as she just gets that monthly.  I'm worried that she has a pain that wakes her, but she doesn't act like pain is the problem.  I guess I'll take her to the vet to check and to ease my mind.

What you describe is exactly like my cat is going thru. I've tried to describe it to friends with cats and they don't get it. It's beyond dreaming. Very scary. I've spent hours trying to film it to show my vet and other people. Unfortunately only one of friends saw the video before it was lost when my phone crashed. I'm going to try again. I feel for you and your baby. Until others see it they don't get it. Your story is my story and I will continue to ask and research and continue to wake my kitty before it gets " violent" .

There is so much we still don't know about animal biology.

Sometimes we have to admit to ourselves that not all vets will have a solution.  My advice is to make kitty as comfortable as can be during his sleep-times and work WITH his conditon.

Lay out comfortable nap/sleep spots on the floor. Cushions in the sun or near a heat source in a quiet corner, better of it's a nook with sides/roof. Create safe sleep spots for him so he's not falling off things and injuring himself. If you see him starting to spasm, gently wake him like you've been doing. Or pet him until he's in a lighter slumber without full on waking him up.

Obviously when you're not home, hopefully the safe sleep spots will be secure enough.

If he's losing bladder control on this places like his sister, buy a waterproof pillow cover and throw it in the wash when it happens.

the cats with violent sleep terrors need to take melatonin. Watch My Cat From Hell season 5 episode 2 about foley's sleep terrors (YouTube). And the foley follow up (Animalplanet.com)

They can be cured.

My cat does the same thing when sleeping, it's like a jolt, He does this every time he is sleeping. I have no idea what this means. He is 8 yrs old now and he's been doing this for a long time.
It reminds me of a dream I've had where I'm falling and I jolt, but keep on sleeping.

I noticed with my Luckman that his jerking movements while sleeping got more intense the older he got. I think he just slept more deeply. Sometimes it was so intense when he'd be sleeping in my bed that it woke me up! But he was fine.

If the kitty does this while awake though, that's a bit more of an issue for sure.

audreyanddarthy said:

the cats with violent sleep terrors need to take melatonin. Watch My Cat From Hell season 5 episode 2 about foley's sleep terrors (YouTube). And the foley follow up (Animalplanet.com)

They can be cured.

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Here it is Thank YOU audreyanddarthy for posting this! There is help ~  

Follow Up...

I hope you still read the replies to your message because I have a cat exactly the same. She falls off the sill every day, two three times, I sleep with her so when she fits (as I call them) if I am close by she sinks her claws into me and they don't come out till she wakes and she continues to fit the whole time. I have noted her odd behaviour, not just the fits also her strange likes in food and she is very aggressive to everyone since she was 10weeks old when I got her from a stranger in the classifieds. When she was about 6months old she fell off my balcony and I am on the 2nd floor, she went to sleep on a very small pillar and fell off, I was worried about her but she seemed fine so didn't take her to the vets. Any help would be grateful.