Can you tell me how long the ataxia lasted in your cat and what you did to treat it? Was it just feeding and sub-q fluids? I treated my cat, who does have digestive issues (IBS) with Drontal earlier this evening and noticed the ataxia, especially in the hind end, about 4-1/2 hours later...I wish I had read this earlier. Thank-you.
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Drontal and ataxia
- Thread starter isabelle4
- Start Date
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2008
- Messages
- 9,837
- Purraise
- 197
The ataxia lasted about 24 hours and then he was fine.
I was advised by the poison control center vet to skip his evening dose of phenobarbital, just in case it was an inadvertent type of overdose, but the makers of drontal insisted that this was not the case, that instead, it was a rare reaction that can happen with a cat who has had recent intestinal trauma, which Tolly had had.
On the other hand he did have an excessive appetite, which is an indication of phenobarbital overdose, so maybe it was a combination of things.
Chances are your kitty will probably be okay too, but you should probably get him to the vet anyway, just in case. As you know I did take Tolly in right away. I was able to give sub q fluids at home, since I have the supplies and skills already.
And it was about 4 hours after the dose that the symptoms started. Oh boy what a scary time that was.
Let us know how your kitty is doing.
I was advised by the poison control center vet to skip his evening dose of phenobarbital, just in case it was an inadvertent type of overdose, but the makers of drontal insisted that this was not the case, that instead, it was a rare reaction that can happen with a cat who has had recent intestinal trauma, which Tolly had had.
On the other hand he did have an excessive appetite, which is an indication of phenobarbital overdose, so maybe it was a combination of things.
Chances are your kitty will probably be okay too, but you should probably get him to the vet anyway, just in case. As you know I did take Tolly in right away. I was able to give sub q fluids at home, since I have the supplies and skills already.
And it was about 4 hours after the dose that the symptoms started. Oh boy what a scary time that was.
Let us know how your kitty is doing.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #3
Thank-you so much for the reply!
I did take my kitty to the vet. She wasn't aware of any negative side effects of Drontal either, but he is 15 years old and somewhat weak and immuno-compromised from progression of the irritable bowel syndrome. I think I just need to be very careful with him from now on with any meds. He is fine now.
Last night was scary. It started about 4-1/2 hours after taking the Drontal. He was disoriented and couldn't hold his hind end up. About an hour later, he just became very sleepy. He slept soundly most of the night, but tried to stand up each time he awoke and had a tough time, then just laid back down and went back to sleep. I did manage to get a few bites of food into him each time he awoke, though, and I do think that had something to do with the Drontal because he normally doesn't eat as much. He did not get the red-rimmed eyes or inner lid down thing, though.
I'm also set up for administering sub-q fluids at home, but just did that the day before and didn't want to overload his heart and do it again. I had read a post on another forum that described a cat with digestive/intestinal issues and same thing. In that case, the cat was back to normal by the next morning. Not so for my guy. He was definitely better, but not normal. I was really worried about how transient the "transient" ataxia would be. By this afternoon, though, he is almost 100% back. He is now drinking a lot of water and eating well and walking around fine, but still sleeping a lot.
I did take my kitty to the vet. She wasn't aware of any negative side effects of Drontal either, but he is 15 years old and somewhat weak and immuno-compromised from progression of the irritable bowel syndrome. I think I just need to be very careful with him from now on with any meds. He is fine now.
Last night was scary. It started about 4-1/2 hours after taking the Drontal. He was disoriented and couldn't hold his hind end up. About an hour later, he just became very sleepy. He slept soundly most of the night, but tried to stand up each time he awoke and had a tough time, then just laid back down and went back to sleep. I did manage to get a few bites of food into him each time he awoke, though, and I do think that had something to do with the Drontal because he normally doesn't eat as much. He did not get the red-rimmed eyes or inner lid down thing, though.
I'm also set up for administering sub-q fluids at home, but just did that the day before and didn't want to overload his heart and do it again. I had read a post on another forum that described a cat with digestive/intestinal issues and same thing. In that case, the cat was back to normal by the next morning. Not so for my guy. He was definitely better, but not normal. I was really worried about how transient the "transient" ataxia would be. By this afternoon, though, he is almost 100% back. He is now drinking a lot of water and eating well and walking around fine, but still sleeping a lot.
