Seizures

Hi all! I didn't see anything posted about this yet, although I'm new so maybe I missed it?

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this:my cat has had occasional seizures. He hasn't had one in a month and a half, but they were quite frequent for awhile. The vet did blood tests and all and couldn't find anything.

When I actually witnessed the seizures, they would start with his mouth sort of twisting up, and then he would end up on his side, usually. He once fell off the bed, and another time I had to pick him up, rigid and convulsing, and move him to the floor from the big chair he was on-I was worried that his air flow was constricted by the cushions.

The spasms were all-encompassing. Every muscle in his body would tighten and his paws would sort of flail. His breathing was really heavy and it was as though he was sharpening his claws on the carpet. In fact, that is what woke me up the first time it happened-I thought he was being "bad", and the poor baby was in grand mal! Also, he would lose all control of his bladder, and would drool all over his paws. He became quite a mess, and I had to wipe him down carefully after his breathing came back to normal-which often took about 5 minutes. The seizure itself would last about 60-90 seconds, and then he would sit up, eyes huge, probably terrified, and once his breathing calmed down it would take another 5 minutes before he could stand. And then he would eat from his food bowl and sleep for awhile.

Anyway, he hasn't had one in awhile. I was hesitant to put him on Phenobarbitol as we did not know what was causing the problem, and since the frequency tapered off quite soon after they started, I decided to let him be unless the situation changed.

If anyone has any experience with this, I would love some feedback! Oh, and he is only about three years old. I don't know anything about his parentage or if there were any occurences like this in his family, as he arrived on my doorstep during a first snowfall (in Ottawa). But I would love to have more info...


Thanks!

Hi Beetle,

I guess none of us has had any experience with seizures. From what I've read about it, most seizures have to do with poisoning, but I guess that's one thing your vet has ruled out. Other medical problems that can induce seizures are brain tumors, head injuries and epilepsy.

Did your cat suffer any accident that may have damaged his head in the weeks prior to the first attack?

I guess your vet must have checked for all of these, leaving the diagnosis of unconfirmed epilepsy. I hope that you haven't seen anymore of these seizures and that your baby gets better.

Hi Beetle,

I do not have any experience with seizures in cats but I do have a lot of experience with seizures in humans and some experience with epilepsy in dogs. If your cat has another seizure I would recommend putting him on the Phenobarbitol. Seizures themselves can wreck havoc on the nervous system and can result in permament brain damage.
Also, it is important to note what events preceeded the seizure. Sometimes you can help prevent them from occuring by eliminating the trigger. Stress is a common trigger.
Lastly,I'm sure your vet already let you know but don't try to restrain your cat--it'll only get injured. Instead move averything out of its way.

Hopefully, you've seen the last of it and will never need this information.

Annie

P.S. You said your vet did blood work--did he just check for toxins or did he check for infection as well? Seizures in humans are sometimes caused by severe infections.

I'm not sure if my vet checked for toxins but I think so...I remember her mentioning it. Thanks to everyone for the good advice.
Simon hasn't had any recent accident that might have triggered the seizures-he broke his hip a couple of years ago, and I am wondering if that was not perhaps actually caused by a seizure while he was climbing on our entertainment centre.
When these seizures occured, I just moved everything out of the way, or, one two occasions, moved him. He once was right near the closet door, and I just shifted him away from it, and once he was on a large puffy stuffed chair, as I mentioned before, and I didn't want anything to restrict his breathing.
I think if the seizures do not disappear I will definitely consider the phenobarbitol. I hadn't thought of the damage the spasms themselves could be causing.

Thanks again!

I just wanted to tell of my daughters 4 year old cat had what we thought was a seizure yesterday.she noticed his tail was crooked and his back legs were shaking she picked him up and his whole body went ridged and his neck went sideways he still was alert but couldnt walk about 5 mins. he was back to normal.no sighs of anything was wrong.otherwise he is a very healthy cat.

Oh, Kathy, that's terrible! It can look pretty scary. Simon is completly healthy apart from his seizures, too. Which, BTW, he has not had in several months now. I'm hoping they're gone for good, but you never know with these things. Anyway, good luck with your cat!

Hi Kathy and welcome to the forums!

I wonder what caused the seizure... Have you consulted the vet? Maybe he or she would like to run some tests?

By the way, I see from your profile that you're a pet groomer. I guess you can give us all some tips at the care and grooming forum!

Hi there,

I have just been adding my thoughts to someone whose cat is suffering from constipation and while scrolling through the list of topics saw your message on seizures.

Our 5 yr old calico came to us as a stray, her mother brough her to us in our garden. Niblette (yes I know a daft name) couldn't walk hardly at all could only lope along, so we caught her and took her to the vet expecting him to say there's nothing to be done. anyway he said give it a week and then bring her back, so we kept her in a cat cage in the garage and handfed her and cleaned her etc and so you know the rest, by the time we took her back we were hooked and that was over 5 years ago.

She still doesn't walk but can manage to shuffle along on her side if she feels like it. Anyway to get to the main point. She started to have seizures probably about a year after she joined us, frightened the life out of me the first few times. She would sometimes growl and then thrash about claws out, eyes unfocused, drooling and occasionally she would loose control of her bladder. Sometimes she would have several in the course of a day and they would only last about 30 seconds to a minute but then it would take about five minutes for her to 'come round' you can see her eyes come back into focus and then she generally gives a little shake and she's fine. Then all she wants to do is purr and purr and be picked up and cuddled.

We obviously have had her tested and generally she is in excellent health. We believe that certainly the walking problem is due to the fact that her mother had distemper (a stray) and we wonder whether the seizures are a by product of that as well.

We have resorted to putting Nibby on pheonobarb as this is obviously not something she is going to grow out of. She is also on valium which is more to do with helping her with her appetite and also to help calm her down when she does have these seizures. She is now at the stage where she has a couple of bad days about once a year and then we usually take her to the vet and have her blood level checked (usually during her annual check up) and if the medication needs adjusting then we do it. We powder the pills up and mix it into her food and make sure she eats that first and it seems to work.

I don't like having to give her pills, but I would far rather have her around and as healthy as possible. I hope there's something here that gives you hope. Good luck and I'm sorry that I didn't see your message before, but this is my first day on this site.

Welcome to the forums Valerie!

What a fascinating story! I read that neonatal distemper can cause cerebelar brain damage. Makes sense that it might be the cause of the seizures as well.

She's one lucky cat - first to have survived neonatal distemper (90% mortality rate!) and then to have been adopted by you!

Did you get new carpet recently? Last night my aunt purchased one of those carpeted " cat towers" and placed her older cat inside the tubed part. Several minutes later this cat had two seizures. She had no history of seizures. I googled new carpet and seizures and found that new carpet ( the chemicals used in them) has caused seizures in people and dogs that previously had no history of seizures. Seizures have even been induced in lab mice by blowing warm air across a piece of carpet. There were only a couple of instances of cat seizures from new carpet com paired to the number of people seizures and dog seizures. If there is no seizure history (epilepsy usually doesn't just manifest in old age) the vet should run a metabolic panel to check liver and kidney function, build up of toxins in the blood could cause seizures. Also could be neurological, such as a tumor. But if the cat is otherwise healthy and new carpet was installed I would suspect that.