Cat twitching and peeing in sleep

[Mr.Meowrupin]

Hi all,
We have a cat adopted from the shelter who is now three years old. We noticed he twitches violently in his sleep like he’s having a nightmare and then he will pee himself. We’ve brought him to the vet and they’ve done a urinalysis, blood test but everything came back normal.
They prescribed him some anti depressants to see if that will help since our cat is generally anxious.
We try to play with him everyday and provide enrichment which the behaviouralist at the shelter recommended.
He’s been on the meds for a week now but is still peeing everyday in his sleep.

Does anyone else’s cat have similar issues?
And does anyone have good recommendations for enzyme cleaners?

thank you.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Feeby twitches in her sleep, so I do believe there is some level that is normal. But, IMO, violent twitching enough to cause loss of bladder control sounds more like some sort of seizure. Why it would only happen during sleep is something that a neurologist might be able to answer. Take some videos of it for reference and ask your vet about consulting with a specialist.

Is he still twitching as well when he pees at night while on the anti-depressant?

I have included a TCS article below that offers some ideas about how to get urine out of bedding/clothing/etc.
How To Get Cat Pee Smell Out Of Clothes And Linens – TheCatSite Articles

I did a search on this site and only found two previous posts about something similar. One was from 2003 and the other from 2021, and the OPs never found a resolution - or if they did they didn't come back to post about it. Neither OP is still active on this site either, so can't reach out to them. One did try Valium and it did stop both the twitching and peeing, but drugged that cat so bad that the OP refused to give it to hm again.

 

[Mr.Meowrupin]

Thanks for the response!

That article you linked was very helpful.

We did show the vet a video of him sleeping and twitching and they ended up prescribing him the anti depressants. They said it may take a month for the meds to kick in so we are just waiting and hopefully it will work but so far we are about 2 weeks in with the meds and no help..

If the anti depressants don’t work after a month we’ll ask the vet about the specialist. But other than the peeing he seems to be in good health so that is a good sign.