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- Mar 25, 2022
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One 10 year old cat started twitching about 2 months ago and is being treated with a steroid and gabapentin. The treatment has helped, but he still twitches around the face and his head moves and sometimes his legs. It was thought that most likely it was brain cancer, but an MRI has not been done due to cost and lack of accessibility (3 hour drive each way) and stress on the cat.
Now another approximately 5 year old cat has started twitching around the eyes, whiskers and bobbing her head, but not all day. It's definitely abnormal. The third 4 year old cat and two elderly humans are totally fine. There are no other symptoms.
It seems it must be an environmental exposure, but I have not used permethrin spray on clothing for ticks since September. I spray the clothes on the clothesline and bring them in after a few hours. (I have had Lyme before) I don't use sprays in the house and don't have dog treatments. They got rather sick 3 months ago when I changed their food too fast, and maybe there was another cause and I assumed it was too fast of a food change. My husband and I had Covid 19 (delta variant) last fall. I occasionally use a permethrin spray in the vegetable garden, once every few years. That spray is locked in a plastic cabinet along with the clothing spray. I rarely use a spray for wasps outdoors when they are a threat. I changed floor cleaner to Fabuloso, but it was a dilute solution such as 1:50. The two sick cats spend much more time with me in the front room and the healthy one is with my husband more in another room while he works during the day. In my area, the only new thing is a used synthesizer I bought about that time, and I suppose it could have drug residue on it. The cats don't go on it though. The cats have been indoors 100% since November. We have a carbon monoxide and even a radon detector.
I feed them Iams indoor cat food and Friskies wet food and cat treats and there have been no recalls. I don't give them any supplements. The food change was from one kind of Iams to another kind. I think it would have to be another really awful thing like happened with melamine years ago to be a dramatic result like this, and there would be news about it.
The 10 year old cat that got twitchy first does have a bad habit of licking things like the shower door or a step stool. These items should not have any chemical residue, though. The other twitchy cat doesn't do this.
I will be bringing the second cat to the vet ASAP, she will be calling me today, but any ideas are welcome. All these exposures I wrote of seem unlikely to be the cause of the problem because I already knew the risk of permethrin to cats and was careful and I don't use many chemicals in the home.
Thanks!
Now another approximately 5 year old cat has started twitching around the eyes, whiskers and bobbing her head, but not all day. It's definitely abnormal. The third 4 year old cat and two elderly humans are totally fine. There are no other symptoms.
It seems it must be an environmental exposure, but I have not used permethrin spray on clothing for ticks since September. I spray the clothes on the clothesline and bring them in after a few hours. (I have had Lyme before) I don't use sprays in the house and don't have dog treatments. They got rather sick 3 months ago when I changed their food too fast, and maybe there was another cause and I assumed it was too fast of a food change. My husband and I had Covid 19 (delta variant) last fall. I occasionally use a permethrin spray in the vegetable garden, once every few years. That spray is locked in a plastic cabinet along with the clothing spray. I rarely use a spray for wasps outdoors when they are a threat. I changed floor cleaner to Fabuloso, but it was a dilute solution such as 1:50. The two sick cats spend much more time with me in the front room and the healthy one is with my husband more in another room while he works during the day. In my area, the only new thing is a used synthesizer I bought about that time, and I suppose it could have drug residue on it. The cats don't go on it though. The cats have been indoors 100% since November. We have a carbon monoxide and even a radon detector.
I feed them Iams indoor cat food and Friskies wet food and cat treats and there have been no recalls. I don't give them any supplements. The food change was from one kind of Iams to another kind. I think it would have to be another really awful thing like happened with melamine years ago to be a dramatic result like this, and there would be news about it.
The 10 year old cat that got twitchy first does have a bad habit of licking things like the shower door or a step stool. These items should not have any chemical residue, though. The other twitchy cat doesn't do this.
I will be bringing the second cat to the vet ASAP, she will be calling me today, but any ideas are welcome. All these exposures I wrote of seem unlikely to be the cause of the problem because I already knew the risk of permethrin to cats and was careful and I don't use many chemicals in the home.
Thanks!
