Jessie is an orange rescue kitten, now about 7 months old. A really spunky kitten gotten to be a play pal for Artie, my Ragdoll, now 9 months old. She can hold her own in rough play, and they really love each other… and me too!
I've noticed when she is sleeping that sometimes she will jerk, a limb, her face, for a second or two, but today it was more than that. Despite her active nature, she is growing into being a real snuggle bunny. A week ago she would squirm if I held her more than few seconds, now I can carry her across the room, and she will jump up to sleep between my legs when I'm laying on the couch. So cute when she puts her head on my leg. Gosh, getting carried away - what can I say? I'm a new Cat Daddy.
While napping, I'm used to her jerking for a second or two… but today she was out cold when I saw her shaking all over. Now these were tics and jerks, nothing like a full leg movement, even her face and whiskers were twitching. Although the lighting was low I saw that her eyes were about 1/3 open, third eyelid across the eyes and I think (but not sure, like I said, low light and no glasses) it looked like her eyes were darting back and forth.
Ah, perhaps she was dreaming and I've heard that in some cats that the movement suppression accompanying dreams is out of whack… because REM sleep is supposed to paralyze muscle movement. What I don't know is if these movements affects a cat's health long term, or even if that is what is going on. I was able to actually touch her and examine her eyes during this without her waking up (I guess that goes along with being unresponsive while dreaming?).
Okay, bottom line is that she will have jerky and tic-like movements while sleeping (apparently more so than I originally thought). Anyone know about this? Is it something that I ought to be concerned about and investigate further?
(Slight off topic, but it occurs to me that as a rescue kitten, she may be inbred? So maybe more prone to this kind of thing? Just a thought. She was found in a parking lot and wound up being fostered with a foster mom that had momma cat with three kittens about her age because, at the time, the Rescue was full.)
Picture at the rescue home:
http://imageshack.us/a/img843/1910/lbbf.jpg
Just a couple of days ago:
http://imageshack.us/a/img62/1842/7tic.jpg
I've noticed when she is sleeping that sometimes she will jerk, a limb, her face, for a second or two, but today it was more than that. Despite her active nature, she is growing into being a real snuggle bunny. A week ago she would squirm if I held her more than few seconds, now I can carry her across the room, and she will jump up to sleep between my legs when I'm laying on the couch. So cute when she puts her head on my leg. Gosh, getting carried away - what can I say? I'm a new Cat Daddy.
While napping, I'm used to her jerking for a second or two… but today she was out cold when I saw her shaking all over. Now these were tics and jerks, nothing like a full leg movement, even her face and whiskers were twitching. Although the lighting was low I saw that her eyes were about 1/3 open, third eyelid across the eyes and I think (but not sure, like I said, low light and no glasses) it looked like her eyes were darting back and forth.
Ah, perhaps she was dreaming and I've heard that in some cats that the movement suppression accompanying dreams is out of whack… because REM sleep is supposed to paralyze muscle movement. What I don't know is if these movements affects a cat's health long term, or even if that is what is going on. I was able to actually touch her and examine her eyes during this without her waking up (I guess that goes along with being unresponsive while dreaming?).
Okay, bottom line is that she will have jerky and tic-like movements while sleeping (apparently more so than I originally thought). Anyone know about this? Is it something that I ought to be concerned about and investigate further?
(Slight off topic, but it occurs to me that as a rescue kitten, she may be inbred? So maybe more prone to this kind of thing? Just a thought. She was found in a parking lot and wound up being fostered with a foster mom that had momma cat with three kittens about her age because, at the time, the Rescue was full.)
Picture at the rescue home:
http://imageshack.us/a/img843/1910/lbbf.jpg
Just a couple of days ago:
http://imageshack.us/a/img62/1842/7tic.jpg
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