Severe spasms during sleep

[dinger]

I had a Siamese cat that was the most precious, wild and affectionate cat I'd ever had. At 15 1/2 years he started acting different--lethargic, quiet. But, he never failed to meet me at the door when I got home. He did not have the twitching everyone is talking about, but one morning he tried to get up and his back legs were paralyzed. He was scared and kept trying. I rushed him to the vet, and everything was wrong. He'd never had a sick day in his life until then. He didn't improve so we made a mad rush to a university animal hospital 300 miles away (and about 45 minutes before we got there he was in the worst pain I'd ever seen), where they discovered he had a 'saddle thrombus.' A blood clot wrapped around his spinal cord. It must have been a slow process, but maybe not. It wasn't curable and he had to be put down. It was the most horrible death I'd seen. I'm writing this because of the paralysis he had in his back legs that some of you mentioned. Maybe it can be checked out with your precious cats. Mingo was the love of my life. Good luck to all of you. I wish you the very best.

 

[Dusti]

One of my cats has started having pretty severe spasms while he is asleep. It started a few weeks ago and seems to happen purely randomly, not all the time. It can get much worse than just the usual light twitching that happens during dreaming. He jerks his legs so violently sometimes that he literally falls off the bed or chair where he's lying. Fortunately, he hasn't gotten hurt yet, and he seems perfectly fine once he's awake. If we see him starting to twitch, we can pet him and wake him up before it gets bad and he's fine. A friend of ours has the other three cats from the same litter he was in, and she said one of his sisters has been doing the exact same thing lately, even to the point where she loses control of her bladder. She took her to the vet and they couldn't find anything wrong at all. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this or know what causes it or what to do for it?

Thanks,

Bill

Hello
The first thing I would do is notify your vet, as there are medications that can be given if needed. . Cats twitching in their sleep can be very normal, they do dream. As far as falling off of high places... if you notice your cat on a chair put a folded towel on the floor just in case... they are pretty hardy and the chances of getting hurt is slim to none. Good luck!

 

[Xserenityx]

I saw that the original poster unfortunately lost his kitty. So sorry for your loss bill.I came to join the thread because two of my five kitties are doing this. It's only my females and its so violent that one of them has injured her hips. The other one last night I noticed she had peed a little bit on herself during, my vet and I know there are not seizures on the fact that i can easily wake them up. It's terrifying and I'm afraid I'm going to lose one or both of them soon as I can like many people here can't afford $6,000 for an MRI. I did see the episode on My Cat From Hell I still have to try melatonin but I sympathize and understand everybody's playing here and I know what you all mean when you refer to it being more than Twitches I've literally watched mine launch herself into the air as if she's been electrocuted..