Cat Convulsions
Discussion
Folks,
We have 2 cats, both female and both approx. 3 years old - we have owned them for around 6 months after the previous owner (an old lady) passed away.
Not long after they came into our family one of the cats had a strange episode - I was at work so didn't witness it but my wife did. Cat came in from the garden and immediately started convulsing. Wife took the cat to the vets immediately and the vet THOUGHT that the cat had perhaps eaten something in the garden it shouldn't have and all has been well until this morning.
This particular cat sleeps at the bottom of our bed and I was awoken by her this morning with what I initially thought was her playing. I nudged her with my feet under the covers but it then became immediately apparent that she was convulsing again. Wife and I jumped up, put the light on and witnessed a pretty severe-looking 2 minute thrashing about, and it was then noticed that the cat had wet the bed. She calmed down pretty quickly and we phoned the vet who said as long as the cat seemed fine now (the cat is wandering around, looks rather subdued but has eaten in the last 10 mins) there was no need to visit the vet urgently but to make an appointment in the next 24/48 hours.
The vet did say this sounded like classic epilepsy behaviour, so the question(s) I suppose I have for you helpful lot are
a) Any experience with convulsing cats, and if so what was the diagnosis?
b) If epilepsy, what are the longer-term implications - anything that can be done etc?
Many thanks.
We have 2 cats, both female and both approx. 3 years old - we have owned them for around 6 months after the previous owner (an old lady) passed away.
Not long after they came into our family one of the cats had a strange episode - I was at work so didn't witness it but my wife did. Cat came in from the garden and immediately started convulsing. Wife took the cat to the vets immediately and the vet THOUGHT that the cat had perhaps eaten something in the garden it shouldn't have and all has been well until this morning.
This particular cat sleeps at the bottom of our bed and I was awoken by her this morning with what I initially thought was her playing. I nudged her with my feet under the covers but it then became immediately apparent that she was convulsing again. Wife and I jumped up, put the light on and witnessed a pretty severe-looking 2 minute thrashing about, and it was then noticed that the cat had wet the bed. She calmed down pretty quickly and we phoned the vet who said as long as the cat seemed fine now (the cat is wandering around, looks rather subdued but has eaten in the last 10 mins) there was no need to visit the vet urgently but to make an appointment in the next 24/48 hours.
The vet did say this sounded like classic epilepsy behaviour, so the question(s) I suppose I have for you helpful lot are
a) Any experience with convulsing cats, and if so what was the diagnosis?
b) If epilepsy, what are the longer-term implications - anything that can be done etc?
Many thanks.
My friend (an ex vet nurse) had two epileptic cats (what are the chances!!) One was as a result of an rta and scar tissue post head injuries. He would have occasional seizures controlled fairly well with phenobarbitone. An MRI showed the scar tissue, though it took the specialists a while to decided if it was this or a brain tumour.
Her other cat was a different reason, he is also insured so he had an MRI scan done aswell, they discovered he had a cyst in his brain, again control was via phenobarbitone, they did discuss referral to a specialist who would attempt to drain the cyst but it had its own risks so my friend decided against it. He was diagnosed about 10yrs ago, he has done well but only because he has been closely monitored but now his fits are becmong more frequent so not sure what his outcome is going to be. His fits are always pretty violent (and messy) but once he's over them he is pretty good.
If your cat is insured I would seriously consider an MRI. Epilepsy is not common in cats (esp not compared to dogs) and in my (limited) experience there seems to be an underlying reason...not just epilepsy as you find in dogs.
Hope she's ok.
Her other cat was a different reason, he is also insured so he had an MRI scan done aswell, they discovered he had a cyst in his brain, again control was via phenobarbitone, they did discuss referral to a specialist who would attempt to drain the cyst but it had its own risks so my friend decided against it. He was diagnosed about 10yrs ago, he has done well but only because he has been closely monitored but now his fits are becmong more frequent so not sure what his outcome is going to be. His fits are always pretty violent (and messy) but once he's over them he is pretty good.
If your cat is insured I would seriously consider an MRI. Epilepsy is not common in cats (esp not compared to dogs) and in my (limited) experience there seems to be an underlying reason...not just epilepsy as you find in dogs.
Hope she's ok.
Been here.
Our girl has had convulsions since she was about 2. We investigated to start with but the seizures didn't get worse or more frequent. We opted to do nothing as long as all remainded the same.
If you MRI consider that generals have some degree of risk and that really if you find something you must be prepared to do something about it otherwise what's the point of putting them through it?
She never got any worse and it only happened when she was in a deep sleep. Eventually her seizures at 3 in the morning barely roused us - hold her so she didn't hurt herself and mop her up a bit - she dribbled and back to sleep.
It turned out that this was her normal state as (with hindsight) 6 months before she had a meningioma diagnosed the seizures stopped. Her point of recovery was when 36 hrs post op she had a big seizure came round and wanted to know exactly why she had no fur anywhere on her head, poor thing. Now she is on Keppra for good.
I don't think there is a connection between the seizures and the tumour - they grow faster than the 8 years between onset of symptoms and her surgery.
Our girl has had convulsions since she was about 2. We investigated to start with but the seizures didn't get worse or more frequent. We opted to do nothing as long as all remainded the same.
If you MRI consider that generals have some degree of risk and that really if you find something you must be prepared to do something about it otherwise what's the point of putting them through it?
She never got any worse and it only happened when she was in a deep sleep. Eventually her seizures at 3 in the morning barely roused us - hold her so she didn't hurt herself and mop her up a bit - she dribbled and back to sleep.
It turned out that this was her normal state as (with hindsight) 6 months before she had a meningioma diagnosed the seizures stopped. Her point of recovery was when 36 hrs post op she had a big seizure came round and wanted to know exactly why she had no fur anywhere on her head, poor thing. Now she is on Keppra for good.
I don't think there is a connection between the seizures and the tumour - they grow faster than the 8 years between onset of symptoms and her surgery.
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