Cat Seizures - any experience?

[Lumpy1106]

DD is off at college and wants her cat. This cat has always been a little off - always hiding, pees everywhere, hates my younger DD and hisses at her constantly (DD has done nothing). We pretty regularly hear what we thought was the cat playing in the other room. The cat was hiding behind the dining room curtain a couple of nights ago and came out writhing around on the ground having a seizure. Suddenly a lot of things made sense. The cat wasn't playing, and the pee was from the seizures. I decided to call the vet after the weekend, but then she had another seizure while she was sitting on my lap. She clamped down on my finger and scratched the hell out of my arm. That was pain I didn't want anyone else to experience and I took her to the urgent care vet. The vet gave us pills I now have to get the cat to take 3 times a day. Try sticking your finger in the mouth of an animal that has bit you while having a seizure - there may be no bigger sign of bravery if I may say so myself. We're having blood tests run but, so far so good, no seizures in the last 24 hours since we put her on meds. Looks like it's "just" epilepsy.

Anyone else have any experience with this? DD is taking finals this week so we haven't told her anything - not until the finals are over. Safe to say, we're not giving her the cat. The cat is only 5 and is in otherwise good health. Oh, and yes, I am taking antibiotics for the cat bite (DAMN did that hurt!).

 

[georgina]

Sorry to hear that. You said the blood tests were OK, so they ruled out diabetes? DH's cat that lived with us 13 years after we got married (I am allergic to cats) developed diabetes later in life. She was on insulin shots for a couple of years, but did develop seizures and bit him towards the end.

 

[Lumpy1106]

We haven't gotten results for the blood tests - probably another day or 2. She's young, so the vet preliminarily ruled out things like a brain tumor or thyroid condition as those would develop when she is older.

 

[BrianL]

Poor kitty - and yes, giving cats oraql med, especially pills, is a pain! Mine pretty well refuses. I hope you can get her to a manageable place and she can have a long and happy life.

 

[donalducky]

I have a cat with epilepsy. Apparently it's somewhat rare in cats unlike dogs. She started having them fairly young, probably before the age of five and she might be around 13 or 14 now.
She was put on phenobarbital and zonisimide 3 times daily but luckily for me she's great at taking pills.
The medicines really helped her though and she only had a few incidents a year for many years and then none. As of today she has been completely off all medications for several years and no longer has seizures.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Sorry to here about the kitty being sick

We had a cat years ago that needed to take daily pills, and we used one of these:


(We got a couple straight from the vet back then, but I think Chewy has them right on line now.) It was the only way we could do it without getting scratched!


Some cats will also take pills in these:

(I've seen different flavors at the pet store.)

One of my current cats had to take an anti-viral once, and these worked for her. Now we give them both an empty one as a treat sometimes, just so they stay used to them.

Good luck!!

 

[Lumpy1106]

I have a cat with epilepsy. Apparently it's somewhat rare in cats unlike dogs. She started having them fairly young, probably before the age of five and she might be around 13 or 14 now.
She was put on phenobarbital and zonisimide 3 times daily but luckily for me she's great at taking pills.
The medicines really helped her though and she only had a few incidents a year for many years and then none. As of today she has been completely off all medications for several years and no longer has seizures.

Oh boy - that's a relief! I don't know if I will have the same results but that is certainly what I am hoping for. Thanks for posting!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

They make pill poppers for pets that are a godsend. It’s basically a syringe you stick the pill in, put in their mouth and shove in the plunger to pop the pill in to the back of their throat.

 

[Imzadi]

Have the vet teach you how to hold the cat down in order to give it the pill. They forget they had to be taught in vet school and it's routine for them now. I had to go back to the vet and say how she seemed to grow extra legs when I was trying to give her injections in the mouth. That's when they showed me how to hold her down, against my body, from behind.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm so sorry you're going through this with such a young cat. That's a lot.

Our cat developed hyperthyroidism around age 12. I have to medicate her twice a day. Boy did we struggle. All I can say is get creative, and keep trying to think of ways to make it easier. We've been at it for 2 1/2 years now.

Pill Pockets worked like a charm for another cat we had about 10 years ago. This cat wasn't having it. Didn't work. The one thing that got us through was the fact that she loves Temptations treats. I decided I had to find a way to attach the pill to the treat. I ended up using just a small pinch of a Pill Pocket to "paste" the pill to the treat (for her, I use a 10mg pill cut in quarters). I haven't shoved a pill down her throat in 2 1/2 years.

I will say that the greatest resource I found was a Facebook group on cats with hyperthyroidism. Without looking, I can guarantee there are similar groups for cats with epilepsy. Seek them out, read and ask questions. You will find people dealing with what you are, many further down the road with it. I'm convinced the people in my group saved my cat's life. They gave me the questions to ask and got us over the crisis and into a good daily routine.

Best of luck with your girl. It's so hard for college students when their pet is sick.

 

[Hisgirl]

So sorry to hear this!

Please remove any scented things in your house. A lot of folks found out the hard way that these essential oils can be deadly for animals. Just a thought and maybe some help

 

[mom2rtk]

Have the vet teach you how to hold the cat down in order to give it the pill. They forget they had to be taught in vet school and it's routine for them now. I had to go back to the vet and say how she seemed to grow extra legs when I was trying to give her injections in the mouth. That's when they showed me how to hold her down, against my body, from behind.

There are great videos on YouTube for this as well. Of course the vets have a great elevated table for administering so that’s a decided advantage.

 

[Imzadi]

So sorry to hear this!

Please remove any scented things in your house. A lot of folks found out the hard way that these essential oils can be deadly for animals. Just a thought and maybe some help

Yes, my cat had developed tongue cancer. The vet oncologist said it is quite common in cats when they reach 12.5 years old. Which was precisely when my cat got it. They believe it is possibly due to something in their environment which lands on their fur coat. Then they ingest it when they groom themselves and it finally develops into cancer when their immune system goes down.

It was years later that I found I had been using many product that are harmful to cats: Febreze air sprays - the droplets eventually land on the floor. Pine-Sol on the floors. I had been using these zealously to cover up any stinky kitty litter smells.

You may want to wash the dining room curtain the cat was hiding behind and maybe change the laundry detergent you use, if the curtains had been washed. Something in it could have set off the cat's seizure.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Hi Lumpy1106,
My aunt used to have a cat that developed seizures and I don't know how my aunt's cat ended up with seizures but every time the cat would have a seizure my aunt would take it to the vet and they would give my aunt cat medicines to stop the cat from having seizures and it got so bad that my aunt ended up giving the cat to my grandma who cured my aunt's cat of seizures and then according to my mom the cat ran away. I don't know how my grandma cured my aunt's cat but she knew what to do. And my aunt had gotten this cat from an animal shelter and they didn't tell my aunt any info about any seizures this cat had. What I think you should do is look around your house to see if there's anything that might trigger your daughter's cat's seizures and you say it was in your living room curtains where you first noticed your daughter's cat's seizures. It could be that you might've washed the curtains with laundry detergents such as Tide or Gain and the cat might've licked the curtains and got a bad reaction from them. I do know that you aren't supposed to spray Fabreeze Air Freshener around animals like cats and birds because the can mentions this. Does your daughter's cat also shake or shiver when being held as well? Because if the cat does this it means you need to get her to the litter box quickly as possible. Because when Mom and I had cats we learned that when cats shiver and shake it's a sign that they need to use the litter box
Good luck with the cat and hope she feels better soon
Dodger