A cat question

Has anyone had experience or know someone who?s had experience of fits in cats? Our Purdey had a fit in the middle of the night about 3 weeks ago. It lasted about 5 mins. and afterwards it took about 15 mins. or so before she could walk properly again. It was quite frightening at the time and we think she may have even lost her vision for a few moments.

By the next morning she was quite a bit better. We took her to the vet, who was annoyed because we hadn?t called her out so she could witness the fit. Told her we lived quite a distance away and the fit would have been long over by the time she?d have arrived there. From what we told her, she reckons Purdey had a seizure (cause unknown) and that the treatment, if she was to keep having fits, would be to put her on Vallium twice a day which must be administered at EXACTLY the same time each day, otherwise she?ll have major fitting from withdrawal symptoms.

At first thought this doesn?t sound too bad, but on going into it deeper, just how difficult would it be to maintain that regime? There could be no extended day trips or evenings out, no holidays, as I doubt whether the vet (where they board when we?re away) would be prepared to come in especially to give Purdey her medication. We?d also have to consider that Purdey likes to wander around outside and, apart from providing her with a wrist watch and instructions on how to use it, there?d be no guarantee that she?d come in on time. Is this really workable?

The reason I?m now asking if anyone has had experience of this is that Purdey had another fit last night and I think she may also have had a couple of partial fits last week, which were over with quickly and would have easily been overlooked if I didn?t know what to look for. Now I?m really worried that this is forming a pattern that needs dealing with and I?m wondering how other people have coped.

Poor Purdy. Did the vet say what the cause probably was, and what the dangers are of just letting it be? If it was a one-time thing, I'd suspect some kind of neurotoxin. The vallium regimen sounds awfully restricting. Too bad they can't provide a time-release medication. I think cats can have epilepsy - a friend's cat may have had it. I'll ask her (the friend) for info. If my memory is correct, she had to administer prednazone.

In the meantime, I just found these sites via Google: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/lowekam..._epilepsy.html and
http://www.manhattancats.com/Articles/seizures.html I only scanned them quickly, but they appeared to be informative.

As tough as it might be to retrain Purdy, for her safety you may want to keep her in at night. I'd hate to think of what a wadi dog could do to her in that condition. Good luck.

Selchie, many thanks for those links. I found them very helpful indeed, especially the first one. I?d got a couple of sites from the Net, but they weren?t quite as explicit as that one.

The vet (a Canadian locum while our normal German vet is away) said that it would be very difficult to determine what is causing the seizures. It could be diabetes (but Purdey doesn?t drink very much at all), brain tumour or epilepsy, just for starters. Seizures in cats are quite rare compared to dogs. I?m making a log of all the events to show Elke, our usual vet, when she returns.

We?ve booked the fur into the vet?s for boarding when we go to NZ. Purdey is having her teeth cleaned then, as she has the beginnings of gingivitis, so I think I?ll ask Elke to take blood samples while Purdey is unconscious and perhaps that will give us some clue to what?s going on. Any other tests e.g. brain scans will be mega expensive and I wouldn?t like to say whether there are facilities here to do that. I wondered whether the fitting would cause any problems and the vet said it could cause brain damage, especially if the fit went on for more than a couple of minutes. I think it?s because the brain is starved of oxygen during the fit. When she?s in the vet?s, there won?t be anyone around at night to monitor her condition, which is a worry.

Purdey seems to want to stay indoors at night anyway these days, which is how we?re getting to keep track of her fits, which usually, and oddly, occur when she?s sleeping. Often she?s in our room and I find I?m alert to her every move in case she?s fitting again. The last twice, I?ve repeatedly called her name, hoping to bring her back to consciousness. Don?t know if it worked, but she has appeared to come out of the fit quite quickly. For all I know, she might be having other partial fits when I?m not around and I wouldn?t necessarily know, as she can appear normal afterwards. It certainly isn?t conducive to a good night?s sleep when I?m on edge all the time, so it would be great to find out what?s causing it. I?m always worried that she might have been kicked in the head, the way things are here, although I can?t say I?ve noticed anything to point to that.

I?d be very interested to hear how your friend copes with medicating her cat and if the twice a day ruling (if it is twice a day) is as strict as for vallium. The locum vet more or less said that vallium was the only treatment to suppress the fits, so it would be good to have a second opinion. Apart from when we go on holiday, it will be a tremendous worry when we have to move countries again. I doubt we can time our flights to fall in with Purdey?s medication timing. What a worry!

If she's sleeping, are you sure its not just vivid dreams? Funny how waking her up snaps her out of the fits. Perhaps she had an initial fit which is causing strange dreams for her?

I wish I could pop over to Oman and kitty sit for you in December, but it's just not very practical. I do wonder at the vet wanting to medicate before accurately diagnosing her... or was she able to do so based on your description of the fits? I haven't yet heard from Lex about how she treated Harley for epilepsy, but I don't recall her having such a strict schedule.

Not having seen the actual fits, I can't say much about them. But they do have twitching dreams....somehow I think if they were, that you wouldn't have been as alarmed.

If you don't have a digital camera with movie capabilities, this is a really good excuse. Call it "Kitty Investment" or the "Purdey Research Project"

Random related fact: NZ is the #1 nation for cat ownership per person.

Originally Posted by Taffy

If she's sleeping, are you sure its not just vivid dreams? Funny how waking her up snaps her out of the fits. Perhaps she had an initial fit which is causing strange dreams for her?

No, unfortunately it wasn’t just a vivid dream. It’s said that fits can occur most often during sleep, excitement or feeding. The first time, she was lying on the floor twitching and making little noises for quite a few minutes. Also she was drooling. When she came out of it, she was very disorientated and cried out. She may even have temporarily lost her sight and was quite frightened. For about 10 mins. she was unable to walk, her back end was flailing around as if it could get up but her front legs couldn’t. Her face looked odd in that her one eye looked less open than the other and her mouth was pulled down on either side. It wasn’t too long before she started to walk and managed to go to the toilet in her litter tray. That out of the way, she lay down as if to rest, but couldn’t seem to get comfortable and shifted position every 5 or 10 mins. By next morning she was improving but seemed understandably subdued.

A week after this, she was asleep on a desk behind me. I heard a plop and found she’d fallen off the desk. I assumed she’d just rolled over and misjudged the distance but she just lay there as if nothing had happened. I found a little pool of saliva on the desk, which looked like she’d been drooling again. That night she was sleeping on the pillow between hubster and myself when I felt her ‘jump’ as if startled. She then came off the pillow and started chasing her tail, as if there was something on it. That’s when I tried calling her name repeatedly and she quietened down (but that may just have been coincidence). Tail chasing is a well known cat play thing, but is also a symptom of partial seizure when the cat imagines it can see things that aren’t there. I’d kept an open mind on those two events, hoping they were just coincidence, as she’d seemed quite normal immediately afterwards. But, when she had another proper fit I wasn’t too optimistic. The last time, she was sleeping on the cupboard next to the bed and we were woken by her banging around, possibly tail-chasing again. She then fell off the cupboard and we could see she was ‘paddling’ with her feet again like with the first fit. I called her name and she came out of the fit much quicker than the first time. She was a bit unsteady on her feet for a few seconds, but that soon rectified itself and she went to the toilet again. After settling down she, again, couldn’t seem to get comfortable and kept altering her position every 10 mins. or so. Other than that, I’ve noticed she seems to be yawing a lot – not proper yawns where you can hear the air being sucked in and let out again. It’s just a silent opening of the mouth wide and then closing it again.

As I’m not too happy with the way the locum vet dealt with Purdey, I’m hoping to wait for Elke to return and speak to her about it. By that time I will have quite a dossier of information gathered, which might help her to suss out what might be causing the fits. I just hope nothing untoward happens in the meantime.

James, the video camera is a great idea. Might just dig it out ready for the next time. At least it’s one way that the vet could see what’s happening.

MB, Here's the response I got from my friend Lex about her cat's seizures:

"Hey - Harley had gran mal seizures of unknown origin. Dr. Zamora suspected that it was some type of poisoning, but was never able to prove it with the usual tests - I remember him saying there are a lot of toxins out there and he couldn't reasonably test for all of them. We took the wait and see approach because he advised that barbituates would change her personality and have other side effects. While I'm sure that would have appealed to everyone else (Harley's personality being not her greatest asset) we both thought that Harley deserved a bit of wait and see before we went that route. She eventually grew out of the seizures (she had 5 or 6 gran mal and 1 petite mal over the course of less than 4 months). I think we were in the lucky few category."

I hope Purdy, and you, are doing better.

Thanks for that, Selchie. We’re just freewheeling at the moment until our normal vet returns in a couple or so weeks. Perhaps she’ll have a different approach to Purdey’s fits. The locum vet didn’t seem interested in carrying out any tests, citing the fact that she needed to actually witness Purdey having a fit to be able to diagnose her. My main worry is brain damage, as I can’t tell what’s going on when she’s fitting. It’s also a worry that she might hurt herself or get hurt if she’s caught when she’s away from the house, although, from what we’ve seen, most of the attacks come when she’s sleeping.

I find it very difficult to sleep properly when she’s in the bedroom with us, as I’m alert to any sudden noises in case it’s her. We’ll leave it a few more weeks (unless something drastic happens) until I’m back on my feet again and then go to see our other vet for her prognosis. Perhaps it won’t be as damning as the locum vet’s.