Today, my wife’s older cat, Stretch (16 yr old blue Russian), had a seizure. He was curled up on the couch when he began twitching in synch with my wife’s laptop keystrokes. He fell off the couch twitching and seizing, with paddling motions and rigidity. The seizure lasted about 30 seconds. Immediately after the episode, he moaned and was sweaty, at which time my wife immediately snatched him up and flew to the veterinarian.
The vet’s doing a full up bloodwork exam, checking for hyperthyroidism. The vet said that epilepsy is an “elimination diagnosis”, and they have to rule out everything else first. This is the first time we’ve witnessed Stretch having a seizure. Since the seizure, he’s been eating normally. He’s been sleeping a lot (which isn’t outside of the norm anyway), but has seemed a bit more needy/clingy today.
Has anyone had any experience with their own cats? The vet said this might have been just an errant brain wave, but didn’t elaborate pending results of tests. I’m wondering if this is something attributable to his age, but I’ve never had cats this old. Anyone have any ideas or experiences?
Tripler
We’d send him for a CAT scan, but the irony would just burn too hot.
The only experience I’ve had with cat seizures was when my sister’s cat had one when we were playing with it. AFAIK, she only had the one seizure.
I’ve had more experience with dogs with epilepsy (I’ve had 2), but I don’t know that that would help.
It’s deadly scary to see a pet you love having a seizure. But apparently it’s not really painful to them. In dogs, the time right after the seizure (post-ictal phase) can be characterized by agitation, overheating, and wanting to eat. With our Sasha, we developed a routine involving Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream for food and cooling and Rescue Remedy to help calm her down.
In dogs, late-onset (older than about 5-6 years) epilepsy is often caused by a brain tumor. Dunno if it’s the same with cats. I do think that thyroid problems can cause problems in this area though.
Sorry I don’t have pet-specific info. I just feel bad for y’all and want to help.
Much obliged for your kind thoughts! My wife has been kind of stressed out about this, mostly because A) it’s never happened before (and it happened without warning) and B) we don’t know what to do or if we can do anything to help him. But I’m kind of glad to hear that he’s not in any pain or anything, which leads me to believe it may be some errant brain wave in the ol’ dude.
I do thank you for the kind thoughts though! He seems to be doing just fine this morning, although we’re on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary.
Tripler
Out of the ordinary: He’s a Russian blue. He may start reading Dostoevsky.
The first time we saw a dog have a seizure, we were totally freaked out. It was our old Ivan dog – he was only about 4 or 5 at the time. We hopped in the car and ran to the emergency vet, because Ivan wouldn’t stop seizing. They had to really sedate him to get him to stop. I went home and hit the internet (AOL, at the time) and looked for everything I could find on epilepsy in dogs so I could talk to the vet reasonably intelligently the next morning.
When Sasha started having seizures a few years later, we at least had a little experience. Her epilepsy, alas, was a little more severe. We finally had a good regimen of phenobarbitol and potassium bromide going that controlled her seizures pretty well. She died of hemangiosarcoma a couple of years later.
OTOH, my sister’s cat had one seizure and never had another one. So here’s hoping for the brain wave/thyroid/easily fixable option for your cat!