Civvie seizure - freakin' out, here!

Blaze's brother Mike (who's also 10 years old and my beta male) has an autoimmune problem called necrotic stomatitis that causes nasty painful sores in his mouth from time to time. This time, besides the usual symptoms, he also had a severe abcess. So he's been getting steroid and antibiotic injections every 2 weeks for 12 weeks. One side has cleared up beautifully, and the other is still healing but improving continuously. We did the last injection last Tuesday, and because 6 steroid injections is our absolute outside limit, because of the potential side effects (like diabetes), we agreed to stop for a month and see how things progress.

This afternoon I came home and was in the bathroom when Mike came in to greet me (somebody ALWAYS comes in; I never go alone). He was his usual sweet self; nothing looked odd or wrong at all. When we left the bathroom he all of a sudden stopped in front of me and lifted a leg like he'd stepped on something or saw something nearby. Then his head turned like he was looking past his back end -- but not at me -- and then suddenly he fell over and started twitching all over. His eyes were open, his legs pulled up close to his body, and his claws extended, and he didn't make a single sound. The episode lasted about 30 to 45 seconds (God, the longest half-minute of my life!). I picked him up then; he wasn't rigid anymore; and sat with him on the toilet seat, but he still wasn't really conscious. Then he started crying, a high-pitched cry, a distress cry, and looking around wildly with his neck stretched out, like he didn't have a clue who or where he was, which he probably didn't. That lasted about 10 to 15 seconds (yes, the longest of my life!), and then he was back. He relaxed fully, his eyes focused and looked normal, he started purring. I set him on the floor after a few more minutes. He hasn't had any trouble staying on his feet or walking or anything, and is back to playing and behaving normally.

As far as I know, this has never happened to him before. It certainly has never happened during similar courses of treatment, which tend to be years apart (last time was almost 3 years ago). There's been no evidence of any other underlying conditions. I called the vet immediately, of course. She said since it's a first episode and he recovered himself quickly and seemingly completely, we'll monitor for now. If it happens again or anything changes, I should take him in (but I can't pay for the kind of testing he would need). I'm hoping it's a aberrent event, although it's a pretty severe and scary one! Have any of you experienced the like??

Please send prayers and good thoughts for Mike!

 

Gwyn started having seizures after her ... ?third? stroke. And, yeah, it's a terrifying thing to watch.

Your vet is correct that having one short seizure isn't necessarily a problem. Repeated seizures may require diagnosis or treatment, and if Mike has a long seizure (IIRC, that's anything over 5 minutes), or if he has one seizure followed by another, he should definitely be brought into a vet soonest.

If the seizures continue: Seizures occur in three phases: a pre-ictal (aura) phase, the seizure, and a post-ictal phase. During the pre-ictal phase, the person having the seizure may be aware that a seizure is coming on. Depending on how Mike reacts during the pre-ictal phase, you may be able to detect when a seizure is incoming. I generally got about 20 minutes warning on Gwyn's seizures. Then there's the seizure, and then the post-ictal phase: that's the part where Mike was confused and stressed.

Generally, when Gwyn was having a seizure, I didn't move her. I *would* curl up around her so that when she came back to herself, she might be re-assured by my being there, but I didn't move her.


We had Gwyn in to see a neurologist during two periods of her life: once after a stroke ~2002 and again when she started having seizures ~2007. In both cases, the sequence of events went something along the lines of: saw (extremely highly recommended, one of the best in the area) neurologist for initial consult. Neurologist didn't have an idea what was wrong. Neurologist said to go see other specialists for various tests (opthalmologist, radiologist (abdominal ultrasound), cardiologist (echocardiogram), oncologist, etc, etc) to rule out a number of possibilities. On both occasions, we went to every specialist and had every test recommended. All tests were negative. Couple thousand dollars later, returned to neurologist, thinking that, since we'd ruled everything else out, we would finally get a diagnosis and treatment. At which point, neurologist said they still had no idea what was going on and the only other thing they could do would be exploratory brain surgery.

Part of me is glad that we ran all the tests, so we knew there were a lot of problems that Gwyn was *not* having. But part of me also really resents paying for the second consult with the neurologist. The other specialists had told me that they didn't find anything when I met with them, so I knew nothing had been found. And I ended up paying $250 for a second "consult" with the neurologist, only for her to tell me that nothing had been found and the only option was exploratory brain surgery. (I politely declined.)

So: if you see a neurologist, I would suggest asking them this: assume for a moment that all these tests you want run come back negative. At that point, what would you recommend for diagnosis and treatment? If the answer is "exploratory brain surgery" and that's not something you want to pursue, then you'll know you can skip the second consult with the neurologist.


There're a bunch of things that can trigger seizures, and seizures generally pretty treatable. If you're so inclined, you might want to join the epi-felines group at Yahoo. They have a whole *slew* of reference material in their Files section. It can be a bit much to wade through, though, so feel free to ask whatever questions you have.

 

Hi Jean, so sorry to hear about Mike's seizure! They really are horrible.

I have an epileptic cat, Bindi. We went through pretty much the same things that JJ did, saw a neurologist, had an MRI and spinal tap, with no definitive diagnosis. Basically, if your cat has had a seizure, he may or may not have more. There is something called the kindling effect, where one leads to another. If Mike has a really long one (over 5 minutes), or more than two in 24 hours, it is cause to see the vet ASAP. Hopefully it will be a one-time thing, but if not, as JJ said, there is a really good resource at the epifeline yahoo group, and several of us on fdmb have or have had seizure kitties.

BTW, Bindi is on phenobarbital (8mg bid), and her seizures are well controlled with it. The neurologist gave me 50/50 odds that she would reach her first birthday, and she is now 6. Please feel free to pm me if you have other questions, I usually only frequent the community board.

Give Mike an extra snuzzle from us!
Karen, dB in spirit, Bindi, and Dorje

 

Oh boy do I know how scary that is! nailbite_smile

My Buster started having seizures at age 3. The first few times it happened, I cried as I held her and tried to comfort her and keep her from hurting herself.

We went to specialists and they wanted to do some very invasive tests to determine if she had a tumor in her brain or what. I opted not to do it and instead was tracking her seizures - time, what happened, and recovery.

After a year of tracking with no real pattern, it was decided to do nothing.

So, now when she does have them, maybe 1 or 2 a year, I'm prepared.

Hopefully this is just a blip for him and not something to be concerned about, but do keep a calendar and track of what happens, so if this is something more, you have the information to give the vet.

Not to scare you, but rather so you are prepared, I will tell you about Buster's progression over the past few years.

She started at the 30 seconds, one minute seizure and when she came out of it, was disoriented and ravenous.

Her last seizure a few months ago - lasted almost 30 minutes before she fully came out of it. She also looses control of her bladder, so if I do get a warning cry or hear a thunk, I try to wrap her in a big towel - partly to soak up any urine and also to try to keep her contained, as she comes out of it, she wants to walk and I want to keep her still until I'm sure she's back.

I give her fresh food, she eats and then spends several hours resting/napping. Then she's back to normal, like nothing ever happened.

While I don't cry any longer, I do feel sad and depressed afterwards that I can't "fix" her. I am also very realistic that in Buster's case and I only say in her situation, I know one day she may not come out of it and I will have to make that decision. This is why I cherish each and every moment with her.

I hope this gives you some perspective that if it does continue, you can be prepared. Of course, you can never really be prepared when this happens. But like anything else, knowing about what could occur before it does, will hopefully be helpful.

 

I'm so sorry you had that experience- it is quite disturbing.

My civvie DebraAnne had 2 seizures last fall within 3 days of each other. My vet said the same thing- monitor and if they happen continuously, come in for checking.

Well, we went 6 or 8 months before another one happened, however when the last 3 happened a few months ago I realized she'd had 2 more earllier last year, too.

When Deb siezes, she lets go of her bladder so there is a tremendous water spot on the floor...I'd seen that mysteriously appear early last year and dismissed it as a mystery...anywhoo- now I know.

So the recent 3 were within 4 days and it was the 3rd one that made me go to the vet. The seizures were exactly as you and the others described, with the disorientation at the end but this time Deb's tongue fell out of her mouth and she wasn't able to move her front leg when she came to.

By the time I'd gotten off the phone with ER who assured me that was "normal" and if it wasn't better in an hour to bring here in, she was back to normal but had bit a hole in her tongue trying to deal with it hanging out.

that was enough to go to vet...Vet mentioned all the testing and prices, but my vet feels that seizures are more common in cats than we realize and said regardless of the outcome of tests, the treatment will be the same- phenobarbital.

Deb is around 17, so I chose quality over quantity- deciding to make her last years comfortable rather than testing and poking and such. Also, money is often tight here.

Since starting her on 7.5mg BID, there has not been a single seizure.

My vet wants to do a $50 blood test to check pheno levels and adjust if needed, otherwise, just the price of the med.

I put tab in syringe with 1cc water and squirt into her wet food. she eats it all right up.

She is MUCH drowsier and sometimes unbalanced like a wobbly drunk on the pheno, but her bald spots she had chewed in her fur are all patched up and her appetite is slowed ( she used to suck it down fast) and she seems better all together.

Hoping this was a one time thing for you guys, but if not, please consider the pheno as it seems very helpful here.

(You might check through house for any poisons your cat may have come in contact with btw...bait traps, pesticides, antifreeze, human meds....just in case.)

(((hugs)))

 

Jean, I am so sorry you have to deal with this with Mike. You've already gotten some excellent replies and advice, so I won't add much. My first cat to have seizures, civvie Samantha, was battling CRF when she started having them. Now looking back, I wonder if anemia had something to do with it. She was put on pheno and for the remaining months of her life she didn't have anymore seizures.

Honey, another civvie, started having seizures around Dec and earlier this year. We were having a flea problem where we were living before and as soon as I got Honey on a regular flea treatment the seizures stopped. Money was tight for me and I didn't think that not giving the cats flea treatments in the winter would make any difference. I think Honey had flea anemia when he was having the seizures...there were some times when he tried to jump up onto something but couldn't. I thought that the seizures were making him too tired (I unfortunately have had a couple of seizures too, from not taking meds properly, and I remember being extremely sleepy and tired when I was woken up). But I do think now that it had something to do with anemia.

Honey is doing great physically now and hasn't had a seizure in several months. (we just moved to a new home and Honey isn't very settled yet emotionally here).

One word of advice however, if Mike or any other cat has a seizure when you are around, DO NOT make the same mistake I made thinking I could "snap Honey out of it." All I tried to do was to stroke his head while he was seizing and somehow his jaws clamped onto my hand and he bit down and wouldn't let go.That hurt like heck and put me into shock and I almost fainted. I ended up having to go to the ER when it got infected. Be very careful around anyone who is having a seizure!

I hope that Mike's seizure is a one-time thing. I'll be keeping him in my thoughts and prayers.

 

You guys are awesome -- thanks for all the good advice. Mike did pee on me, but only after he came out of the confusion and totally relaxed. And now that I think about it, he was pretty hungry afterward.

So far, all seems well. I didn't sleep well last night because of hypervigilance, but I'll get over it!

 

I believe the hunger thing is a result of all the stress the body is under and the brain is starving for nourishment. This is why I always keep wet food available 24/7 - so if I'm not home and this happens, Buster can find the food and eat.

Give yourself time, you will learn not to be so hypervigilant and lose sleep. Rather, you will be more aware and listen for signals and then take action. Buster tends to have her seizures early am anywhere from 3 am on - so no matter how deep a sleep I'm in, I hear the thunk or the cry and jumping out of bed.