Head tremors.

Sammie is having tremors. She was prancing around a few minutes before they started (she is typically very very low energy.) Aside from the head twitches she seems completely fine.

Her glucose at PMPS was 359, and +5 at the time of the tremors is 238. Sorry, I haven’t gotten around to filling out her spreadsheet for the past few days. Her numbers haven’t changed much, but she is back at 2.75 units for the past week.

I’ve seen her twitch a little before, but this time it was for a good 20 minutes or so. She had a blind spell in November and the vets weren’t sure if it was diabetes related or neurological. I’m going to send them the video.

Video is here:
https://imgur.com/a/HZIacv7

 

I’m sure you are worried.
Sheba went through a couple of months of head twitchs several years ago. They eventually stopped and we never found the cause.

Are you able to contact Sammie during these episodes? Is she aware of her surroundings?
She looked like she also had a leg involvement in the video.

 

Thats exactly what my Zoe is doing! Only Zoes are more pronounced and extends down her legs to her paws. This is at any given moment also. sigh It has me worried.

BTW she is not diabetic.

 

I heard from the vet. He said she may have had petit mal seizures. Based on her temporary blindness several months ago he suspects brain disease exacerbated by hyperglycemia.

She was aware during the event. I think the leg movement was just her resituating. She purred while it was going on, and when they were finished she gave herself a quick bath and left to lay on her blanket.

The vet said she could go for an MRI, but since she is otherwise not showing abnormalities we could focus on regulating her blood sugars.

 

I posted a detailed update above. I’m going to include part of his email here so that you can look into any of the conditions he mentioned if you think it would be relevant to Zoe. I hope that she is ok!
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That looks like neurologic head tremors, or possibly petit mal seizures. That can happen for dozens of reasons in cats, including prolonged hyperglycemia. It is much more common from organic brain disease (ie originating in the brain) from diseases like feline ischemic encephalopathy or granulomatous meningoencephalitis. Dogs have a well defined disorder called Idiopathic Head Tremor Syndrome that is exacerbated by stress (often metabolic/disease stress) and occurs primarily when sitting/laying and relaxing. It's usually interrupt-able (ie if you say their name, they stop doing it).

 

Zoe doesnt even seem to be aware of the tremors and just "is", grooming, rolling over for tummy rubs. I took it as just age and since she doesnt seem bothered by them, I wasnt going to worry. You can bet my "helicopter" is being dispatched immediately.

 

Yeah I’m not going to go to the neurologist or get an MRI. Sammie turns 15 next month. It’s best to focus on illnesses that affect her quality of life or are easily treatable.

 

Zoe's no spring chicken either.