Persistent seizures!

Sebastian’s mom (Lauren)

Sebastian’s mom (Lauren)

Member Since 2023
Sebastian developed seizures about 3 weeks ago and the only changes that came at that time were 1. Increase in insulin 2. Found dead mouse in my room a few weeks before seizures presented 3. Seemed to be having reactions to food that he wasn’t prior, constant itching. 4. Constipation! He was backed up for a very long time and just got enemas, but still isn’t pooping at home. 5. Introduced to new cat tower.
Sebastian has seen 4 different vets and all of our funds are exhausted, but he is having multiple seizures a day and one of two he had this morning lasted 5 minutes. He had a loading dose of phenobarbital at the ER vet and has been getting phenobarbital at home since then, but they keep coming.
I know this sounds crazy, but is it possible my little guy is sensitive to Lantus and just can’t handle the higher doses regardless of how low he does/ doesn’t drop?
They’re recommending euthanasia or hospitalization and I can’t afford hospitalization, but Sebastian is my soul cat.
Please help.
 
I don't have any suggestions about the seizures if 4 vets haven't found the answers. Did you video the seizure and show it to a vet? Regarding funds, maybe something in here to help: Financial Help Links

What food/protein is he eating? Have you though of picking up something completely different he hasn't eaten before, eg. lamb, rabbit, venison. Just wondering if the itching is a protein reaction.

For constipation: https://felineconstipation.org/ He's gone too long without help in that.

I haven't heard of cats having seizures related to insulin, unless hypos. He's not on what I'd call a particularly high dose of Lantus. I have heard of cats reacting to the sting of Lantus. But what I saw in my girl was a reluctance to get shot, walking away during the shot. She got to 8.75 units. I've also heard of people seeing skin twitching or rippling. Also personality changes have been reported. Higher doses of Lantus can sting.
 
I did show them! They said they’re focal seizures and that he has been having clusters.
FF turkey and giblets at the moment. Had quite a few FF I was rotating between. I will try.

Apparently before I came home to give him his insulin he was playing and then almost immediately after giving it to him he was unwell and looks like he’s about to have a seizure. His seizures happen when he’s falling asleep.
 
I'm sorry your guy is having seizures.

Silly question, have they looked at his mouth, my boy started having seizure, it turned out it was horrendous gingivitis.

First vet was hopeless he had about two weeks of intermittent seizures (every other day)

Second vet diagnosed the gingivitis, gave antibiotics, pain relief, then booked him in for dental , he. Had all but a molar and his canines removed, not had another seizure since.

May be worth looking looking at the obvious.
 
@Sebastian’s mom (Lauren)
Hi Lauren, I'm sorry your kitty is having seizures.
This is just my story about Tyler's brother Perry, non diabetic who started having seizures years ago. ( passed about 4 years ago due to kidney failure)

One day he was playing then all of a sudden I started to see him start to twitch so I ran over to him and saw he had peered.
I thought maybe he couldn't make it to the litter box

Then that night he started to run around like crazy banging into things, then just layed down his legs were moving all around then he stopped.

I took him to my vet ,told her what was happening ,she took blood work and everything was good.

That night he was laying in my lap and I could tell by the way he was acting another seizure was about to happen.

Took him back to my vet and she started him on phenobarbital ,I forget the dose, they were still happening so she increased the dose.

He was still having them but not as often so I took him back to my vet and she added Keppra, I see that on your SS in the remarks section for today's date, did he just start the Keppra today?

The Keppra did help Perry ,the seizures were happening less often but this time he wasn't running around like crazy, what was happening now .
, he would be sleeping in his cat napper that was attached to the window sill where I could see him, all of a sudden I would hear a chopping noise and saw that his mouth was going up and down as if he was trying to catch something plus he was drooling while this was happening. He was not aware that I was there by him. When they stopped he went back to being normal.
My vet kept adjusting the doses of the phenobarbital and the Keppra , plus I had to take him for blood work maybe every 4 months ( I can't be exact because it was so long ago).
At times she had to lower the phenobarbital because his blood work showed it was too high of a dose
When we finally found a good dose of both meds he didn't have a seizure after that .

His seizures only lasted about 9 or 10 seconds
I didn't have the funds to do all type of other tests or cat scans of the brain ,etc but the meds did work for him .

I am only mentioning this is because I see you have Keppra listed on your SS for the first time and was wondering if you had just started this.

Even though I never did any other testing my vet was pretty sure he did not have brain tumor she did tell me why she thought that but I can't remember .
Before he had passed from kidney disease I was down to very low doses of phenobarbital and the Keppra

I found a video on you tube and it shows a cat chopping and drooling that's what my Perry did .

 
Last edited:
Gill & George said:
I'm sorry your guy is having seizures.

Silly question, have they looked at his mouth, my boy started having seizure, it turned out it was horrendous gingivitis.

First vet was hopeless he had about two weeks of intermittent seizures (every other day)

Second vet diagnosed the gingivitis, gave antibiotics, pain relief, then booked him in for dental , he. Had all but a molar and his canines removed, not had another seizure since.

May be worth looking looking at the obvious.
Click to expand...

He was scheduled for a dental, literally 2 weeks before the seizures started. So I had to cancel it and use his dental funds to get him help for the seizures. His teeth are really bad. They prescribed clindamycin incase of toxo so he had one dose of that so far.
He’s having multiple seizures a day and some of them are lasting long. I feel like I need the answer now. I’m so scared
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
@Sebastian’s mom (Lauren)
Hi Lauren, I'm sorry your kitty is having seizures.
This is just my story about Tyler's brother Perry, non diabetic who started having seizures years ago. ( passed about 4 years ago due to kidney failure)

One day he was playing then all of a sudden I started to see him start to twitch so I ran over to him and saw he had peered.
I thought maybe he couldn't make it to the litter box

Then that night he started to run around like crazy banging into things, then just layed down his legs were moving all around then he stopped.

I took him to my vet ,told her what was happening ,she took blood work and everything was good.

That night he was laying in my lap and I could tell by the way he was acting another seizure was about to happen.

Took him back to my vet and she started him on phenobarbital ,I forget the dose, they were still happening so she increased the dose.

He was still having them but not as often so I took him back to my vet and she added Keppra, I see that on your SS in the remarks section for today's date, did he just start the Keppra today?

The Keppra did help Perry ,the seizures were happening less often but this time he wasn't running around like crazy, what was happening now .
, he would be sleeping in his cat napper that was attached to the window sill where I could see him, all of a sudden I would hear a chopping noise and saw that his mouth was going up and down as if he was trying to catch something plus he was drooling while this was happening. He was not aware that I was there by him. When they stopped he went back to being normal.
My vet kept adjusting the doses of the phenobarbital and the Keppra , plus I had to take him for blood work maybe every 4 months ( I can't be exact because it was so long ago).
At times she had to lower the phenobarbital because his blood work showed it was too high of a dose
When we finally found a good dose of both meds he didn't have a seizure after that .

His seizures only lasted about 9 or 10 seconds
I didn't have the funds to do all type of other tests or cat scans of the brain ,etc but the meds did work for him .

I am only mentioning this is because I see you have Keppra listed on your SS for the first time and was wondering if you had just started this.

Even though I never did any other testing my vet was pretty sure he did not have brain tumor she did tell me why she thought that but I can't remember .
Before he had passed from kidney disease I was down to very low doses of phenobarbital and the Keppra

I found a video on you tube and it shows a cat chopping and drooling that's what my Perry did .

Click to expand...

Sebastian’s seizures seem to be happening while he’s falling asleep or playing. The falling asleep ones appear like his eyes are rolling around, his mouth, eyes, ears and front paws are twitching. The playing ones seem like absent seizures. He will stare into space and “knead” the air. His seizures are happening at least 4 times a day and I timed one earlier at 5 minutes. He was also fine one hour and then not the next.
He did start the Keppra. He’s had 2 doses as of now.
He had a loading dose of Phenobarbital at the ER over 3 hours, 16mg doses of it 4 times after that and now is getting 8mg every 12 hours from his primary vet. The Keppra is 125mg every 8 hours. He’s also getting clindamycin incase of toxo. He has been chronically constipated with no bowel movements at home for like 2 weeks. They did X-rays and enemas and said he had bowel movements, but over 24 hours later at home, nothing. He’s getting lactulose and miralax too. He also had his insulin increased when this started. He has dental disease and was supposed to have extractions but I couldn’t have that happen with him in such poor poor shape. So there’s also the possibility of infection there I’m sure. there’s so many things going on and so many meds involved at this point with no improvement. I did however just start the keppra and antibiotics. And he does have rescue meds now, but it seems like nothing will work if the problem isn’t found because it seems like it’s more than a brain thing.
 
Marje and Gracie said:
I’m so very sorry, Lauren, and I know you are running out of funds but has one of the four vets been a veterinary neurologist? That was the only vet that could diagnose our non-diabetic cat that had seizures.
Click to expand...
He has not. They quoted me 4500 and that’s not even a possibility. Im out of work and applying for disability so credit cards are out of the question too
 
Sebastian’s mom (Lauren) said:
Sebastian’s seizures seem to be happening while he’s falling asleep or playing. The falling asleep ones appear like his eyes are rolling around, his mouth, eyes, ears and front paws are twitching. The playing ones seem like absent seizures. He will stare into space and “knead” the air. His seizures are happening at least 4 times a day and I timed one earlier at 5 minutes. He was also fine one hour and then not the next.
He did start the Keppra. He’s had 2 doses as of now.
He had a loading dose of Phenobarbital at the ER over 3 hours, 16mg doses of it 4 times after that and now is getting 8mg every 12 hours from his primary vet. The Keppra is 125mg every 8 hours. He’s also getting clindamycin incase of toxo. He has been chronically constipated with no bowel movements at home for like 2 weeks. They did X-rays and enemas and said he had bowel movements, but over 24 hours later at home, nothing. He’s getting lactulose and miralax too. He also had his insulin increased when this started. He has dental disease and was supposed to have extractions but I couldn’t have that happen with him in such poor poor shape. So there’s also the possibility of infection there I’m sure. there’s so many things going on and so many meds involved at this point with no improvement. I did however just start the keppra and antibiotics. And he does have rescue meds now, but it seems like nothing will work if the problem isn’t found because it seems like it’s more than a brain thing.
Click to expand...
Lauren my heart breaks for both of you , I hope adding the Keppra will help. I know how you feel I was so scared too when they would happen to Perry. I'm praying for Sebastian that add ing the Keppra will help.
Please keep us updated. Sending you lots of hugs :bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:♥
 
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