1/3 Ravan/amps124/+5 142/pmps81/+6 80/
- Thread starter JoyBee&Ravan
- Start date
JoyBee&Ravan
Member Since 2018
Ravan had a 7th seizure last night. (info on yesterdays post) I was so hoping things would be better this year 
Sue and Luci
Member Since 2017
I'm sorry to read about Ravan's seizure. Poor thing. I wish I had more advice to offer.
The only thing I can recall about animal + seizures is that my mother had a chihuahua and he'd react like that to cooking popcorn in the microwave. It was the oddest thing - it would cause him to fall down and make strange jerking movements...scared her half to death. Other than that I have no experience or info about it.
I hope you can figure out what triggers them.
Have a pleasant day JoyBee!
The only thing I can recall about animal + seizures is that my mother had a chihuahua and he'd react like that to cooking popcorn in the microwave. It was the oddest thing - it would cause him to fall down and make strange jerking movements...scared her half to death. Other than that I have no experience or info about it.
I hope you can figure out what triggers them.
Have a pleasant day JoyBee!
carfurby (GA)
Member Since 2012
I'm sorry about the seizure. I hope Ravan is doing better today. Sending prayers.
Briere Fur Mom
Member Since 2019
I'm sorry about Ravan's seizure last night. They are terrifying. I never got use to seizures. Working for a vet for a number of years and seeing many seizures, has never acclimated me. Even though my civvie has been having them like clockwork every 6 weeks for ~ 9 yrs now...I still FREAK out(afterwards). There is nothing that can prepare your emotions
I can help guide you through the seizure....that's about it. Sorry to be redundant, but Stimpy(civvie) has them during sleep. It appears that REM sleep triggers his. I wish I knew why. Stimpy is a special kitty. I'll try to be brief, giving you his history. I rescued him from an animal shelter that brought us animals to be spayed/neutered. I was a vet tech at a low cost spay/neuter clinic. Stimpy was a normal healthy kitty(as far as I know) before sx. He stopped breathing, during anesthetic induction...prior to isoflurane(gas anesthesia). His tissue was blue(gums etc)!!! We didn't intervene with drugs...just stimulation(vets orders). That was enough to get him "back" so to speak. He was neutered and recovered. When he was completely recovered from anesthesia, I noticed he was blind(side effect of oxygen depletion). Well, the animal shelter didn't have time to rehabilitate a blind cat so, they insisted on euthanasia. I stepped in and the rest is history. Stimpy recovered most of his eyesight...it took about a year. I never saw a seizure or symptoms until ~ 4 years later. He had a UTI, almost resulting in obstruction. He was treated with Convenia. The seizures began 3 days after his UTI treatment. He's had them ever since. I manage the seizures w/o medication. They're not frequent enough for me to put him on barbiturates or benzodiazepines. There is no rhyme or reason why he has them besides his REM sleep cycle. He always has them during sleep and seem to be preceded by heavy dreaming. I don't know that this info can help you. Just sharing my experience in hopes that there's smthg similar you can compare to. Again, I'm sooo sorry Joy. Have you had Ravan's blood pressure checked? I saw you had a T-4 done recently. From what I know(not college educated vet tech) low thyroid levels can cause seizures. This is usually not seen in cats...just dogs. But, BP, IMO, could have some repercussions. Again, I'm not college educated
Just some thoughts.
I hope your day turns around
Be good for Momma Ravan!!! She LOVES you sooo very much!
ETA: I hope you don't mind if I tag someone that has clinical experience....I've been out of the field for 10 yrs. @Si am cat mom I hope you don't mind that I tagged you
I can help guide you through the seizure....that's about it. Sorry to be redundant, but Stimpy(civvie) has them during sleep. It appears that REM sleep triggers his. I wish I knew why. Stimpy is a special kitty. I'll try to be brief, giving you his history. I rescued him from an animal shelter that brought us animals to be spayed/neutered. I was a vet tech at a low cost spay/neuter clinic. Stimpy was a normal healthy kitty(as far as I know) before sx. He stopped breathing, during anesthetic induction...prior to isoflurane(gas anesthesia). His tissue was blue(gums etc)!!! We didn't intervene with drugs...just stimulation(vets orders). That was enough to get him "back" so to speak. He was neutered and recovered. When he was completely recovered from anesthesia, I noticed he was blind(side effect of oxygen depletion). Well, the animal shelter didn't have time to rehabilitate a blind cat so, they insisted on euthanasia. I stepped in and the rest is history. Stimpy recovered most of his eyesight...it took about a year. I never saw a seizure or symptoms until ~ 4 years later. He had a UTI, almost resulting in obstruction. He was treated with Convenia. The seizures began 3 days after his UTI treatment. He's had them ever since. I manage the seizures w/o medication. They're not frequent enough for me to put him on barbiturates or benzodiazepines. There is no rhyme or reason why he has them besides his REM sleep cycle. He always has them during sleep and seem to be preceded by heavy dreaming. I don't know that this info can help you. Just sharing my experience in hopes that there's smthg similar you can compare to. Again, I'm sooo sorry Joy. Have you had Ravan's blood pressure checked? I saw you had a T-4 done recently. From what I know(not college educated vet tech) low thyroid levels can cause seizures. This is usually not seen in cats...just dogs. But, BP, IMO, could have some repercussions. Again, I'm not college educated
Just some thoughts.I hope your day turns around
Be good for Momma Ravan!!! She LOVES you sooo very much!ETA: I hope you don't mind if I tag someone that has clinical experience....I've been out of the field for 10 yrs. @Si am cat mom I hope you don't mind that I tagged you
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JoyBee&Ravan
Member Since 2018
Thank you very much for the info. I do not mind at all. I want to learn as much as I can to help Ravan. If you read my post from yesterday you'll see he doesn't get the seizures regularly.
I'm hoping the CBD oil will help so he doesn't get the seizures more often.
Judy and Boomer
Member Since 2014
Oh JoyBee I just saw your update on yesterday's condo about Ravan's seizure.
LizzieInTexas
Member Since 2016
So strange they are so infrequent. Hope he is doing ok today. Did you increase the cbd?
Si am cat mom
Member Since 2019
I'm glad they aren't as frequent !
Cluster seizures are pretty terrible...not that any seizure is great, right? I pet sat for a cat once that wouldn't have a seizure for almost a year and then all of a sudden- he'd cluster and have several seizures over the span of an afternoon.
Do you feel like they are usually lasting about the same length of time or are they getting longer/shorter? Often a change in onset-duration can mean that the condition is improving. If you are going to start treating with CBD oil, that would be one way to see if things are starting to make a difference. If you can not time the duration of the seizure, which is often tricky, you can try and time the postictal phase- which is the time the seizure subsides until the point where your cat has returned to a fairly normal, more mentally alert state. Again, if the recovery phase starts to improve, you can sometimes assume that the seizures are becoming less severe.
It sounds like idiopathic epilepsy, but that is assuming other causes have been ruled out.. endocrine abnormalities, active infection etc. We used to treat with medications ( phenobarbital usually- now gabapentin sometimes) if an animal had seizures that lasted more than 5 minute or they had more than 2 within a 6 week period, some vets do 8 weeks. Seizures in cats are hard to diagnose when it is not something more obvious like a toxin that is inducing the seizures. I had a client once who noted that the seizures occurred around the same time every month , in the evenings. It took us a while to figure out that it was the topical flea/tick prevention she was using on her dogs that was causing the seizures...Her kitty was generally just doing a bit of head-bobbing for a few days afterwards. There is a seizure panel that I think Antech runs that looks for certain markers in blood work to be radically different than the patient's baseline- calcium levels are one of them, but in cats in might not be as helpful in dogs- white coat syndrome and all the stress involved in the vet visit.
So stressful. Sorry to word vomit all this information at you.
I would try and just keep track of whatever information you can so look for signs of improvement to ease your mind a bit.
Cluster seizures are pretty terrible...not that any seizure is great, right? I pet sat for a cat once that wouldn't have a seizure for almost a year and then all of a sudden- he'd cluster and have several seizures over the span of an afternoon.
Do you feel like they are usually lasting about the same length of time or are they getting longer/shorter? Often a change in onset-duration can mean that the condition is improving. If you are going to start treating with CBD oil, that would be one way to see if things are starting to make a difference. If you can not time the duration of the seizure, which is often tricky, you can try and time the postictal phase- which is the time the seizure subsides until the point where your cat has returned to a fairly normal, more mentally alert state. Again, if the recovery phase starts to improve, you can sometimes assume that the seizures are becoming less severe.
It sounds like idiopathic epilepsy, but that is assuming other causes have been ruled out.. endocrine abnormalities, active infection etc. We used to treat with medications ( phenobarbital usually- now gabapentin sometimes) if an animal had seizures that lasted more than 5 minute or they had more than 2 within a 6 week period, some vets do 8 weeks. Seizures in cats are hard to diagnose when it is not something more obvious like a toxin that is inducing the seizures. I had a client once who noted that the seizures occurred around the same time every month , in the evenings. It took us a while to figure out that it was the topical flea/tick prevention she was using on her dogs that was causing the seizures...Her kitty was generally just doing a bit of head-bobbing for a few days afterwards. There is a seizure panel that I think Antech runs that looks for certain markers in blood work to be radically different than the patient's baseline- calcium levels are one of them, but in cats in might not be as helpful in dogs- white coat syndrome and all the stress involved in the vet visit.
So stressful. Sorry to word vomit all this information at you.
I would try and just keep track of whatever information you can so look for signs of improvement to ease your mind a bit.
JoyBee&Ravan
Member Since 2018
Thanks Lizzie. He's been getting 2 drops of CBD every evening for about 18 months. I try to be conservative because I did read it can sometimes cause higher liver enzymes. He gets his blood work every 2-3 months & so far it's OK.
I posted last night info about his seizures. He's only has 7 since Oct. 2018. They don't last too long.The last one was only about 30 seconds & he was ok in a few mins. I won't put him thru a bunch of tests. If they start coming closer together or get worse I'll probably increase the CBD to 3 drops.
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JoyBee&Ravan
Member Since 2018
Thanks for the info. I posted info about his seizures last night. He's been getting CBD for about 18 months. 2 drops in the evening. If the seizures get worse I'll probably increase to 3 drops.
There aren't any Toxins in my house. White vinegar & water for cleaning no candles, or anything sprayed in the air. I'm really careful about stuff like that.
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Si am cat mom
Member Since 2019
good stuff
Like I said, I might occasionally try keeping track of some time intervals so you can notice small improvements if they are happening. Since his activity is so sporadic, I am not sure just counting the number of seizures would show you if what you are doing is starting to help or how it is helping.