What is this bizzare behavior??

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Harukyo

Harukyo

Member Since 2019
Hello FDMB, it's me again..

Around two days ago during our usual PMPS testing time, I noticed totally new bizzare behavior from Kyo.

Shes starting to deal with this weird skin crawling all up her back and her shoulders almost like something is tickling/itching her. Then she randomly jumps up like something bit her on the butt and just starts vigorously grooming herself. Then she runs like she's trying to run away from something. When I took her to the vet the other day, they couldn't find anything wrong with her. Suspected an allergy. But I'm not so sure because it's not an all day thing, and it didn't happen at all yesterday. It happens in episodes! And usually at nighttime. It's got me so stressed out because she gets so freaked out by it she starts panting :( poor baby.

At first I wondered if it was a reaction to the Revolution flea and tick medicine, but the vet said probably not because I gave it to her a week ago. Shes also on an ear medicine called tresaderm, but these symptoms showed BEFORE I gave the medicine. So that gets ruled out too.

Not sure what other tests to even ask my vet to run because Kyo has come up so healthy at every visit. After googling some of her symptoms, I came across something called feline hyperesthesia. I watched some videos on YouTube of other people's cats having an episode and it looks exactly like that down to the butt licking/biting and leg kicking. No hallucinations though, besides her trying to run away from something that's not there...
I don't know what to make of this behavior, its really got me scratching my head. Idk if it's worth bring up here since this is a forum for FD. But if anyone has shared this experience with their cat please let me know how you help your cat calm down from it because I feel so helpless as it really stresses her out.

Also here's a video that pretty much shows exactly Kyos symptoms. If I can manage to get an actual video of Kyo having an "episode" I'll update this post.
 
if you dampen your hands and pet her, does it make it worse or better?

if it turns out to be sensitive skin, one possible thing to try is to add a small amount of extra virgin olive oil to her food, or anything else that has omega 3 and omega 6 in it (fish oil, dried fish, for one source) -- can't hurt, may help
 
CandyH and Catcat said:
if you dampen your hands and pet her, does it make it worse or better?

if it turns out to be sensitive skin, one possible thing to try is to add a small amount of extra virgin olive oil to her food, or anything else that has omega 3 and omega 6 in it (fish oil, dried fish, for one source) -- can't hurt, may help
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She doesn't like if I stroke her back during an episode but if I just place my hand on her back and press down like I'm trying to stop her skin from twitching then that kind of seems to help but only for as long as I keep my hand down. Once I remove it, it starts up again. :( I am furiously reading through all the past threads that mention hyperesthesia to try and get a gauge on what my next steps are in determining what the heck is going on
 
Harukyo said:
Hello FDMB, it's me again..

Around two days ago during our usual PMPS testing time, I noticed totally new bizzare behavior from Kyo.

Shes starting to deal with this weird skin crawling all up her back and her shoulders almost like something is tickling/itching her. Then she randomly jumps up like something bit her on the butt and just starts vigorously grooming herself. Then she runs like she's trying to run away from something. When I took her to the vet the other day, they couldn't find anything wrong with her. Suspected an allergy. But I'm not so sure because it's not an all day thing, and it didn't happen at all yesterday. It happens in episodes! And usually at nighttime. It's got me so stressed out because she gets so freaked out by it she starts panting :( poor baby.

At first I wondered if it was a reaction to the Revolution flea and tick medicine, but the vet said probably not because I gave it to her a week ago. Shes also on an ear medicine called tresaderm, but these symptoms showed BEFORE I gave the medicine. So that gets ruled out too.

Not sure what other tests to even ask my vet to run because Kyo has come up so healthy at every visit. After googling some of her symptoms, I came across something called feline hyperesthesia. I watched some videos on YouTube of other people's cats having an episode and it looks exactly like that down to the butt licking/biting and leg kicking. No hallucinations though, besides her trying to run away from something that's not there...
I don't know what to make of this behavior, its really got me scratching my head. Idk if it's worth bring up here since this is a forum for FD. But if anyone has shared this experience with their cat please let me know how you help your cat calm down from it because I feel so helpless as it really stresses her out.

Also here's a video that pretty much shows exactly Kyos symptoms. If I can manage to get an actual video of Kyo having an "episode" I'll update this post.
Click to expand...
This happened to an elderly cat of mine. She was also having hyperesthesia related seizures and incontinence. It was awful. Incredibly, she was totally cured when I quit feeding her Friskies. I am personally afraid of grocery store cat food now, and switched my young cats to Tiki and redbarn. Good luck finding a solution.
 
Hello :bighug:

By any chance did the behavior start when you had to resume the drop dose of Prozinc? I ask because Sam had this exact reaction to his Prozinc shots -- and the reaction got progressively worse the longer he was on Prozinc. I'm not aware of any other cats having this reaction to Prozinc, though :bighug:

Sam has also been on Tresaderm. It really messed with his BG#s. Once I was able to stop use, it took anywhere from 1-2 weeks for his blood glucose to level back out again. But, his numbers did return to good regulation :)

Best of luck to you and Kyo!
 
Someone else just recently posted about his or her cat self-mutilating--the tail--with a possibility of hyperesthesia. I apologize for not remembering who posted this, but search the topic here, as suggested by @FurBabiesMama. I don't have a cat with this diagnosis, but I do have a cat with stomatitis who behaves similar to this when his stomatitis is bothering him. Although he has never mutilated his tail, he growls and snarls at it and tries running away from it. He also attacks the other cats when he feels like that, and it's really a very sad thing to watch. My point in sharing this is to suggest that maybe Kyo is experiencing discomfort in another way, and displaying it with symptoms similar to hyperesthesia? However, it does appear as though hyperesthesia could be the reason. I hope you figure it out soon. Our poor kitties...
 
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Thanks everyone for the replies! I'm trying to get rid of all other options before giving up and calling it hyperesthesia... Going to do a deep clean of my room in case it's allergies and I'm missing something. Unfortunately, I've had ZERO luck getting kyo to take 1/2 a tab of 25mg Benadryl so I can't figure out if that's a cause...she's so sensitive to bitter medicine and every time I try to pill her it resulted in a stressed cat with a foaming mouth...

@Sam & Esse, I know some cats have reactions to insulin like that but kyo has never reacted poorly to it. The symptoms showed before I started her up again too :( I was definitely wondering if that was a possibility, but I don't think so anymore..

@CandyH and Catcat, I might try to wrap her up, but I wonder if that will stress her out more than anything. She falls over if she ever wears a harness :rolleyes: haha she's very dramatic about it

Some people mentioned that switching foods helped and I may try that but she's finally gotten use to this food so I'm kind of scared to change it up on her. I will definitely consider that an option though.

I'll be reading through more of the links everyone posted. Thank you so much for the suggestions and shared experiences. I'm hoping I can get to the bottom of this before calling it hyperesthesia...she never suffered any trauma either! I don't understand why this all started up out of the blue..
 
Harukyo said:
Thanks everyone for the replies! I'm trying to get rid of all other options before giving up and calling it hyperesthesia... Going to do a deep clean of my room in case it's allergies and I'm missing something. Unfortunately, I've had ZERO luck getting kyo to take 1/2 a tab of 25mg Benadryl so I can't figure out if that's a cause...she's so sensitive to bitter medicine and every time I try to pill her it resulted in a stressed cat with a foaming mouth...

@Sam & Esse, I know some cats have reactions to insulin like that but kyo has never reacted poorly to it. The symptoms showed before I started her up again too :( I was definitely wondering if that was a possibility, but I don't think so anymore..

@CandyH and Catcat, I might try to wrap her up, but I wonder if that will stress her out more than anything. She falls over if she ever wears a harness :rolleyes: haha she's very dramatic about it

Some people mentioned that switching foods helped and I may try that but she's finally gotten use to this food so I'm kind of scared to change it up on her. I will definitely consider that an option though.

I'll be reading through more of the links everyone posted. Thank you so much for the suggestions and shared experiences. I'm hoping I can get to the bottom of this before calling it hyperesthesia...she never suffered any trauma either! I don't understand why this all started up out of the blue..
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One more trick I used to help my cat, when her skin was twitching I brushed her gently and sometimes that seemed to ease her symptoms.
 
FYI: Empty gelcaps are my saving grace!!! Whether dealing with bitter or bad smelling pills, or combining multiple pills together into a single gelcap to only have to pop one capsule into the kitty, they are WONDERFUL. Go to Amazon and search for "empty gelcap". You can also usually find them locally in Whole Foods or any healthcare store where people buy supplements for bodybuilding, apparently. You can also coat the gelcap in butter to help it slide down.

Use this to figure out what size you may need: https://www.capsulesizes.com

I always have a few sizes on hand. Good luck, I hope things calm down for Kyo soon :bighug:
 
Sandi & Whisper said:
FYI: Empty gelcaps are my saving grace!!! Whether dealing with bitter or bad smelling pills, or combining multiple pills together into a single gelcap to only have to pop one capsule into the kitty, they are WONDERFUL. Go to Amazon and search for "empty gelcap". You can also usually find them locally in Whole Foods or any healthcare store where people buy supplements for bodybuilding, apparently. You can also coat the gelcap in butter to help it slide down.

Use this to figure out what size you may need: https://www.capsulesizes.com

I always have a few sizes on hand. Good luck, I hope things calm down for Kyo soon :bighug:
Click to expand...
Omg thank you so much for this suggestion!! I'll have to give that a try!
 
Lauren, Sheba had an episode of hyperesthesia which started after I gave her one of the flea treatments. It went on for a few weeks and she was very sensitive to touch. It eventually went away and didn't come back.
 
Bron and Sheba said:
Lauren, Sheba had an episode of hyperesthesia which started after I gave her one of the flea treatments. It went on for a few weeks and she was very sensitive to touch. It eventually went away and didn't come back.
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Do you think I should try not giving her a dose of revolution next month? We have a lot of pets that go in and out so I'm concerned about fleas and other pests..also I might need your help figuring out what to dose Kyo because this steroid has her BG levels up pretty high
 
Harukyo said:
Do you think I should try not giving her a dose of revolution next month? We have a lot of pets that go in and out so I'm concerned about fleas and other pests..also I might need your help figuring out what to dose Kyo because this steroid has her BG levels up pretty high
Click to expand...
It’s hard to tell. It might be worth leaving it for a few weeks to see if it clears b
 
I'm so sorry to hear this, when they can't tell you what's wrong it breaks my heart. My girl started doing this as well, out of the blue. Or she would look for specks on the ground and if she saw one she would either quickly run up to smell it or walk away fast like it was going to bite her. I don't know what it was but about a month or so later she had a saddle thrombus, which is basically a blood clot that got lodged in the fork between her hind legs and she was partially paralyzed for awhile. The thing we noticed about that first was that she was real sleepy, when I went to pet her her back feet were cold. Took her to the ER vet and they said she more than likely had heart disease and that another blood clot could dislodge at any time and could either end up in the same place, or go to her brain, or maybe nothing would happen. They suggested we put her to sleep but we wanted to try and rehabilitate her and see what a cardiologist would say. It was hard at first, had to help her in the box etc. but she eventually got a lot better. She was on a blood thinner while we were waiting for the cardiologist appointment. There were none in our area so we were waiting until one came up to the ER for their bi monthly visits. Anyway it was about a week before her appointment when she had another saddle thrombus. Took her in again and decided to put her to sleep knowing it would probably happen again, even if she would have gotten medication, it only would have thinned the blood like she was already getting. Maybe these 2 things weren't related at all but just in case, if you could get her in to have a cardiologist check her heart that may be a good idea.
 
Harukyo said:
Do you think I should try not giving her a dose of revolution next month? We have a lot of pets that go in and out so I'm concerned about fleas and other pests..also I might need your help figuring out what to dose Kyo because this steroid has her BG levels up pretty high
Click to expand...
Hi Lauren,
Definitelys fleas biting her!
If you try using a flea comb, I bet you’ll get fleas. Nelli would act like this occasionally, I’d comb her and sure enough I’d get fleas- a couple BiG ones :woot: which I firmly believed were the ones biting really hard, causing her to go crazy! They try everything including running from them, wiggling there skin- frantically spart to make them go away :(.
Fleas.

I give Nelli Capstar-.
I am opposed to giving her once a month drugs like revolution. This (obviously) is a powerful drug, working for a 30day run :eek: :nailbiting:.. one other factoid ;) for you- these monthly flea treatments do stop working.
Nelli spends most of her days outside. County we live in... we have a bad flea season which has now lingered into winter.
Combing and bathing regularly didn’t completely help. Then, OMG a flea jumped on e in my home! It was at this time I knew I had to re-visit the revolution type drugs. After expressing my concern and adamant avoidance of these drugs, Vet suggested I try Capstar. It is a very mild drug which is short acting :).
Kills fleas almost instantly can be used again two days later if necessary. It works brilliantly for Nelli. No flea problem anymore and I only give it to her when necessary :cat:.
I feel much better...
I know every cat is different but it might be worth a try- instead of trying a different monthly drug?!?

Capstar description:
https://www.chewy.com/capstar-flea-...kViMhMXmMYGuUZ4s8xvVnRi8ZnEz_hZoaAndQEALw_wcB
Nelli, like Kyo will not take a pill. Period. I crush it up and mix it in this (kitty crack?!?) Never knows pill exist :bighug:
https://www.chewy.com/inaba-churu-grain-free-chicken-puree/dp/169570
I use this simple flea comb :)... the “fine” one:
https://www.chewy.com/jw-pet-flea-fine-comb/dp/108751

FLEAS is my bet. Easy fix :)
 
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Krystina & Nelli said:
Hi Lauren,
Definitelys fleas biting her!
If you try using a flea comb, I bet you’ll get fleas. Nelli would act like this occasionally, I’d comb her and sure enough I’d get fleas- a couple BiG ones :woot: which I firmly believed were the ones biting really hard, causing her to go crazy! They try everything including running from them, wiggling there skin- frantically spart to make them go away :(.
Fleas.

I give Nelli Capstar-.
I am opposed to giving her once a month drugs like revolution. This (obviously) is a powerful drug, working for a 30day run :eek: :nailbiting:.. one other factoid ;) for you- these monthly flea treatments do stop working.
Nelli spends most of her days outside. County we live in... we have a bad flea season which has now lingered into winter.
Combing and bathing regularly didn’t completely help. Then, OMG a flea jumped on e in my home! It was at this time I knew I had to re-visit the revolution type drugs. After expressing my concern and adamant avoidance of these drugs, Vet suggested I try Capstar. It is a very mild drug which is short acting :).
Kills fleas almost instantly can be used again two days later if necessary. It works brilliantly for Nelli. No flea problem anymore and I only give it to her when necessary :cat:.
I feel much better...
I know every cat is different but it might be worth a try- instead of trying a different monthly drug?!?

Capstar description:
https://www.chewy.com/capstar-flea-...kViMhMXmMYGuUZ4s8xvVnRi8ZnEz_hZoaAndQEALw_wcB
Nelli, like Kyla will not take a pill. Period. I crush it up and mix it in this (kitty crack?!?) Never knows pill exist :bighug:
https://www.chewy.com/inaba-churu-grain-free-chicken-puree/dp/169570
I use this simple flea comb :)... the “fine” one:
https://www.chewy.com/jw-pet-flea-fine-comb/dp/108751

FLEAS is my bet. Easy fix :)
Click to expand...

I suppose I should try to check for fleas...but she's not itchy at all except when she's having an episode. And when we were at the vet they pulled her hair back and inspected really closely. It's possible there's some stragglers on her that we've missed, and summer is peak flea season. I'll think about buying a flea comb because it would be a good tool to have anyway.

Update on her behavior! The symptoms have seemed to calm down a lot over the past few days. She went from dealing with this for 5 hours one night, not too bad the next night, then around 3 hours the next night and today her back had twitched very occasionally and she grooms but not as desperately as before. Starting to wonder if it was an allergen again that she's getting over..

Also thank you for that cat treat recommendation!! I will order this to try on Kyo (she loves treats like that) so I can give her some Benadryl if she needs it too!
 
another thing you can use, dust her gently with diatomaceous earth -- the food grade version -- I use a microfiber shower mitten so it doesn't puff into the air and get inhaled -- DE is fine for mammals, it affects only "bugs" -- I used it on my chickens, kept them mite-free -- loses effectiveness when it gets wet so you might have to repeat now and then, if that's still bothering her, and if it's creepy-crawlies giving her the twitchies
 
Krystina & Nelli said:
I hope Kyo is feeling better :bighug:
Did you find any fleas o_O...
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Thank you!! Her symptoms have completely subsided besides the occasional leg shake (like she was wearing a sock and shook it off). But I've only seen her do it once or twice in two days. I have not found any fleas! But the fact that this has more or less gone away makes me suspect that allergy to something. Maybe it was a flea bite, maybe it was these dried minnow treats I was giving her...gosh it could be so many things lol. I don't have a great lead as to what it may have been. But I am so happy that she's is getting back to her normal self.
 
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