Cat having episodes of dizziness and drooling, sometimes pooping himself

[10thomer]

Hi everyone, me again! Back with Lewis, the 7 y.o. kitty with never ending unresolved health issues

Lewis recently started experiencing strange episodes where he sometimes gets a bit aggressive with his sister and then he suddenly stops, looks uncomfortable for a moment, starts drooling excessively (like a pool of drool on the floor), lays down, and sometimes poops himself. He's usually totally out of it during these episodes and doesn't respond to me at all. Then after 20 seconds or so he's back to normal, like nothing happened at all and he immediately eats a bunch of food.

I've taken him to the vet and they said he "doesn't look sick enough to be having seizures", it doesn't sound like syncope symptoms, and they ran some tests to see that his blood pressure is fine and he's probably not throwing clots. His cardiologist thinks that these may be vagal events, but idk it just seems so strange to me and I would love to hear if any of you have experienced something similar.

In terms of conditions, he has the following:

• Upper tract IBD
• Pancreatitis (but we think this is under control now)
• Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy that went from mild earlier this year to mild/moderate a couple of months ago (left atrium dilated a bit). He's now on enalapril and plavix for this condition (the only medication he's on right now)
• Kidney numbers have looked wonky for years (consistently high creatinine, BUN and SDMA are sometimes high, sometimes normal)
• Has had issues with poop not coming all the way out of his butt but this has stopped happening since we started giving him miralax in his food

 

[Furballsmom]

they said he "doesn't look sick enough to be having seizures"

Hi
I have no experience with this, but have you been able to get a video so the vet can see the entire episode?

 

[FeebysOwner]

The video is a great idea to share with both Lewis' vet and the cardiologist! I don't know if you've done any research on the vagus nerve, but perhaps if not, you might find this article interesting - maybe it would even give you some points to discuss with the cardiologist?
Vagus Nerve In Cats and Dogs - Advice, Guidance and Support. (authenticapets.com)

 

[fionasmom]

I have a 6 year old male, Jamie, with HCM and a similar kidney issue with high BUN...both going on for 4 years. He does not do any of what you are describing with Lewis, just to give you a comparison.

I would follow up on the vagus nerve investigation, but would not rule out seizure activity. A previous cat did have seizures, and after the first one I rushed him to the vet who told me that cats "really don't have seizures." The comment that Lewis looks too healthy to have seizures is very strange as seizures don't necessarily make a human or animal "look" unhealthy.

 

[10thomer]

So I took all of your advice and emailed my vet some videos of Lewis' episodes and she wrote back the following:
"Thank you for the videos - It does look like Lewis goes into a neurologic event, like he starts to space. We can try an anti-seizure medication like Keppra potentially - how often is he doing this?"

Another potential issue to add to the list! What has your experience been with cats with seizures? Did they live a good life with or without medication? Does anyone know if seizures can be related to HCM, IBD, weird kidney issues, etc?

 

[fionasmom]

Pinning down the cause of seizures can be tricky and there are multiple reasons that a cat might have them. Metabolic conditions like heart disease are on the list, but so are a lot of other things. Lewis has probably suffered no trauma or head injury, has ingested no suspicious substances, so you can rule all of that out.

If a cat had repeated seizures I would try to treat them. Quality of life with repeated seizures would probably be sub standard.

Administration of meds for seizures requires careful and consistent timing, so ask a lot of questions of your vet.