Cat Seizure Question

thanatos0042

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Hello everyone.

I have a 14 year old kitty, she is good on eating, drinking and weight.

Today she was in my lap and I was petting her and she suddenly seized up for about 20 seconds or so...her paws spasmed a bit and claws extended, as she cut me up quite a bit

Me and my roommate freaked out and when she came out of it, she freaked out to ran upstairs. She recovered and seemed okay - alert, I fed her some kibble and some wet food.

I'm sure a vet visit will be in her very near future, but I wanted to know if you could provide some thoughts or insight on some things it might be or I should ask the vet about.

Can't go the route of super-expensive testing, the money just isn't there because of the Covid thing.

she deosn't eat or drink anything different than any other cat we have. She's never evidenced any seizure before this time.
She does have a sniffle and is sneezing some, but she has had allergies in the past and I thought it might be allergies this time...but now I'm not sure.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 

Jem

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The only experience I've have with cats and seizures was caused by high blood pressure due to Chronic Kidney Disease. Both checking blood pressure and checking for CKD will need a vet check.
So I would ask them to check blood pressure, which may not unfortunately, be accurate because most kitties hate the vet, which could raise blood pressure...but still good to check anyway as high blood pressure can lead to blindness and could indicate other health issues.
But with my kitty he had CKD, which can cause blood pressure issues. CKD will need blood testing to confirm kidney values.
Seizures can also be caused by many other things from infection to tumors, some of which would require more extensive testing, but I would definitely bring kitty in for a full senior panel check up to start.

Other than the seizure, is anything different at all?
Does she seem a bit more clumsy, does she still eat as much as before, litter habits the same, any weight loss, etc...?
 
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thanatos0042

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She's put on a bit of weight since we cut back on kibble and wet food and have gone to more of a raw food diet (she loves it and we get the stuff from Hare Today). this has been going on 3 or 4 months and she hasn't exhibited anything out of the ordinary as far as that goes. Nothing in the litter I've seen. Still, food motivated. She sleeps a lot more, but then she is 14 and with working from home she spends a lot of time on my desk or in a small chair beside me.

Since she had the seizure she's doing a lot more staring off into space...

She was a rescue and had a rough time as a kitten. One of her main fangs came out a couple of years back. Her fur has actually improved a lot with the diet changed. None of our other cats have exhibited anything strange or medically concerning, but she is my oldest cat too.
 

Jem

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And there's no chance she may have eaten something toxic right? I forgot about that.....

The staring off into space, could just be her recovering as seizures can take a lot out of you, but I wonder if it could be her vision...
Can you test her to see if she can see? wave a toy in front of her and see if she follows it with her eyes.
When it comes to blindness cause by high blood pressure, if the blood pressure gets under control quickly enough, the vision can return.
 

Jem

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Does she feel warmer than usual, is there a chance she may have a fever?
 
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thanatos0042

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No chance? well there's always a chance she got something, but I couldn't imagine what - that some other cat wouldn't have gotten first. She's pretty picky about what she eats.

Yeah, I figured that might be why she is...acting just a bit different. I figured I would give her some time to recover. As for her vision, she is alert and can follow fingers and such, she responds to her name.

She doesn't feel warmer, but she does have a bit of run off/muck in one eye. As I said, she has sneezed some lately, but seemed more like allergies than anything else.
 

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A seizure was the reason I brought my boy to the vet for a further lookin. He had also seized up for a minute ,hes 13 btw. Taking him to the vet he was xray and had bloodwork done and was found to have hyperthyroid and possible heart issue but they said it might be from his thyroid. So even if its some cost i would def get it checked as seziures are underlying issues to something worse.
 
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thanatos0042

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Yeah, I have a feeling I will have to do that as soon as we can afford it. This whole COVID thing has really made finances tight.

she hasn't had another one since at least.
 

carebearbaby1

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There might be a nutrient imbalance in the raw diet. Lack of taurine can cause seizures.
 
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thanatos0042

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Well she does still get regular wet food and some dry food...she's not moved over entirely.

the Raw food mix is from Hare Today and comes with organs and bones ground up and the vitamin mix we get has taurine in it.

but, it's a good idea and I'll check deeper into it.

added: we give them 140 grams of vit mix per pound of the ground meat (pre-mixed when we get it and then we freeze it)
 
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