Hello, TCS! I've been meaning to post this for a few days but I've been super busy and a wee bit exhausted. But, does anyone here have experience with epilepsy in their cats? I'd love to hear from others who have had to face this problem.
Paprika - female, ~12 weeks old, bicolor DSH, born to semi-feral mom / unknown dad - has been a spitfire since we got her, running around the house, climbing on everything, getting stuck places she shouldn't be (she loves "caves"), all the typical kitten things. They've been desperate for time out of my room, and a few weeks ago we thought the rest of the house was (while still not good enough for consistent outings by a large margin) safe for them to roam about for a short time while we were present. I found her in a corner of the house, where one of the adult cats has been peeing outside the litter box and so there was some baking soda and apple cider vinegar left on the floor; she was foaming at the mouth, twitching, and lethargic, but breathing. It seemed from a search that it could be acute poisoning from the baking soda mixture - we washed out her mouth, made sure she was breathing, and watched her extremely closely for a while. She recovered very quickly, and we kept watching for a while after she returned to normal, and there were no other symptoms. So, we thought we were in the clear.
A few days ago, I happened to look up at her on the top of my desk, in her basket (the basket is secured to the top of my desk, which is in my window so they can look out), and she was again twitching and foaming at the mouth. I rushed her to my roommate (he's a pharmacy tech and has been trained in first aid, and thankfully he works from home); she had stopped by the time we reached him. I was explaining to him and trying to find a vet that would see us, and she had another seizure, and actually loosed her bowels on his lap. I quickly started calling different vets, while my roommate clocked out of work and we got our other roommate (who's Paprika's owner technically, though we share responsibilities for the cats) ready to go. She had 1-2 more small seizures, all about 2 minutes long.
By the time we loaded her into the carrier and headed for the vets office, she had stopped seizing and foaming; she was still lethargic but a bit more responsive.
They took her back, gave her an IV and monitored her. They also told us that they put a collar on her that had many bells on it, so if she wasn't being watched they would hear if she started seizing again. They took us to a room to wait. Eventually, we were asked permission to run some tests, which we did. There were no signs of toxin buildup in the blood, nor anything amiss in her bloodwork. She'd also had no more seizures since we were at the vet, thankfully.
Ultimately, she was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy, and we were sent home with anti-convulsant medication to give her every 8 hours. I'm grateful that there was nothing else obviously amiss with her, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to manage the condition. But boy was that scary!!
But the point of this long explanation is just to ask if anyone else has had similar experiences? Is there anything important to watch out for? Tips and tricks to keeping it managed and making sure she's happy and healthy? Any insight at all would be super appreciated!
Oh, and we stopped on the way home and got Paprika a kitten collar with a bell on it, so if she does seize again we should be able to hear it. Plus, it makes it easier to keep track of her when she's running around. (Storm got a collar too, but she HATED the bell on it so we took hers off. Which is fine with me as I'm not a huge fan of the bells in most cases, as I worry it'll annoy them having it on all the time.)
Here's some pictures of the babies for cat tax - and Paprika has been doing great! She hates the taste of her medicine, but so far I've been able to syringe feed it to her without any issues.
Paprika - female, ~12 weeks old, bicolor DSH, born to semi-feral mom / unknown dad - has been a spitfire since we got her, running around the house, climbing on everything, getting stuck places she shouldn't be (she loves "caves"), all the typical kitten things. They've been desperate for time out of my room, and a few weeks ago we thought the rest of the house was (while still not good enough for consistent outings by a large margin) safe for them to roam about for a short time while we were present. I found her in a corner of the house, where one of the adult cats has been peeing outside the litter box and so there was some baking soda and apple cider vinegar left on the floor; she was foaming at the mouth, twitching, and lethargic, but breathing. It seemed from a search that it could be acute poisoning from the baking soda mixture - we washed out her mouth, made sure she was breathing, and watched her extremely closely for a while. She recovered very quickly, and we kept watching for a while after she returned to normal, and there were no other symptoms. So, we thought we were in the clear.
A few days ago, I happened to look up at her on the top of my desk, in her basket (the basket is secured to the top of my desk, which is in my window so they can look out), and she was again twitching and foaming at the mouth. I rushed her to my roommate (he's a pharmacy tech and has been trained in first aid, and thankfully he works from home); she had stopped by the time we reached him. I was explaining to him and trying to find a vet that would see us, and she had another seizure, and actually loosed her bowels on his lap. I quickly started calling different vets, while my roommate clocked out of work and we got our other roommate (who's Paprika's owner technically, though we share responsibilities for the cats) ready to go. She had 1-2 more small seizures, all about 2 minutes long.
By the time we loaded her into the carrier and headed for the vets office, she had stopped seizing and foaming; she was still lethargic but a bit more responsive.
They took her back, gave her an IV and monitored her. They also told us that they put a collar on her that had many bells on it, so if she wasn't being watched they would hear if she started seizing again. They took us to a room to wait. Eventually, we were asked permission to run some tests, which we did. There were no signs of toxin buildup in the blood, nor anything amiss in her bloodwork. She'd also had no more seizures since we were at the vet, thankfully.
Ultimately, she was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy, and we were sent home with anti-convulsant medication to give her every 8 hours. I'm grateful that there was nothing else obviously amiss with her, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to manage the condition. But boy was that scary!!
But the point of this long explanation is just to ask if anyone else has had similar experiences? Is there anything important to watch out for? Tips and tricks to keeping it managed and making sure she's happy and healthy? Any insight at all would be super appreciated!
Oh, and we stopped on the way home and got Paprika a kitten collar with a bell on it, so if she does seize again we should be able to hear it. Plus, it makes it easier to keep track of her when she's running around. (Storm got a collar too, but she HATED the bell on it so we took hers off. Which is fine with me as I'm not a huge fan of the bells in most cases, as I worry it'll annoy them having it on all the time.)
Here's some pictures of the babies for cat tax - and Paprika has been doing great! She hates the taste of her medicine, but so far I've been able to syringe feed it to her without any issues.
