Hi all. I recently posted in the cat behavior forum when my cat Orville started violently attacking the other cat, Winston, even though they've coexisted peacefully for 10 years. There had been no changes in the house and no strange animals outside. Moved over to this forum because we've now seen the vet.
The doctor ran full senior blood panels on both cats and everything looked "perfect," as she called it. She was very thorough during the visit--she spent 1.5 hours with us. We discussed a week of unexplainable seizures Orville had back in 2014. He frequently went limp and convulsed daily for a week and spent a night in the hospital with no real answers. After a week the seizures ceased and have never (noticeably) returned, although Orville's personality has never quite been the same since. Every 2-3 months he goes through a period of reclusiveness where he'll hide all day every day for up to a few weeks, and then suddenly he'll snap out of it and be extremely clingy for weeks afterward.
Because of this history, the vet suspects he may have silent seizure activity going on in his brain that we can't see on the outside, and is causing him to lash out on the other cat. She did put him on Gabapentin while she consults with a specialist at the animal hospital to determine next steps. The meds have definitely eased the violent attacks, but there's still a little bit of tension there.
I've tried to do some research on absence seizures in cats but the majority of what I'm finding involves seizures with convulsions that you can witness with the naked eye. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with a cat with absence seizures who can let me know what you experienced. Mostly I'm trying to formulate questions to ask the vet when she follows up later this week.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has any input or insight!
The doctor ran full senior blood panels on both cats and everything looked "perfect," as she called it. She was very thorough during the visit--she spent 1.5 hours with us. We discussed a week of unexplainable seizures Orville had back in 2014. He frequently went limp and convulsed daily for a week and spent a night in the hospital with no real answers. After a week the seizures ceased and have never (noticeably) returned, although Orville's personality has never quite been the same since. Every 2-3 months he goes through a period of reclusiveness where he'll hide all day every day for up to a few weeks, and then suddenly he'll snap out of it and be extremely clingy for weeks afterward.
Because of this history, the vet suspects he may have silent seizure activity going on in his brain that we can't see on the outside, and is causing him to lash out on the other cat. She did put him on Gabapentin while she consults with a specialist at the animal hospital to determine next steps. The meds have definitely eased the violent attacks, but there's still a little bit of tension there.
I've tried to do some research on absence seizures in cats but the majority of what I'm finding involves seizures with convulsions that you can witness with the naked eye. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with a cat with absence seizures who can let me know what you experienced. Mostly I'm trying to formulate questions to ask the vet when she follows up later this week.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has any input or insight!