Sudden vestibular issue in our blind cat

[profcat]

Our blind cat was fine this morning, but then when went to walk to her food bowl for breakfast I noticed that she was unsteady on her feet and falling over a bit. No other sign of illness or pain. I scooped her right up and took her to our vet. She was perky in the car and seems fine other than the walking issue.

Vet says she has nystagmus in her eyes and is definitely instead on her feet. She thinks she either threw a small blood clot, or fell off of something and hit her head. The latter could have happened, I supposed, but I am not aware of any falls and since she is blind she doesn't climb that high. They're going to keep her overnight and give her fluids and steroids. We're so worried about her!

She's blind from being hit by a car when she was a stray cat. We've had her about 6 years and she's probably 7-8 years old.

Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi - In case you haven't had a chance to do this, I did a search of this site and these are the threads that came up;

Search Results for Query: vestibular

 

[IndyJones]

Indy has idiopathic vestibular disease. You can read about my experience here. Head tilt (feline idiopathic vestibular disease? )

I'm not sure if your cat has the idiopathic version or not but in Indy's case I took a wait and see approach since she's not distressed, just has a head tilt, and I felt the MRI/CAT scan unnecessary for her. Apparently due to the proximity to her brain even if a birth defect/skull deformity is the cause as the vet suspects it would be a very high risk surgery to correct it.

 

[IndyJones]

Indys head tilt that is basically the hallmark sign of vestibular disease. She walks like this and sits like this. Vet thinks a skull deformity is pinching the nerve or it's a defect within her vestibular apparatus it's self (I call it her gyroscope)

 

[daftcat75]

Krista rolled off the bed in the middle of the night, threw up, and staggered about on her hocks like she was too weak or too dizzy to get to her feet. I took her to the ER at 3am and after initial blood tests didn't show anything off, they decided to keep her until morning when the neurologist could have a look at her. The long and the short of the neurologist appointment was:

It could be one of these things:
a. tumor
b. infection
c. stroke
d. idiopathic (we ruled out the other three and still don't have an explanation)

The neurologist went on to say that without an MRI we would not be able to determine which of the four. Thankfully Krista had insurance and we proceeded with the MRI. In her case, it turned out to be a severe middle ear infection. She got to come home for a day and a night before she went back again for the surgery (ventral bulla osteotomy) to drain her ear. Thankful once more for insurance. In her case, doing nothing most likely would have resulted in the infection backing up into her brain, bursting her eardrum, and/or becoming systemic. As expensive as all of this sounds (and it was), it was probably also lifesaving. I definitely recommend an MRI if that's an option available to you. Otherwise, you can discuss that list with your vet and whether there is a treatment plan you can try without knowing for sure what's going on. If it is an ear infection, antibiotics are going to be very slow and not very effective because the inner ear is technically outside the body. The surgery was effective and Krista was regaining her balance over the next month and a half. And if that was all that was wrong with her, maybe she'd be back to her desk sitting, counter surfing ways. Sadly, a bladder infection would prove too much for her GI lymphoma weakened body and her immune system decimated by chemo/steroids.

This was her after the MRI and before the surgery the next day:
View media item 423507
And a much improved month later:
View media item 423667

 

[IndyJones]

Krista rolled off the bed in the middle of the night, threw up, and staggered about on her hocks like she was too weak or too dizzy to get to her feet. I took her to the ER at 3am and after initial blood tests didn't show anything off, they decided to keep her until morning when the neurologist could have a look at her. The long and the short of the neurologist appointment was:

It could be one of these things:
a. tumor
b. infection
c. stroke
d. idiopathic (we ruled out the other three and still don't have an explanation)

The neurologist went on to say that without an MRI we would not be able to determine which of the four. Thankfully Krista had insurance and we proceeded with the MRI. In her case, it turned out to be a severe middle ear infection. She got to come home for a day and a night before she went back again for the surgery (ventral bulla osteotomy) to drain her ear. Thankful once more for insurance. In her case, doing nothing most likely would have resulted in the infection backing up into her brain, bursting her eardrum, and/or becoming systemic. As expensive as all of this sounds (and it was), it was probably also lifesaving. I definitely recommend an MRI if that's an option available to you. Otherwise, you can discuss that list with your vet and whether there is a treatment plan you can try without knowing for sure what's going on. If it is an ear infection, antibiotics are going to be very slow and not very effective because the inner ear is technically outside the body. The surgery was effective and Krista was regaining her balance over the next month and a half. And if that was all that was wrong with her, maybe she'd be back to her desk sitting, counter surfing ways. Sadly, a bladder infection would prove too much for her GI lymphoma weakened body and her immune system decimated by chemo/steroids.

This was her after the MRI and before the surgery the next day:
View media item 423507
And a much improved month later:
View media item 423667

Indy has the idiopathic version, the vet gave me the option to take her to a specialist for a CT scan and mri or wait and see, I took the later and other than her head tilt she's perfectly fine, she just has a bad gyroscope.

 

[IndyJones]

Krista rolled off the bed in the middle of the night, threw up, and staggered about on her hocks like she was too weak or too dizzy to get to her feet. I took her to the ER at 3am and after initial blood tests didn't show anything off, they decided to keep her until morning when the neurologist could have a look at her. The long and the short of the neurologist appointment was:

It could be one of these things:
a. tumor
b. infection
c. stroke
d. idiopathic (we ruled out the other three and still don't have an explanation)

The neurologist went on to say that without an MRI we would not be able to determine which of the four. Thankfully Krista had insurance and we proceeded with the MRI. In her case, it turned out to be a severe middle ear infection. She got to come home for a day and a night before she went back again for the surgery (ventral bulla osteotomy) to drain her ear. Thankful once more for insurance. In her case, doing nothing most likely would have resulted in the infection backing up into her brain, bursting her eardrum, and/or becoming systemic. As expensive as all of this sounds (and it was), it was probably also lifesaving. I definitely recommend an MRI if that's an option available to you. Otherwise, you can discuss that list with your vet and whether there is a treatment plan you can try without knowing for sure what's going on. If it is an ear infection, antibiotics are going to be very slow and not very effective because the inner ear is technically outside the body. The surgery was effective and Krista was regaining her balance over the next month and a half. And if that was all that was wrong with her, maybe she'd be back to her desk sitting, counter surfing ways. Sadly, a bladder infection would prove too much for her GI lymphoma weakened body and her immune system decimated by chemo/steroids.

This was her after the MRI and before the surgery the next day:
View media item 423507
And a much improved month later:
View media item 423667

The day I first noticed it, Indy was in her room and I heard a crash, an industrial shelf (which has since been moved to the garage/workshop) had fallen on it's front and indy was laying between the shelves, I picked her up and moved her and she was acting like a drunk. Kept falling and bumping into things. Her eyes were darting but just as fast as it happened she recovered, she was able to walk albeit a bit wobbly within a few hours, was fine other than the head tilt the next day.

 

[profcat]

Krista rolled off the bed in the middle of the night, threw up, and staggered about on her hocks like she was too weak or too dizzy to get to her feet. I took her to the ER at 3am and after initial blood tests didn't show anything off, they decided to keep her until morning when the neurologist could have a look at her. The long and the short of the neurologist appointment was:

It could be one of these things:
a. tumor
b. infection
c. stroke
d. idiopathic (we ruled out the other three and still don't have an explanation)

The neurologist went on to say that without an MRI we would not be able to determine which of the four. Thankfully Krista had insurance and we proceeded with the MRI. In her case, it turned out to be a severe middle ear infection. She got to come home for a day and a night before she went back again for the surgery (ventral bulla osteotomy) to drain her ear. Thankful once more for insurance. In her case, doing nothing most likely would have resulted in the infection backing up into her brain, bursting her eardrum, and/or becoming systemic. As expensive as all of this sounds (and it was), it was probably also lifesaving. I definitely recommend an MRI if that's an option available to you. Otherwise, you can discuss that list with your vet and whether there is a treatment plan you can try without knowing for sure what's going on. If it is an ear infection, antibiotics are going to be very slow and not very effective because the inner ear is technically outside the body. The surgery was effective and Krista was regaining her balance over the next month and a half. And if that was all that was wrong with her, maybe she'd be back to her desk sitting, counter surfing ways. Sadly, a bladder infection would prove too much for her GI lymphoma weakened body and her immune system decimated by chemo/steroids.

This was her after the MRI and before the surgery the next day:

Did she have any inner ear infection symptoms? Our Lucy has been acting 100% fine. Hasn't even had running eyes or scratching her ears or anything. Great appetite and she had blood work and an exam 2 months ago.

 

[daftcat75]

Did she have any inner ear infection symptoms? Our Lucy has been acting 100% fine. Hasn't even had running eyes or scratching her ears or anything. Great appetite and she had blood work and an exam 2 months ago.

I don’t remember if I saw any ear scratching or head shaking leading up to her vestibular event. To be honest, I was much more focused and worried with her lymphoma that the ear just surprised us both.

Even though there may be a gradual build up, I would consider this an acute event, and do all new work up and exams regardless of how recent she was last in. Your vet may also have ideas about how to treat this even if you don’t do an MRI.

I’m not saying Lucy’s experience/diagnosis will match with Krista’s. But you did ask for anecdotes.

 

[profcat]

An update: Lucy is home! And is 100% normal now. We are going to keep her on prednisone for another week and then in a few weeks get her heart tested to make sure it's not that.

The vet feels like she got over it so quickly that it could be idiopathic vestibular disease, but we want to be sure. She has also had some high cholesterol in the past, so we'll try to change her diet and keep that down.

Thanks everyone!