- Joined
- Mar 30, 2019
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Hi there!
I joined this forum because it had such helpful advice in the past for me just on browsing, and I'm looking to get some advice or hear personal experience from anyone who's had a cat with toxoplasmosis.
My cat is about two years old. I adopted him almost exactly one year ago when he was around one, so I don't know what his history was as a kitten. He's a small guy who's only 10 pounds at his biggest, and he has had a neurological quirk since I got him - this only ever happens when he's dozing off to sleep, but he has had very noticeable full-body tremors and trembling that has seemed to have gotten a bit worse in the last few months, but were always present. He's gotten all his blood work done, tons of check ups - there is nothing off in his blood work, blood pressure, etc. Seems perfectly healthy if just looking at his bloodwork. Here's what's been going on with the tremors, and the vet has been scratching her head over him:
- Since I've had him, the vet assumed the tremors were a type of epilepsy that we wouldn't need to treat unless it resulted in a full seizure.
- However, during one of the appointments, the vet noticed some eye lesions. She wondered if it was from an illness as a kitten that stunted his growth a bit and left some neurological quirks, like kitty parvo.
- However, once she saw the eye lesions, she suspected that his tremors could very possibly be a toxoplasmosis infection, and she put him on a run of antibiotics to at least test the theory. After a week, the tremors had significantly diminished, and 3 weeks in, they seemed like they were completely gone.
- But then, slowly and surely, the tremors came back - they were much lighter initially, and now about 4 months later, they're back in full force. He falls asleep on top of me and it's upsetting feeling his entire body shaking and not being able to do anything.
Right now, the vet is putting him on a super low dose of compounded gabapentin to help with the tremors in case he's in pain (he doesn't seem like it, but it's impossible to tell with him), and hopefully to make them a bit milder. We're going to run a toxo test this week to see if he's had another flareup and officially confirm whether the tremors *are* toxo or whether they're a separate idiopathic neurological issue.
My big questions are:
- Has anyone had a cat with toxo that had a second flareup? We'll do a toxo blood test to figure out if this is truly the case, but the vet said it may not be perfectly definitive. End of the day, I'm worried if it is a second flareup, does it mean his immune system must be compromised in some way? Is there anything I should followup with the vet in this regard?
- Has anyone had issues with a similar type of tremor - that only seemingly happen in a relaxed state? Did you end up medicating for it, or just accept it as a quirk?
Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you!
I joined this forum because it had such helpful advice in the past for me just on browsing, and I'm looking to get some advice or hear personal experience from anyone who's had a cat with toxoplasmosis.
My cat is about two years old. I adopted him almost exactly one year ago when he was around one, so I don't know what his history was as a kitten. He's a small guy who's only 10 pounds at his biggest, and he has had a neurological quirk since I got him - this only ever happens when he's dozing off to sleep, but he has had very noticeable full-body tremors and trembling that has seemed to have gotten a bit worse in the last few months, but were always present. He's gotten all his blood work done, tons of check ups - there is nothing off in his blood work, blood pressure, etc. Seems perfectly healthy if just looking at his bloodwork. Here's what's been going on with the tremors, and the vet has been scratching her head over him:
- Since I've had him, the vet assumed the tremors were a type of epilepsy that we wouldn't need to treat unless it resulted in a full seizure.
- However, during one of the appointments, the vet noticed some eye lesions. She wondered if it was from an illness as a kitten that stunted his growth a bit and left some neurological quirks, like kitty parvo.
- However, once she saw the eye lesions, she suspected that his tremors could very possibly be a toxoplasmosis infection, and she put him on a run of antibiotics to at least test the theory. After a week, the tremors had significantly diminished, and 3 weeks in, they seemed like they were completely gone.
- But then, slowly and surely, the tremors came back - they were much lighter initially, and now about 4 months later, they're back in full force. He falls asleep on top of me and it's upsetting feeling his entire body shaking and not being able to do anything.
Right now, the vet is putting him on a super low dose of compounded gabapentin to help with the tremors in case he's in pain (he doesn't seem like it, but it's impossible to tell with him), and hopefully to make them a bit milder. We're going to run a toxo test this week to see if he's had another flareup and officially confirm whether the tremors *are* toxo or whether they're a separate idiopathic neurological issue.
My big questions are:
- Has anyone had a cat with toxo that had a second flareup? We'll do a toxo blood test to figure out if this is truly the case, but the vet said it may not be perfectly definitive. End of the day, I'm worried if it is a second flareup, does it mean his immune system must be compromised in some way? Is there anything I should followup with the vet in this regard?
- Has anyone had issues with a similar type of tremor - that only seemingly happen in a relaxed state? Did you end up medicating for it, or just accept it as a quirk?
Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you!
