Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Earlier today around 2pm, we were playing with our kitten, Noodles. He is a crazy active cat, and he was jumping after the string doing backflips and everything else in the air. He jumped after the string as it swung, jumped off the bed, hit the wall (not hard), landed on the floor on all fours, then he started pawing at the wall as if chasing a shadow and immediately went in to a seizure that lasted 2 minutes. It was awful, and scary and it completely freaked me out.

We took him to the vet IMMEDIATELY, he's still there under observation by my choice because we were supposed to take him home, and he was shivering, and the vet is unable to tell me what is wrong with him.

He's 5 months old, yesterday we took him to the vet where he received a booster and a rabies shot. This happened at 9:00am on Saturday. Our vet does not believe there to be any correlation between the booster/rabies vaccination and the seizure.

She ran a slew of blood tests and all she told me from that is that his "Urea" was a little low, but she said she didn't see it as a concern, and his "Red Blood Cell Count" was a little high at 41, but she it was probably due to dehydration.

Can a cat have a seizure if it is dehydrated? Would it be likely that the vaccinations could have caused it? Is it possible he was just exercising too much (we played with him for a good 29 minutes of nonstop jumping and running)?

I'm just unsettled because she said the blood tests didn't really turn up anything that unusuall, and she said he seemed to be acting normal, just really tired and stressed. I don't know what to do. I'm so terrified that it will happen again, it was a terrible terrible thing to witness and we were so helpless to be able to do anything for him, and what happens if it occurs again when we're not home? I'm so scared

I'm sorry to read about your kitten having a seizure. Vets will tell you seizures/epilepsy in cats is rare, however, we personally have three epileptic cats and two others with seizure disorders (and a 14 year old epileptic dog) and I am a member of yahoo's feline epilepsy group. We stand at 600+ members and are growing every day, so seems to me that it isn't as rare as we are lead to believe.

Seizures can be caused by many different things - and yes the first time you witness one, it can be very terrifying. Do try very hard to stay calm should it happen again as your stress will only make it harder on your little one as she picks up your stress and fear.

Seizures can be caused by items in the home - chemicals, cleaning solvents, plants. They can also be caused by overexursion, especially if there is an undiagnosed heart problem. Other things that are rare are high blood pressure (especially in a kit so young), liver shunts, brain tumors.

If you are not a regular member of yahoo groups, I urge you to join and then join the feline epilepsy yahoo group. It is a great group of individuals all with cats who have seizures or epilepsy. The moderator is studying to be a vet and is a fantastic help with suggestions for tests to have run and understanding the tests and medications prescribed.

The thing to realize - most all cats can live long and healthy lives with a seizure disorder or epilepsy. Medications, most often, phenobarbitol help to control the seizures - if it is epilepsy you can't 'cure' it, but you can control it. Like I said, we have several seizure/epilepsy cats - all over four years old who have been controlled with phenobarb. Our dog has been an epileptic from the first night we rescued her from the middle of a busy highway and she had a seizure that night.

Please join the epilepsy group, post your story and let the group welcome you and help to calm your fears. Our moderator will help you with the tests to have run and medication doses.

Stay calm. /mari

Hi and thank you for your suggestion. I think I may join the yahoo groups once I figure it all out, I would like to know more about this type of thing.

During the week, we took Noodles to see our own vet (instead of the emergency vet), and he said that he thought the seizure could possibly be caused by the vaccinations the cat had had the day before, or from the cat hitting his head when he jumped in to the wall while playing. The vet seems to think that it's a one time thing since blood tests and all other test came back normal. If it happens again, he's a good vet and he's told us about our options in treating the seizures. So far so good though, I really appreciate your posting.

Poor Noodles. He's back to his nuts little self. I hope it never happens again, but at least this time we'll know what to do.

It may be a one time event or it may come back. You are doing the right thing in working closely with your vet. If it does come back, it can be treated long term. I know many that treat cats/dogs with anti-seizure meds (Phenobarbitol) and have great long-term results. You don't know at this point if it is a one time event or recurring. Hopefully your vet can narrow down, otherwise, you'll have to wait and see. Which will be tough, but may be easier knowing it is treatable if it does come back.
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Tammy
Stanley and Pookey