My Cat Had a Seizure!

Question

I have a male cat named Opie who is 6 years old weighs 16lbs, fixed and strictly an indoor cat. We have no other pets or house plants. Today my husband and I awoke to what sounded like a violent thrashing. We actually thought someone was breaking into our house! When we stepped outside our bedroom we saw Opie laying on his side, twitching and excessive drool coming out of his mouth. In our 4 years of owning him we have NEVER witnessed him having a seizure or pretty much any other health problems really. We petted him and calmed him down and within a few minutes he was back to normal 100%. He even began playing around with his cat nip toys. When he made a bowel movement about 10 minutes later he had some stuck to his fur and when I wiped I noticed blood.

Naturally I took him right to the vet were they examined his stool sample and ran a blood test. Everything came back normal except he had elevated liver enzymes at 145 (vet said cats should be 25-30). The vet just said to keep an eye on him and if everything goes back to normal to just get him retested in a month. Also Opie had a behavioral change at the vet. Normally he is calm, but this time he was panting heavily and howling (too much stress perhaps?)

He does throw up occasionally (once or twice a month if even that) and I know he likes to eat rubber bands as well on the very rare occasions he gets a hold of one. Also I am sad to say that my husband and I have been working overtime a lot this past month and have been somewhat neglectful of his litter box. Could he have become ill from dirty litter?

My husband and I are just so stressed out and just want to know if anyone had anything similar with their cats?

Thanks!

gothique · Answer

Well we thought everything was going to be ok, but Opie had another seizure early this morning. He jumped on the bed and started running around and then fell off the bed. He was twitching, but it was strange because it looked like he was trying to fight it off or run away from it because he kept getting up and falling over. The incident lasted about 2 minutes this time. Afterwords he was drooling and meowing for about a minute and then everything just went back to normal. He displays completely normal behavior other than the seizures. His appetite is strong, he has normal bowel movements and he is playful. 

The only thing my husband and I could come up with is that he just bought home some trout to fillet. While there where no fish guts in the plastic bag he threw away, but it did have water and I guess some fish residue. When my husband came home one night the trash was torn apart from Opie. This happened a few days before his seizure.

I have an appointment with my vet tomorrow so we'll have to wait and see what happens there :(

PrettyKitty1 · Answer

aw, poor kitty. I hope you come back with updates. We'd like to know how he is doing. And please,don't let this unresolved. I'm sure Opie does have a problem. Seizures are always a sign of something very wrong.

zodiacqueen · Answer

Hi, I've had a cat that had a seizure before-it was kidney disease related.  I've also heard that liver problems can also cause seizures, too.  Reading through your post my first thoughts were either kidney or liver issues-and sure enough, you mentioned elevated liver enzymes.  What I would personally do is get Opie checked out to ivestigate what's going on with the liver, and check to see if he's diabetic.  Have you noticed any other symptoms-personality change, eating habits, litter box habbits???  Maybe your vet can offer some more suggestions.  

Please keep us posted-I'm sending Opie lots of well wishes!

SassyLassie · Answer

Maybe your poor kitty ate some kind of bug like a spider and it affected him. His liver probably had to work "overtime" to clear out the toxins and before it could get them all out, some of the chemicals could have reached the brain, thus, causing the abnormal behavior. Too much stress could sure cause the panting and howling too, that, mixed with whatever he did or ate.

I don't think dirty litter could cause this, but, hard to say.

How is he today? Please keep us posted.