My sons cat has had seizures
 

My sons cat splodge who is only around 2 years old has had 2 seizures in a few days, he had eaten some Easter Lilly which is highly toxic to cats :( fortunately blood test showed no kidney damage, so he's very lucky, unfortunately though once brain is damaged he will most likely have more seizures, my son and his girlfriend are so upset, I know there have been some threads regarding cat and dog owners who suffer with seizures :( x

Oh no, that's very upsetting for them. I did know about lilies and cats don't mix well, I do hope he recovers :-( fingers and everything else crossed :D

My dog has seizures, she ate slug pellets when she was a year old but the seizures didn't become an issue until she was about 10

They can be controlled by meds, but that is expensive and can damage organs over time

Poor Splodge. :(
Thank goodness he didn't have any kidney damage. Hopefully he'll be lucky and won't experience many seizures in the future.

Thankyou everyone, we hope he doesn't keep having them but chances are he will now :(

Merlin I remember the thread now, buzz ate slug pellets and now has seizures, same damage for splodge, they have got to keep him seperate from their other cat for the time being while he is on medication, they need to check if he is weezing and pooing ok,

he ate a little steamed fished today so that's a good thing x

When Buzz was young and had very bad memory problems I fed her cod liver oil, and that really helped with her memory, I think it helped repair the brain a bit.
Not sure if it will help with seizures but you never know

Worth a try merlin, do you still give buzz cod liver oil? How often does she have seizures? X

Poor Splodge, my dog has seizures too. As Kelly says, it's frightening to start, but it does get more normal and easier to deal with x

Oh Stells that's awful, im so sorry to hear that, that must have been very heartbreaking for you :(

if splodge has another seizure they are to take him back to vets for further tests, his bloods showed a very high temperature and no toxicity, if his kidneys were damaged by the lilly he nibbled on the vet said he would have been dead by now :( so we are hoping its not something else as well x

My dog Jack has had siezures for 4 years now, he takes 2 different types of tablets a day which totals 5 tablets. He has to have 6 monthly vet appointments to check the effect these tablets are having on his organ function, without the checks they cannot prescribe the meds.
All of this comes at a huge cost and this is something which has left us very short of money, we can no longer have holidays, partly due to cost and partly due to not being able to get anyone to care for him as the meds must be given at set times.
Basically what I am trying to warn you is to think carefully about going down the meds route, as heartbreaking as it is if I was put in this position again I would have my pet PTS :( once you have commited to meds at what point do you say we cant afford to keep you alive any more?
It is an awful situation to be in and i feel for your son but they need to make a choice now and not get swept along in emotional turmoil as we did.

It must be horrible to see them going through a seizure Becci, if my dog had a seizure for the first time I would have been out of my mind and so distressed, dee (my sons girlfriend) said The second seizure he had was a lot worse than the first one, and he was looking at her whilst having it as if to say "please help me" and that must have been so awful, they have been through an awful time with my sons illness over Christmas and now this :(

I suppose you do get used to seeing them have seizures, if you know it doesnt harm them, and its something that can be controlled, we will have to see what happens.

Thankyou all again for your kind words of support, I really appreciate it x

Alison that's what I'm concerned about too, my son doesn't earn a great deal and dee is an at home mother, they can't really afford high vet bills, and I think that's stressing them out as well, they paid £234 at the vets and are now skint until payday, its a horrible position to be in, I can help them out but I now only earn £250 a week for a 37 hour a week job at the council, and just about afford my own bills, I am worried for them, and the pressure on my son financially, we will see how it goes with splodge and what the vets say x

The problem is Bev that the vets will just keep working towards saving the cat, they wont think about how much it is going to effect the life of the family involved.
My advise now that they are already treating the cat would be to see if the cat can get well enough to survive this once the poison come out of its system (even if that means the cat still has seisures occasionally) but if they suggest meds just say no, let nature take its course, he may go on for years with just the odd seisure.
It is more difficult to monitor what is happening with a cat than a dog just due to their nature, he may go out and have a seisure at a totally inappropriate time which could cause his death anyway (such as in the middle of crossing a road) this could still happen even if he is on the meds :(

Yes I see what you mean Alison, they are keeping him indoors at the moment with a litter tray, to check for urine and poops, they are coming round for dinner today so will gently approach the subject, although they won't see it that way at the moment, I think they are thinking of keeping him indoors permanently incase he does have anymore, I will talk to them about it today, thankyou for your advice Alison x

Vets bills are extortionate at times. Most vets will allow you to start a payment scheme if you ask though, to make expensive treatment a little more manageable.

Think we stopped giving her the cod liver oil when she was about 5...

She has had one seizure in the last year (that we are aware of) and it was not bad at all, but she is on medication now, just one pill twice a day but costs £40 every 50 days so its not a cheap option.

Before the meds she was having a grad mal approximately once a month, but when one lasted more than 5 minutes the vet and I decided it was time for meds... But petit mal seizures where a happening several times a day...

Hopefully splodge will be ok

Oh merl, so the meds do help, one once in a while isn't too bad, I think they would cope with that, but ofcourse it depends how often he has them, and Emma yes vet bills are expensive, I've spent a lot of money over the years at vets x

Yes once every few months is just fine, so long as they are under 5 minutes.

Grand mal are easy to spot, and scary to watch, petit mal can be difficult to spot they only tend to last a few seconds but aren't so bad as grand mal. Petit mal are vacant spell seizures, you could be doing something and she would just stop and stare at nothing for a bit...

Buzz also has a twitch, the meds help with that too, but you can tell when she is unsettled as the twitch comes back. She has been twitching today untill Russ wrapped her up in bed!

Oh no, ill aske Dee today about that, I'm sure I've heard them say before that splodge had been staring and looked like he was in another world on the odd occasion, way before the full seizures, but I can't remember, I think the last one he had on Friday lasted for about 5 minutes x

With the petit mal you wont get a response from them if you call them or anything, but aren't meant to be that bad, can be hard to tell as some animals will just stare into space!
Hopefully any seizures will be short and infrequent. He may be ok once the toxins work their way out.

When buzz ate the slug pellets they made here seize, went on for over an hour non stop, then at the vets for 3 days sedated untill they stopped. And it took 10 years for her to have more

Jack is on a high dose of medication and even with that he still has fits approx once a month :(

Merlin, do you have to take Buzz for 6 monthly blood tests?

No, the meds she is on dont require it, its a new medication that is less hard on the organs

What is the name of it please? it seems like it may be worth me asking the vet about it and maybe it would reduce our bills a bit if it was suitable for him.

Its called Pexion, works well for Buzz but my vet did say for there it has been less successful, as will all meds I guess.
Buzz just had horrid side effects to Phenobarbital, was worse than no meds really!

Thanks I will look into it :grin:

Ill remember that merl, its not nice giving pets medication as it is without having side affects too, the poor animals :( x

Well it looks like splodge has epilepsy, he has been fine for a couple of weeks after the 2 bad fits and then had another bad fit yesterday, fortunately ryan and dee were there and they placed cushions around him so he couldnt hurt himself, dee was talking to him while he went through it, their other cat secky was sniffing him all over, he does have the foaming of the mouth and wetting himself, poor splodge. They weren't upset like the had been when they first saw it, they have read lots of information and watched videos, and are coming to terms with it.

he has been eating, drinking fine, but has lost a little weight, my son said he is a right git when he is naughty haha, so he is fine other than the epilepsy x

That's a shame Bev, poor Splodge. It sounds as if your son and his partner have prepared themselves well to cope with the fits though.

That is a shame Bev!

Oh I'm sorry to hear that Bev, hopefully will they be able to control it with medication ?

Thankyou ladies, his fits are the full grand mal seizures, he digs his claws in the carpet and his body really whacks about the floor, salivates and foams at the mouth, wets himself and when it's all over he is very affectionate, every time he has had them its always been in their bedroom under their bed, so we think when he feels one coming on he goes under their bed.

I think with the medication we will see how many he has over the next few weeks (dee now keeps him indoors permanently, he was spending more time indoors then out anyway we think he feels more secure indoors) if he has them regularly then we will talk to the vet about medication x

Poor Splodge. Grand mal seizures are just awful and he must feel very shaky and have a sore head afterwards. I hope they won't come too often for him. x

I know Buzz always needs lots of cuddles after a grand mal, think they do need a good but of comforting after, must be so scary for them

Thanks again ladies, I will tell Ryan and dee about the covering of the head stells to try and make him feel more relaxed if possible, they are keeping a diary of when it happens, but that's only the ones they do see, he could be having them when they are out, and they will keep an eye on his weight as well, thankyou for the advice xxx

Thats a shame Bev :(

My vet said to make the room dark if possible and not to talk to Jack, just quietly observe that he is ok and make sure he is safe.

He once bumped into the ironing board which was leaned against the wall, it fell over and just missed our old dog who was in her bed! we have had to intervene a few times to get him out of weird places, he sometimes tries to get between the wall and the freezer which is a very tight squeeze!

I let Jack out once just after a seizure whilst i cleaned up his puddle, he jumped over our wall and went missing in the village it was terrifying, he didnt know what he was doing :(

That is so sad Kelly, they can't tell us how they are feeling and they don't understand what's going on which is very stressful for them x

Oh Alison, as I said to Kelly they don't understand what's going on and it must really stress and freak them out, and it must have been so terrifying for him, it makes me feel sad when these animals suffer things like this that they don't understand :( x

I'm sorry to hear about the poor wee cat.

My Zara, a black DLH, is epileptic too. She has one 15mg dose of phenobarbital a day and it stops all seizures, thank goodness. If we miss a dose, she has petit mal ones, and freaks out a bit in between them. You can see a huge difference in her behaviour: she sort of has a mad few seconds, gets scratchy and irritable with people, freezes, and then goes on with her day. Which basically means: don't miss a dose. Her grand mal seizures have body stiffness mixed with traditional "fitting" episodes, and foaming at the mouth. Like Splodge, she is very affectionate after. Thankfully, it's been a couple of years since she last had a grand mal seizure.

She was diagnosed with epilepsy at around 2 years, and she's just passed her 6th birthday now. :)

I once had a collie who has seizures from the age at 6 months. Not they began quite mild and would be quite quick although it was tricky taking Bess out as I never knew when these seizures would happen. At first they were easy to control but as the years progressed they became longer and more damaging. Although she was on very strong medication and I was advised of the risks ( dogs with epilepsy can become aggressive because of the fear they feel) I did not feel in anyway I could end her life. One night she had a massive seizure and died, in my arms, as a result of a heart attack. X x x x hugs x x x although pets can give so much pleasure and happy memories, their passing can leave a scar on your heart x x x xhugs x x x