Cat Seizures?

Question

Our little 2 year old cat has started seizing recently. She started after being spayed (we do not know if this coincidental or not).

The vets, in true form, are keen to have her put on medication to treat epilepsy.

Does anyone know of cats that have experienced such post-op complications or who are indeed epileptic?

Does anyone have any alternative advice?

Answer 1

Your vet should have put kitty on Pheobarbitol. I had a cat that was epileptic, but it did not manifest itself until she took a tumble off the stairs of my second floor apartment. She of course survived the fall, but the result was the siezures.

I have never heard of post-op epilepsy. Is it possible kitty took a fall from somewhere?

Answer 2

I am not sure that I can give you answers that you look for but I am personally Epileptic and have a dog that I adopted from the vet clinic where I worked when he was only a year old that began having seizures shortly after he came to live here.

We also have an altered FDSH that has had seizures before.

Any seizure of unknown origin is considered "Epilepsey".

Here is a good article that you may want to read that will offer you much insight into your pets condition.

http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/seizur...

It is really hard to blame seizure disorders on any one thing, especially if the animal begins to have them after a certain age and no exact medical condition such as a brain tumor can be diagnosed.  Every living thing is prone to seizure activity, it's just that some beings seem to have a lower threshold for or are more prone to seizures.

Stress can cause seizures, being outside in the heat can cause seizures, a genetic heart defect where the heart doesn't always pump blood ot the brain properly can trigger seizures.  Brain tumors, scarring on the brain, chemical/hormone imbalances.  Unless you have the money to take your cat to a specialist, it is normal for your vet to begin treatment by putting your pet on an anti-convulsant medication (around here it's Phenobarbitol for the pets) which if given as instructed by the vet will often keep the pets seizures under control.

Was your cat treated with Advantage or Frontline after it arrived home from it's surgery?  The cat that we have which seized is suspected to have had an allergic reaction to the Advantage that we applied to her.  If you read the label for the Advantage product, (since that is the one we use) it does indicate that seizures have been reported in some anaimals as they are allergic to the chemicals in the product.

Oh-No spent two days at the vet and was given Phenobarbitol for a week to 10 days after coming home.  We have never even attempted to put anything on her since for fleas.  She's been fine.

But our dog continues to require daily medicine for his seizures.  Over the years I have come to notice that his most likely time too seize is when he is stressed (visitors, fireworks going off outside); if he goes out for too long and gets too hot.  We also watch him carefully after we apply Advantage to him monthly as well as give him his heartworm pill.

There is no easy asnwer except that if your vet perscribed medication for your cat and diagnosed Epilepsey then he's not blowing smoke in your face.

Human Epilpesey is far behind what is known where animals are concerned and it has been determined that each time an animal has a seizure brain cells are killed; which makes it all the more important that you keep your pets seizures as under control as possible.

Phenobarbitol is a good drug of choice, it is metabolized through the liver (as are many of the anti-convulsants) so it is important that your vet do a liver/kideney function test at least once per year as long as your cat remains on the drug.  This is also the main way that the vet will have of determining if the medications levels are up to a theraputic level in your cats bloodstream.

I hope this helps.  If you wish to contact me to discuss anything further please free.  Your vet is looking out for what is best for your cat.  While it may not be a condition that even in the human world can have a definitive "cause", it is real none the less and can be very serious and is nothing to dismiss.