Cat Losing Weight Having Seizures

Have you ever wondered if cats can have seizures? Do you have cats and want to be prepared in case they ever have one?

Cats can have seizures. Just like with humans, seizures may be a health problem all their own or they may be a symptom of another health problem.

There are two categories of cat seizures: intracranial and extracranial. Intracranial seizures are seizures that are caused by something inside the skull. Extracranial seizures are caused by something outside the skull.

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Your vet can help you determine the cause of a seizure. The treatment will depend on the cause. Some seizures are treatable while others are not.

Yes, epilepsy can be a cause of seizures in cats. Epilepsy in cats is rare, but can be diagnosed by your vet.

Seizures may be so quick you don’t even notice it. However, if they last more than a few minutes contact your vet immediately. If unable to contact your vet, find the nearest animal hospital or emergency vet. A seizure that lasts more than three minutes is a medical emergency.

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Partial seizures may lead to odd behavior such as sudden tail chasing or staring blankly at a wall. This is a rare symptom.

Aggressive cats may bite you during a seizure. Cats may also accidentally bite you if your hand gets near their mouth during convulsions.

After a seizure, your cat may act differently. Seizures can temporarily or permanently change a cat’s behavior and/or personality. This is known as the post-ictal period.

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Seizures are almost always a symptom of something else. If your cat has a seizure, call your vet immediately. They can help you determine the cause and any possible treatments.

There are many other illnesses that can lead to the development of seizures in pets. If your cat is having a seizure, contact your vet or a nearby vet hospital. They can help you figure out what is wrong and how to treat it.

Treatment for seizures will depend on the cause. If your cat has epilepsy, then your vet can prescribe medication for them. Different medicines or treatments will be prescribed for different causes. Some treat the seizures; some treat the cause.

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If your cat is having seizures, always check in with your vet. Even if it is not a medical emergency, a seizure can be a symptom of an underlying medical problem.A seizure is defined as a sudden, controlled electrical disturbance in the brain that can lead to behavioral changes and a change in levels of consciousness. Seizures of any kind are frightening to watch, especially when they happen to our feline friends. In general, seizures themselves are usually not life-threatening unless they are violent or prolonged.

Seizures can occur for many reasons in cats. They can either be intracranial, meaning they’re caused by factors inside the brain, or extracranial, meaning they’re caused by factors outside of the brain.

Most seizures are symptoms of an underlying condition inside or outside the brain. Epilepsy, for example, is a disorder of the brain that causes repeated seizures from an unknown cause when there’s no obvious brain injury.

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Unlike the human and canine worlds, epilepsy is a rare condition in cats. That’s why it’s important to investigate all possible causes of seizure activity in cats to appropriately treat them before simply arriving at a diagnosis of epilepsy. 

Many people who are unfamiliar with seizures probably picture full-body shaking, foaming at the mouth, and loss of consciousness. Although this is common in cats, seizures can also exhibit different symptoms, and not all of them are obvious or violent. From most common to least, the types of seizures in cats include:

Focal Seizures/Partial Motor Seizures: These types of seizures are the most common in cats and only affect a focused part of the brain, leading to localized body effects, depending on which part of the brain is affected. There is usually no loss of consciousness, although the cat may seem dazed. These are usually nonviolent seizures that can be missed by pet parents as the signs are usually subtle—ear flicking and whisker, mouth, and eye twitching.

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Generalized Seizures/Grand Mal Seizures: This type of seizure leads to a loss of consciousness and total body function, causing tonic-clonic movements or convulsions. The entire body is affected since a larger area of the brain is often affected. Muscles in the body will move involuntarily and often drastically. Often, cats will clench their mouth, drool, urinate, or defecate during the seizure due to loss of normal body function.

Psychomotor Seizures/Complex Partial Seizures: These types of seizures cause involuntary strange behaviors, including growling, violent chewing at the tail or skin, loud vocalization, or random racing spurts. These are similar to focal/partial motor seizures and are even sometimes considered a specific type of these seizures, as they do not affect consciousness. A well-known example of a psychomotor seizure is a “fly-biting” seizure because a cat will abruptly start chomping their mouth at the air as if trying to catch flies.

The age when seizures start, seizure type, and frequency are considered patterns. Determining the type of seizure pattern can help determine diagnoses and treatments to administer.

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Pre-ictal (before the seizure): This phase can start up to a few hours before a seizure occurs. Often, pet parents note a change in behavior, which can be sudden lethargy, dullness, or hyperactivity. Some cats will hide during this phase, while others will seek attention from their family. This time is an “aura” leading up to loss of consciousness that can include brain fog, sleepiness, and confusion.

Ictal (during the seizure): In this phase, the brain loses control over body function and the cat loses awareness. Usually the cat will have full-body convulsions, chewing gum fits (chewing randomly) with drooling or foaming at the mouth, and loss of bowel and bladder control. Most often this phase does not last longer than 30-60 seconds, but it can last longer in some cats.

Post-ictal (after the seizure): This is the time after convulsions stop. It can last from a few hours up to 48 hours while the cat regains full awareness and body function. Pet parents may notice lethargy, dullness, hunger, thirst, vomiting, and often attention-seeking behavior.

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Unfortunately, focal seizures and psychomotor seizures do not have a pre- or post-ictal phase. They can come on quickly and seemingly out of nowhere, and cats can recover just as quickly, as if nothing ever happened. Often, the ictal phase of these seizures involves facial twitching, head bobbing, leg paddling (usually just one or two legs are affected), snapping the mouth, meowing, growling, hissing, circling persistently, or random running.

The most common type are grand mal seizures that occur only one time and are caused by toxin ingestion, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), or loud noise or bright light stimuli.

Toxins that can cause seizures in cats include ethylene glycol (antifreeze), rodenticide (rat poison—specifically neurotoxic types), and medication overdoses such as antihistamines or certain behavior-modification medications.

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Permethrin toxicity is often mistaken for seizures, as it can lead to severe muscle twitches. This toxicity is most often caused by inappropriate flea/tick preventative application—either too high a dose or using dog flea or tick medication on a cat. Permethrins are often used in dog preventative products because they are not toxic to dogs at appropriate levels, but even small amounts can be catastrophic in cats. Most cats with this toxicity will not respond to anti-convulsant medication but will respond to muscle relaxers and sedatives. 

Hypoglycemia is often seen in kittens that are malnourished, are not eating well, are not being fed appropriate calories, or have a lot of internal parasites. Hypoglycemia is also seen in any age cat that is overdosed on insulin therapy. Ask your vet about low blood sugar and insulin therapy if your cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.  

Loud noises and bright lights are known to cause seizures in cats. We don’t fully understand why high-pitched noises and certain lights can cause these seizures.

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Multiple seizures can be caused by epilepsy or metabolic disease such as liver disease, kidney disease, or thyroid disease. Recurrent seizures are seen most frequently in cats over the age of 6 due to underlying diseases, though epilepsy is often diagnosed between the ages of 1 and 3.

Epilepsy is either genetic (which is rare in cats) or caused by abnormal brain development, brain trauma, infectious disease, or cancer. Sometimes, no cause is found after a multitude of testing, and in this case, the seizure disorder is called idiopathic epilepsy. This is very uncommon in cats.

Intracranial disease (disease within or around the brain) is a common cause of seizures in cats. Inflammation around the brain (called meningitis or encephalitis) caused by infections such as Cryptococcus, Toxoplasmosis, feline infectious peritonitis, or immune-mediated causes can lead to seizures.

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Vascular events or strokes are possible but less common in cats than dogs. These are often caused by medical conditions such as hyperthyroidism, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and kidney failure. A secondary effect of these conditions is hypertension, which can lead to vascular events.

Brain tumors are a common cause of seizures in cats older than 10 years old. Often these tumors are benign and slow-growing