"Kittygalore" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello! I've observed 2 weird behaviors on the part of 2 of my 3 cats
recently and have been researching seizures on the Net to compare and
contrast. Just wondering if anybody else has seen similar:
1. My 15 year old cat with chronic renal failure jumped up on my desk
yesterday while I was working. Then she stood there, looking dazed,
unresponsive to her name, one paw held in the air as if reaching for
something; she took a stumbling step sideways and lifted the other paw;
turned and did this again. I thought she was dying and took her into my
arms. In a minute or two she was clearly back to normal. She takes
medicine for hyperthyroidism, Calcitriol too, and also I give her sub-Q
fluids twice a week. I thought perhaps dehydration or weird blood
levels, momentarily, of medications might just have made her woozy

Shortly after we began treating our cat for hypethyroid that had gone
undiagnosed for a while, she began having scary little fits kind of like
this. What she did was kind of list to one side and begin crawling in
a circle, and she would not respond to her name.

My vet said "maybe she is having little fainting spells." He thought
she had arrythmia because, as you probably know, hyperT causes
a very fast heart rate, that, over time may cause the heart to become
unstable. He suggested putting her on Propanolol--a beta blocker--
to stabilize her heart rate.

As long as we keep her on this, she has NO fits. I tried to take
her off it once and she immediately had one. I really think you
ought to bring this up to your vet. You too, h+ch. The vet who
treated her is Dr. Stephen Driscoll at Six Forks Animal Hospital
in Raleigh, NC. (919.847-5854

We also had an ultrasound of her heart to make sure there was
no structural damage. The theory is, she had an elevated heart
rate long enough for it to cause an unstable heart rate. She was
10 when diagnosed with hyperT, 11 when she started having fits,
and she is 12 now.

It was our fault that she was undiagnosed for so long. We took her
for shots and such, but missed the signs of hyperT--yowling, being
hyper vigilant--because we thought it was just her very funny
personality. (Plus, she was obese and hyperT cats are usually
skinny. The vet once noted her fast heart rate but because she
was so fat (not our fault! We did not do that to her!) he thought
she just had white coat anxiety.