epileptic cat

MissGolightly

hi

if you have a look through my previous posts here, i've inherited a 5 month old kitten due to his previous owner passing away. have since come to discover that cat is epileptic (by process of elimination of other issues with vet)

what i want to ask is, does anyone else have an epileptic cat, and what your experience of the illness is? what advise do you wish you had been given when your cat was diagnosed? is there anything practically i should consider?

i'm thinking i'm not going to let the cat out, as we can never be sure he won't have another fit, and i could never forgive myself if anything happened. he's not been out yet anyway, as his previous owner hadn't had him vaccinated/neutered, so how can he miss what he doesn't know? i'm also thinking though, that i would have him on a harness of some description, if we were to sit in the garden in the summer, he might enjoy being out... or is that just crazy cat lady type thinking :rotfl:

Charlie1986

I don't have a cat with epilepsy but I do have a dog with epilepsy. It will take some time to get the medication right for your cat to control the epilepsy and it may need adjusting from time to time.
Make sure you know what to do if your cat does have a fit and you are there. Always time how long the fit lasts and keep a diary of them, including the weather conditions or anything that might trigger a fit (one of my dogs triggers was when he played with a kong toy). Also keep your vets number and emergency vets number to hand incase your cat takes a while to come around from a fit.
Don't be afraid to ask your vet any questions you might have, i've phoned mine plenty of times with what might seem silly questions

tazzy2010_2

Hi there one of my cats has epilepsy too! We had 3 of them from the same litter from 4 months. All of our kittens had had cat flu when before we got them and our vet said that if mummy cat had cat flu when pregnant it may have effected the developing brain of our cat. He also has balance/ sight problems. He starting having fits at about 6 months and then ended up having a fit at about once every two weeks. The vet prescribed epilin which is very cheap (think about £12 for 2 months) and the fits have been reduced dramatically. He has only had 1 (that we know of) since June first Following a fit he is always disoriantated and confused but we still let him outdoors (although he won't go out in the cold ) and interestingly he only has fits when drifting off to sleep so luckily he is in a comfy place without many dangers. Otherwise he is a very lovely and affectionate cat

MissGolightly

that's great tazzy, i wasn't sure if it would be safe to let him outside, but all his fits have been when he was sleeping, or just about to doze off, so you're probably right that it'll be fine to let him out. although i might start him when the weather gets a bit better!

bean is on phenobarbitol, as he's still only little it's a low dose, working out at £3 a month, and he hasn't had a fit (yet) today, so that's the longest he's gone since his first one (6 days, here's to 6 more!)

he once had one in his bed (which is actually his solid plastic travel box that he has poached my fleece for) and it is possibly the most disturbing sound i have ever woken up to, but hopefully he will be able to live a normal feline life from here on in!

pigeonpie

Sorry I don't have the link to post, but there is a yahoo group (mostly american: very useful advice) for owners of epileptic cats.
I got tons of info from both it and the CRF group in the past. Their info can be way ahead of UK vets and fellow owners will answer a lot of your questions and anxieties. HTH

Mankysteve

We had a ginger tom who started having fits. In the end unfortunately we had to have him pts but his fits were age related.

We kept his let him outside as usally and he never came to any harm.