During the early hours of this morning, my cat (who's about 8 years old) woke me up on three separate occasions. Every time she appeared to be "fitting", almost like an epileptic seizure? Her eyes were flickering and she was gasping. It lasted a few minutes. I've never her seen her do that before and she looked worried. It's completely different behaviour to when a cat wretches and convulses as it tries to vomit. Any thoughts on what could be wrong?

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SELKCAH NORWEGIAN FOREST CATS
www.selkcahcats.co.uk

i'd take her to the vets for a thourgh check up.

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You never own a cat unless the cat owns you!

One of my cats did this a couple of years ago, it was really scary. She was alright but the vet said that cats can sometimes do this for no apparent reason. Better to get puss checked out though!

Hi not very long ago my old cat was hit by a car,this left him with swelling on the brain,he kept having convulsions,which got quite bad and left him very disorionated and grumpy,unfortunatly he had to be pts.the vet put him on diazapam but he got so aggresive that i found it very hard to administer them.Is it possible that he could have been hit by a car?check to see if his claws are frayed/scuffed as this is a good sign.

Hi AcrophillaAny updates on your puss yet? hope you took her to the vets and then you'll be better equipped to deal with an exact problem rather than trying to self diagnose and driving yourself mental at the same time and misdiagnosing your cat-as you'll find most symptoms can fit into any ailment when your worriedHope it's nothing to serious and please let us know what happens

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Dogs have owners, Cats have slaves

Burnthwaites Siamese

I don't think she's been hit by a car, her claws and paws are fine and she's acting normally now. I've actually only looked after for 5 months, before that she lived in a cruel house where she was mistreated terribly. It's taken all this time to build up the trust; she no longer cowers under tables and she now purrs and is getting used to being held. She's no longer angry and does not lash out anymore. I had no choice about taking her on; around Christmas she sat on my doorstep and refused to budge. I hope her previous owners have not caused her any "brain damage". I will explain all this to the vet and keep you posted!

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SELKCAH NORWEGIAN FOREST CATS
www.selkcahcats.co.uk

Found this vet site quote about fits, don't know whether it will help you or not........

Fits
Fitting is fairly uncommon in cats. Potential causes are poisoning, brain tumours, severe liver or kidney disease and post-viral inflammation in the brain. A fit can be recognised by sudden uncontrolled spasmodic movements, often with chomping of the jaw and muscle twitches across the head and neck. The cat will often fall onto its side and will not be aware of its surroundings. Most fits only last a few minutes although afterwards your cat will be drowsy and disorientated for an hour or two.

If your cat is having a fit don’t try to restrain it – you make the fit worse and could get bitten or scratched badly. Try to move or pad any furniture or hard objects on which the cat could hurt itself. Keep the room dark and quiet to reduce further stimulation.


If the fit only lasts a few minutes and the cat then appears normal, keep it inside, quiet and arrange a check up at the vets. If the fit lasts more than 10 minutes or the cat keeps having attacks, it should be seen as an emergency.

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Thanks for all your comments.... fortunately my cat hasn't fitted since and seems fine. I took her to a different vet - an old experienced vet (who likes cats) - and he said that he has occasionally come across cats that fit but, in his experience, these episodes seem to be "one-offs" or very infrequent. So his advice was to do nothing unless the fitting becomes more frequent, in which case she needs to have tablets.