Mary Allen
Like humans, cats can also suffer from epilepsy. You can find out here what causes convulsive seizures, what symptoms they are associated with, and how they are treated.
What Exactly is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy in cats, like in humans, is also a disease in which the functions of the nerve tracts in the brain are temporarily disturbed. This causes seizures and convulsions that subside after a few seconds or minutes but may return.
What Causes Epilepsy in Cats?
During an epileptic seizure in a cat, nerve cell activity changes. Why is that? There are a number of possible causes of epilepsy in cats.
Firstly, epilepsy can be congenital in animals. The disease is then usually chronic, cannot be cured, and cannot be attributed to external circumstances or other underlying diseases. We are then talking about primary epilepsy.
On the other hand, changes in the brain caused by tumors, inflammation, or injuries can also play a role. However, epilepsy as a result of poisoning is also conceivable. In this case, one speaks of secondary epilepsy.
Cat Has Epilepsy: What are the Symptoms?
Before the cat has an epileptic seizure, you may notice some abnormalities in its behavior. She may seem restless or snuggle up. If a seizure occurs, the animal falls, stretches out its paws, is unconscious, and makes convulsive, uncontrolled movements.
Many animals make running movements with their paws, salivate and defecate or urinate during the attack. The seizure is usually over after a maximum of one to two minutes.
What To Do When a Cat Has a Seizure
While your cat is having a seizure, it’s important that you remain calm. You can keep your house tiger safe by keeping objects out of reach that could injure her. But don’t touch them or even hold them. Hectic activity and noise can also intensify the seizures and should therefore be avoided as much as possible.
Caution: If the seizure lasts longer, a veterinarian should be called, because the brain could be permanently damaged in this case. The same applies to seizures that follow one another at very short intervals.
How is Epilepsy in Cats Treated?
To make the diagnosis, the vet will ask you various questions and ask you to describe exactly what you have observed, how often and for how long the seizures have occurred, and anything else you noticed. First, he will then try to determine whether poisoning, infection, or other factors have triggered the epileptic seizures.
If it is triggered by a certain factor, the vet uses imaging methods such as computed tomography, takes blood or even spinal fluid from the animal. Based on this, the veterinarian tries to find out the cause and fight it.
If, on the other hand, he cannot find any causes for the seizures and the epileptic seizures occur more frequently, it is most likely primary epilepsy that cannot be cured, but the symptoms of which can be alleviated by veterinary treatment – such as medication.
Treatment of Cats With Primary Epilepsy
If the epileptic seizures are severe and frequent, the vet will likely suggest treatment with medications to relieve the symptoms.
The type and dosage will depend on the cat and the severity of its seizures. It may take a while to properly adjust the medication that will be administered daily from then on.