Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Fits in an elderly cat

3 replies

Booooks · Yesterday 02:27

Over the past year I've seen my 19 year cat old have a fit several times. She's been to the vet, who basically said that she's too old for any tests. So I'm wondering whether anyone's had anything similar with their cat.

The fits are pretty brutal - going stiff, growling, falling over, jerking or scrabbling, foaming at the mouth, slowly recovering, but remaining shocked for a while and weak for longer.

I've come to realise that the fits are set off by humans, on a couple of occasions by me when I jerked cat food out of a sachet into the cat bowl, and recently when someone struggled to get some paracetamol out of the metal packet. I sometimes see the cat stiffening, and stop what I'm doing so that she doesn't go farther and have a fit. Anything resembling a jerky movement sets her off.

I'm curious as to what may be causing this.

She was ill recently, and I thought she was probably reaching the end of her life, but she recovered and is generally happy (though getting frail) and has a good appetite. But I'm sure that a few fits in a succession would be too much for her to take.

OP posts:
Gardenertrouble · Yesterday 05:16

My elderly cat was in a identical situation.

She would fit at an unexpected noise, such as the opening of a crisp packet. The fits looked awful and I was scared it would happen when, for example, she was at the top of the stairs.

Our vet prescribed a tiny dose of a barbiturate which I crushed to powder and gave to her in a lick-e-lix each day.

The fits stopped immediately and she never had another. She had kidney and thyroid problems, as do most elderly cats, and our vet advised not putting her through tests and treatment for that.

She lived happily to the age of 23.

Booooks · Yesterday 22:33

@Gardenertrouble That's very interesting. Did the vet tell you what caused it? Do you happen to have a record of the barbiturate and the dose? Your vet is clearly much better than ours is - they gave me no useful information or suggestions at all.

OP posts:
Gardenertrouble · Today 01:06

Yes, he is a great vet.
He didn't say what caused it, but whilst looking online for which drug it was, I came across something called FARS which sounds like what my cat had.

I'm fairly certain it was Phenobarbitol. I'm sorry, I don't recall the dose, but it was a tiny tablet which I had to cut in half and give half in the morning and half in the evening. I expect she was given the lowest dose to start with, but she never needed to increase it.

Before her breakfast, I used to crush it to a powder between two teaspoons, then squeeze out half a tube of lick-e-lix on to a dish, then the powder, then the other half of the Lick-e-lix on top. It always disappeared straight away. Same in the evening. It was a tie, having to be there at the right time twice a day, but she was worth it.

It had the added advantage of being a very cheap drug, I think we paid about £13 every month or two. We did have to take her for regular visits every 3 months or so, but no blood tests needed, probably because she was already elderly so it was really a form of palliative care.

It seemed like magic to me and certainly gave her a few extra years that I'm sure she wouldn't have had without it.

Wishing you and your furry friend all the best.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page