Following are selected posts to Holisticat on the subject of seizures. There's a lot of information here, and the posts are arranged in ascending chronological order. If there is a particular word you're looking for, it's probably best to utlize the "Find in Page" function in your edit menu!

Happy hunting :)

Ah, seizures. A subject so near and dear to my heart that I get misty-eyed just thinking about it.

Anyway, they don't know a lot about feline epilepsy. It's suppose to quite rare for a cat to have genetic epilepsy. Most of what I know comes from canine research. If it's true epilepsy, it's the same thing, so I think I'm safe.

There are two types of epilepsy--true genetic or constitional epilepsy (idiopathic or primary) and seizures caused by other factors
(symptomatic or secondary epilepsy) such as poisons, viruses, cancer , etc.

Both types can be indistinguishable, but there are things you can use to narrow it down.

Number 1: idiopathic epilepsy almost always manifests itself between 6 months and 5 years. So, if a first seizure happens and your cat is 10 years old, chances are *something* caused it.

Number 2: Idiopathic epilepsy will nearly always have grand mal seizures. These are the big, fall-on-the-ground seizures that suddenly overwhelm every part of the body at once. If a cat *never* has a grand mal, chances are it's not idiopathic. Petit mals (rare), partial seizures (where only one part of the body convulses), and complex partial seizures (where the animal shows really strange symptoms) are usually associated with symptomatic epilepsy. So, symptomatic epileptics *might* have grand mals, but idiopathic epileptics will almost *definitely* have them.

So, what does this mean? It means that if a cat has idiopathic, true epilepsy, it might be controlled but not really cured. On the other hand, it is also not something that, with the right treatment, will kill a cat. If it is symptomatic, though, the cause must be found and treated, if possible. In idiopathic epilepsy, the seizures *are* the disease, but in symptomatic epilepsy, the seizures are merely the symptom.

So, what do you do? Observe. If a cat has one seizure and never again, but otherwise seems fine, I wouldn't worry. More than one and it's time to get blood tests and all of that to make sure there's no disease, cancer, or poison in the system. If afterward everything checks out, it  might be true epilepsy. If the cat suddenly turns aggressive, though, an MRI to scan the brain for tumors might be warranted.

If it's true epilepsy, the drug of choice in phenobarbitol. They know much less about The seizures themselves aren't really that harmful, but too many of them can cause things like heart failure. A frequency of over one seizure a month probably doesn't need to be treated, as long as the frequency stays the same. Once a month or more needs some sort of treatment. More than one seizure within 24 hours is an emergency and the cat should be taken to a vet ASAP.

I, as many of you know, chose to try treating Hester with homeopathy with mixed success. Another holistic vet I talked to said that he's had about the same success rate with homeopathy as with acupuncture. Right now I'm trying Mary W-T's skullcap extract. I'm doing a month on and a month off. Since Hester's seizures are on and off, it's hard to know how much of a difference anything makes. I'm just hoping she doesn't have another seizure cluster.

Peggy
Hester and Elleander

Hi. Not much time to write today, but I wanted to still report on that problem cat of mine.

Hester had a cluster of three seizures Friday  morning, at 1am, approx. 3 am, and then at 7. During the second seizure she lost bladder control. So, I was up sticking double doses of skullcap and valerian down her throat, then bathing her backside, and changing the sheets. My poor baby was so distraught. Took her to the vet first thing in the moring.

It's obvious that the skullcap isn't working for Hester so I don't know what else to do. Her seizures are arriving more frequently. I still don't want her on drugs continuously, but I think I I've exhausted my holistic options. The only thing left is acupuncture, but from what I've heard, if homeopathy hasn't worked, then acupuncture may not be any more help. So, I told the vet what I wanted to do: I had him prescribe anti-convulsants for Hester. Basically valium and phenobarbitol. When Hester has a seizure I'll just give her half a valium to prevent a cluster. Hopefully that will work and I will never have to give her any more valium or, heaven forbid, the phenobarbitol. If I'm lucky, this way her seizures also won't continue to increase in frequency. If I'm not,
well, I don't want to think about it right now. Hester does so badly on drugs.

If there's anything anyone thinks I can do differently, please let me know. In the meantime, your vibes are much appreciated. Hester was really weird this weekend after her seizures. I'd given her valium when we came back from the vet, and (typical Hester) 8 hours later she still walked around as if the floor were made of ice--just sort of slippingeverywhere. However, she was strangely affectionate, clingy, and vocal the entire weekend. Saturday especially she kept "looking for me", walking around, meowing as if lost, and then running over when I called her name. Sigh. It was really cute but atypical. Silly cat.

Peggy
Hester and Elleander

Oh poor Hester!:(  Loads of vibes heading up the Cattifornia coast for the poor dear.  I can't imagine how much it must scare her (and you of course) when this happens.

U've sure tried every holistic option u could find so at least this way, u can treat her acute symptoms.  Maybe w/ the valium, give her burdock root or dandelion root or milk thistle to strengthen the liver?

Meanwhile, here's something from a human book I found this weekend at a used book store.  It's an ancient book but I really like it.  It's called "The Healing Power of Herbs" by May Bethel .

She recommends the following which we can modify for a kitty:
Food stuff:
1. cut down on starchy foods
2. increase fats (unsaturated)
3. no milk, pork, or refined products

Spinal alignment esp in the upper cervical area.  Doesn't Dr. Penny do some adjustment work on kitties?  Never realized that till I read this that it might just help Hester.

Also, she recommends Glutamic acid.  It's one of the amino acids and found in eggs, meats, cheese, beans, and fish.  "Glutamic acid should neverbe taken alone in an isolated state" (?)

She says "Since epilepsy affects the nervous system, the calmative tea, skullcap, nerve root, valerian and peppermint is good"  In addition, she recommends Blue Vervain either to the above formula or alone as an ongoing treatment.

Hmm..this is interesting.  She sez Ma Huang has been found to be effective in treathing seizures, as well as Eyebright (on empty tummy according to her).

Other single herbs she recommends - blue cohosh, elderberry, black cohosh, and hyssop.

Lots of hugs for Hester from me.

Sandy

Hi, Peggy and all :-)

I've been away from the list for ages, and just caught the tail end of Peggy's situation with Hester, and thought that a couple of things that I've been doing for my Sammy, also epileptic, might add some grist to the mill.

Sammy has been epileptic since rescued as a kitten (probably why he was thrown out into the streets of NYC), and I've had him on a low dosage of phenobarbital (3/4 of 15 mg. tablet, twice daily -- lowest dosage for his body weight) for about the last five years.  His seizures were holding at small clusters of three, every 6-10 weeks until I started adding the flower essence Scleranthus to the cats' essence dosage mixture.  The effect was dramatic; I started this in August of last year, and his next (only one, not three) was around Christmas, and only three seizures since then.

On the advice of Cathy Kinnaird (from the Flower Essence Pharmacy - wonderful place! www2.floweressences.com/a/fepharm)
I dropped some Arnica into his mouth during his last seizure.  He immediately sat up, right out of the Grand Mal part, not the post-ictus, which usually lasts another five minutes or so.  In truth, the timing may have been that he was coming out of the seizure anyway -- I won't know until the next time.  I've heard that dropping a small amount of raw honey into the mouth will also stop the seizure; I haven't tried that yet -- the Arnica was right there, the last time.

There was a period during the early summer where I tried lowering (in the most minute way) his pheno dosage, but this brought on a seizure after about a week, so I went back to the same dosage he's been on for years.  I do give him liver glandulars about one week a month (ground up into his food), and he gets one raw chicken liver globe twice daily, as a treat after meds, about one week a month.  His liver panel, taken about two months ago, is absolutely in the normal range, much to my vet's surprise ;-)

Peggy, try some Scleranthus.  I know you've got some wonderful essence outlets in The City (I use the Healing Herbs brand; I think it's more pure than the Bach), and you can get it in a few days from the Flower Essence Pharmacy as well.  I know that the addition of the Scleranthus was what made the difference in Sammy's seizure activity, and it may very well do the same for
Hester -- I do truly hope so.  There's nothing more helpless than watching your beloved pet in a full-blown seizure, I know.  I am still astonished at what a difference this has made in Sammy's life and in my own.

Good luck to you both, and remember to hit the Rescue Remedy (or Five Flowers Formula) yourself -- that's the first thing I go for when Sam's into a seizure.

Gayle in NYC
with Arthur, Moonshadow, Moosie, Mrs. Peel and Sam

Hi, Susie,

I did some research on seizures in cats a couple of months ago (for my sister-in-law's kitty--though Ty had only one seizure - nothing so severe as you describe).  Here are some sources I found. I hope Peter recovers from this. What a horrid experience for you both.

Susan

http://www.altvetmed.com/epilepsy.html
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/lowekamp/feline_epilepsy.html
http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/seizures/seizures.htm
http://www.belfield.com/article8.html

Got up yesterday and found Natasha in a pool of urine on kitchen floor. Took her upstairs and cleaned her up a bit, gave SQ fluids.  About 15 min later she had a small seizure.  Got a hold of the vet right away so I could drop her off on way to work.  Before I left the house, she had another seizure.  She had a number of seizures at vet yesterday, even tho they put her on meds.  Sent out bloodwork yest AM, still waiting for it to come back. She also has a low grade fever-102.  I stopped to see her on way home from work yest.  Wanted to bring her home with me so I could watch her at night, vet said no.  They told me vet would take her home that night and watch her. Came home and cried myself to sleep--exhausted as much as anything.  Finally decided that all I can do is pray about it and hope that if it's her time, God takes her gently.  Natasha is 18years old-strictly
indoor.  I've had her since I found her as a 6 wk old stray.  She had allergy problems for a number of years, but they've gone away in the last couple of years.  I had blood work done on her about 6 mo. ago-everything came back in normal range.

Does anyone have experience with something similar?  Please help.  I lost Goldie to cancer in Feb and Amos on March 5 (complications of abscessed tooth), I'm so afraid of losing another..

Thanks!
Linda

The new Whole Dog Journal has a story about dogs being cured of seizures. The writer said she gave her Husky a 1/2 teaspoon of dolomite at breakfast and dinner and the seizures stopped.  She said the man at the health food store said everyone knows seizures are caused by a magnesium deficiency.

Of course, the seizures could have other causes, but I'd try anything if it was my cat.  Maybe her old body isn't as efficient at absorbing the available nutrients in her diet.  I hope more knowledgeable people on the list will give you better advice on this magnesium idea.

I feel really sorry about you losing so many beloved cats recently.  And if I was Natasha, I'd rather be home with you at night.  I guess it was nice of your vet to take the cat home with him/her? for observation.  I'm praying for you all.

<< Does anyone have experience with something similar?  Please help.  I lost Goldie to cancer in Feb and Amos on March 5 (complications of abscessed tooth), I'm so afraid of losing another.. >>

Linda, last year my CRF cat, Sherwood, went into seizures and the vet could not determine why.  He was unresponsive and could not move.  Is that how Natasha has been, or is she able to move and react?  My vet speculated that it could have been a stroke or a blood clot.  I never found out for sure. Sorry to be so vague.  I'm praying for you and Natasha.  You've been  through too much lately.

Love,
Debbie and my furtribe: Ty, Marilyn, Adrieanna and the ferals who live on the porch

Hi all

As my mail was AWOL again yesterday, I missed most of yesterday's and today's posts so I don't know what the situation is here. Linda, I'm so sorry to hear about Natasha, and I hope she can come home with you soon! It's good to know, though, that your vet could take her home and watch her there. I hope some of this is useful to you; I also have a post saved that Susan sent in a few weeks ago relating to seizures that I can pass on if you like (if you don't already have it).

Hugs
Kathy and the cats
kashmir@netbistro.com

<<Hi all
I'll have to check my books on this, but I think that epilepsy is related to a deficiency of vitamin B, and I *think* B6 in particular. Also, the following is part of a private post I'd sent quite some time ago.

Do you have the "Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care"? The author describes a treatment that supposedly even "the most severe untreatable cases responded" to this mixture, which is equal parts blue cohosh, black cohosh, blue vervain, lobelia and skullcap.
The *human* dose is 4 drops *in each ear* 2 times a day, one dropperful massaged into the base of the skull every hour during the day and 2 dropperfuls orally three times a day. Start off with a small amount and work up to the maximum within a week. Continue this for 3 weeks and if the animal is seizure free, gradually taper to a maintenance dose of 5 to 10 drops orally per day.

Richard Allport, in _Heal Your Cat the Natural Way_ suggests hops, scullcap, rosemary, valerian and lemon balm. Richard Pitcairn suggests limiting organ meats; a complete B vitamin with extra lecithin; zinc and extra vit C. Diane Stein suggests kelp and trace minerals; chlorophyll; a complete B vit with extra B6 and B3; taurine; thymus and thyroid glandulars; black cohosh, hyssop, lobelia, blue vervain, oatstraw and skullcap, wood sage, rue, hops, rosemary, passionflower, valerian and hawthorn. She also suggest accupuncture / pressure.
I hope some of this helps.
Take care
Kathy and the cats>>

Hi all,

Just wanted to thank everyone who has been so kind in offering purrs and suggestions for Natasha.  she is still at vet, but I visit her every evening after work.  The convulsions have stopped now-she hasn't had any since the first evening.  some of the bloodwork is back-one slightly elevated liver enzyme (vet may have told me which one-if she did, I don't remember), but WBC count was 30,000.  so now she's on ABs and seizure meds.  She was better next  am-ate on her own, but about 45 min later started acting weird like she was having mild hallucinations.  Vet suspects liver involvement-if I understand things correctly, if there is some damage to liver, ammonia spills over into blood, then can cross blood/brain barrier and cause seizures.  She took a bile acid test this AM both before and after feeding-won't have results until tomorrow.  Other possibility is nervous system disease-hasn't ruled out brain tumor.  I am hoping she will come home tomorrow night.  I'll probably have a seizure myself when I get the bill. I have been saving all the posts related to homeopathy/herbs books and will order one the next couple days.  It's just so overwhelming at first.  I will start with the herbs/homeopathy treatments first-I can't face raw meat just yet.  I'm a vegetarian (like I know a lot of you are, too) and it just too gross for me right now.

Thank you everyone for your kindness and suggestions--the purrs and good vibes are MUCH appreciated!   :D

Linda and Natasha and their Fuzzy Family

Hi all-

Everyone's kind thoughts and purrs surely helped-I got to bring Natasha home yesterday.  We're still not sure exactly what we're dealing with, it's more a case of eliminating what it's not.  Bile acid tests she did yest b4 and after eating came back the same, so at least the tests aren't picking up any  liver damage.  Her behavior's getting more back to normal for her-she's eating like a little piggy on her own.  Vet ran a test for toxiplasmosis yest just to rule that out too.  we've pretty much narrowed it down to
possible bacterial meningitis or a brain tumor.  My vet didn't feel that pursuing the brain tumor further was a good option at this time if the seizures are under control since we would have to go to U of I (3 hrs away) and it would stress her.  She did talk about possibly gradually backing her off phenobarbital down the road.  She also on Cefa since her WBC count was 30,000 the other day.  The Cefa seems to be working though because yest her WBC count was down to 15,000.   Life is good.  My vet and the staff at Plum Creek are wonderful-they really went out of their way for her and the bill wasn't nearly as bad as I thought (sometimes my imagination gets the best of me).  Thanks again for all the good purrs and vibes-I will go to library or Barnes and Noble to check out some of the books list members have mentioned-I want to start with some herbs/supplements soon.

Love and Purrs
Linda, Natasha and the Fuzzy Family

Hi Diane,

The IP-6 has done WONDERS for Natasha.  Until I started her on the IP-6, the we had her on 1/4 gr of phenobarbital 2X daily to keep the seizures and hallucinations under control.  This was 3 X higher than the normal dose, but it was all we had to give her any kind of quality time.  I notices a difference with the IP-6 within a week,  Natasha's mobility got better ( she was very stiff through her hips and hind end) and her personality started to return to normal.  I started her on IP-6 apx 4/20, and it's to a point now where she is completely off the phenobarbital and is climbing in bed with me again, wants to be held and petted.   I was skeptical at first and cautious, because I wasn't sure about dosage, so I started with 1/2 capsule daily  she weighed 5.7 lbs).  As I could see such a dramatic improvement and read more about it, I upped her dosage to 1 capsule per day ( she' up to apx 7.5 lbs now).  You might want to check prices at a couple HFS before you buy.  I initially paid 29.95, but later at a different HFS, same Cell-Forte IP-6 was on sale for 23.95, plus free copy of paperback book by Dr.S and free cassette tape- just during May.  Book is extremely helpful.  Yes, I did taste it myself-really has no taste, or slightly sweet.  It is probably absorbed better when given on empty stomach, but capsules are really big and it would be a battle for me.  I mix it in with canned food.

Good luck-Purrs,
Linda, Natasha and the Furfamily