Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 3: Protecting your cat from injury during an attack
• Method 2 of 3: Control seizures with medication
• Method 3 of 3: Change your lifestyle
• Warnings

Epilepsy is a rare condition in cats and no underlying cause of seizures has yet been identified. Fortunately, there are ways to control your cat's seizures with medication. You can also keep your cat safe and supportive by protecting it from damage and changing its lifestyle in specific ways.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Protecting your cat from injury during an attack

1. 1 Move any objects that your cat might hit during a seizure. To reduce the chance that your cat will injure itself, look around for things it can scratch for itself. Try moving objects away from your cat instead of picking it up and moving it to a safe area. Touching irritates the cat, and the seizure and its neurologically sensitive state may worsen or last longer.
   • For example, if your cat has a seizure near a sharp table leg, place a pillow between the animal and the object as protection instead of lifting the pet.
2. 2 Avoid touching your cat during a seizure. During a seizure, the animal is not aware of what is happening around. She lies on her side, chomps her jaws, paddles and shakes her paws, and can also lose control of the bladder and bowels. In this state, the cat has no conscious control over its actions, and it can easily bite or scratch anyone who touches it. The only exception is when the cat can be picked up if there is a risk of falling, which is described in Step 4 of this section.
   • Do not place your fingers next to the cat's mouth, as it may bite them and will not let go until it regains consciousness.
3. 3 Eliminate any external irritants. Ask everyone else to leave the room. It's okay to cry at the sight of your beloved cat pounding in a seizure, but this will not help the animal. To reduce the number of irritants around your cat:
   • Turn off your TV or radio.
   • Turn off electric lamps.
   • Close the curtains.
   • Avoid the temptation to talk and calm your pet down. Unfortunately, this is another form of annoyance, and you are likely to do more harm than good to her if she is not in danger of falling (which is described in the next step).
4. 4 Move the cat to a safe place if there is a risk of falling. While you should try to avoid moving or touching the cat during a seizure, the exception is when there is a risk of injury to the cat itself.
   • For example, if your cat has a seizure while standing on the ledge of a tall window, use a duvet cover or a large, thick towel and take the cat away. Hopefully, these steps will help protect you from accidental bites and scratches.
   • Carry the towel-wrapped cat to a safe place, such as an open, flat area, and lay it down gently on the floor. Make sure her head is not covered with a towel so she can breathe and then get out of it
5. 5 See your veterinarian after an attack. On average, a seizure lasts two to three minutes, during which time your cat should be kept safe. Once your pet is awake, keep him indoors so he doesn't wander down the street and call your veterinarian for further advice. If this is the cat's first seizure, you need to get tested completely, and donate blood for tests to identify the main causes of the seizure.
   • A complete description of the animal's seizure will help your veterinarian. To this end, try to mark the beginning and end of the seizure.
   • If you have a phone handy, film the seizure so the vet can see it in first person.

Method 2 of 3: Control seizures with medication

1. 1 Use phenobarbital to prevent seizures. Most anticonvulsants for dogs are either ineffective or toxic to cats. However, in practice, phenobarbital has been shown to be effective and safe. The medications work to prevent your cat from having seizures.
   • Phenobarbital is available as a tablet or syrup and is usually given two, and in some cases, three times a day.
   • The starting dose of phenobarbital is 1 or 2 mg per kilogram, twice a day. Thus, a medium-sized cat requires 1.7 ml or 15 mg / ml of phenobarbital syrup twice daily.
   • Some cats metabolize phenobarbital unusually quickly, in which case the recommended dosage is three times a day.
2. 2 Give your cat diazepam to prevent status epilepticus. Episodes, or groups of seizures, occur because the first seizure travels to the brain, which is easy for the next to pass. Diazepam reduces brain activity, making it harder for the electrical impulses associated with a seizure to trigger a brain response.
   • After an attack, the easiest way to take diazepam is with rectal suppositories, or suspensions, which are quickly absorbed into your cat's rectal lining. Dose for one cat is one 5 mg syringe.
3. 3 There are side effects and risks associated with taking these medications. The following side effects appear immediately: sedation, increased appetite and thirst. The sedation should go away in a few days as your cat's body adjusts to the new medication.
   • If sedation persists after a couple of days, call your veterinarian immediately.
4. 4 Do not give these drugs to cats with liver disease. Phenobarbital is deactivated by the liver and should never be given to cats with liver disease. Due to the fact that the cat's body has a reduced ability to metabolize phenobarbital, the drug can accumulate in the body and become toxic. If your cat is poisoned with this substance, it will look too calm, walk with difficulty, or act like a drug.
   • Diazepam is considered a controversial drug because, on rare occasions, it can cause fatal liver failure. This is a kind of reaction, and, in other words, scientists have not fully figured out why this is happening.

Method 3 of 3: Change your lifestyle

1. 1 It is preferable to keep the cat indoors. An epileptic cat that climbs trees or inspects its territory is potentially vulnerable to seizures at the wrong time. If she loses consciousness and falls from a branch of a tall tree, she could be seriously injured. At the same time, if the cat is likely to become incapacitated during a territorial dispute, then it will be defenseless. With this in mind, it is wiser to keep the cat at home.
2. 2 Put your cat on a gluten-free diet if you think it might help. There is no scientific evidence that diet plays a role in the onset of epilepsy in cats. However, there are many rumors that cats have stopped their seizures thanks to the gluten-free diet. According to one theory, gluten antibodies act directly on the brain, and they are unequivocally toxic to it. Medicine explains this phenomenon in the human body, when wheat gluten receptors irritate opioid receptors in the brain, which in turn trigger seizures.
   • Since cats are carnivores, it can be argued that they cannot adapt to wheat in their diet and are thus more prone to developing gluten antibodies. If the cat, on the other hand, is healthy, then putting it on a complete, balanced, gluten-free diet, low in carbohydrates and high in protein, will not harm it.
3. 3 Get new vet appointments for your cat every three months. If your cat is having seizures and is on the correct medication, you should bring it to your vet more often than a healthy animal. It is especially important that your veterinarian takes a blood test to check and make sure the liver is doing well with the drugs.

Warnings

• In a minority of cases, seizures continue despite treatment with anticonvulsants. The only way is to increase the dose of phenobarbital, however, in some cases cats are refractory to treatment and increasing the dose increases the risk of toxicity.
• If this is your cat's case, a compromise will need to be reached where the seizure frequency decreases and the seizures progress more quickly, although they will not completely disappear.