I heard from Dr. Laura today. Here is what she had to say about Tosca:
Prozac was potentially causing the livers numbers to be out of whack. This is not supposed to happen but if it’s going to happen, it will happen with one of my cats. It is thought the seizures are secondary to the liver numbers being out of whack. Recommendation is not to put her back on Prozac. If I feel she still needs it after she has been off it for a couple more months, we can put her back on but have to realize it may be causing the seizures. We can try Amiltriptyline. I have decided to try this for the rest of the year and see where we are after the holidays. The hope is she will stop licking off her fur.
FIP antibodies doubled since her last test. This means Tosca has increased her immunity against FIP, if you can trust the titers to be reliable. Unfortunately they can vary throughout the month so they aren’t really reliable. Still, this is something to view positively. Since Tosca is asymptomatic, all we can assume is at some point she was exposed to coronavirus and she is building an immunity to it.
Originally, I was planning to test Marina to see if she had been exposed, however, she is asymptomatic. There is no cure. There’s nothing to give her to improve her immunity so I’m assuming it’s safe to say she’s been exposed and as long as she’s asymptomatic she’s fine. That assumption just saved me $115 and both of us an hour of grief. :-)
Potassium went from 3.8 to 4.0 in a month. Normal is 3.9-5.4. Since Tosca is still very low-normal, we will continue with the Tumil-K supplement once a day for the foreseeable future. There is no known cause for the drop in potassium. It could be secondary to the liver numbers being out of whack or it could be unrelated.
That's about it and that's plenty.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Seizure Update
The last few days have been really good. Tosca is 100% back to normal.
I just got off the phone with Dr. Laura. There's a lot going on with Tosca.
1) Her potassium is low. That can cause seizures. We have started her on a potassium supplement that smells (and tastes) like a combination of soy sauce and maple syrup. She's not thrilled with it at all.
2) Her liver enzymes are a tad high. A specialist spoke to our vets the other day and said any elevation in liver numbers is bad. It can be caused by several things including meds. One of the symptoms are hepatoencephaly (deterioration of brain function because the liver is unable to remove toxins). I have to take her off the Prozac and retest in a month.
3) Tosca had a positive titer for FIP. It could be heredity; it could be from her vaccinations. It doesn't mean she has FIP, it just means she has a positive test. This is a form of the corona virus. It's an intestinal bug, it's pathogenic. It's normally seen in young cats. It's not that Tosca can't get sick from this but it's highly unlikely. We are to retest in a month.
If she is positive for FIP, it's very important to keep her stress level low. Normally FIP would cause respiratory issues. Neurological issues are possible but unlikely.
Does this mean Marina has FIP? We don't know yet. I'll take her in for a blood test when I take Tosca in. We can't test until Tosca has been off the Prozac for a month so I will most likely take them in July 13.
The bottom line is there is no reason to panic. All of this is really good news because there are reasons Tosca could be having seizures rather than a neurological disorder. It's not uncommon for "high end" cats, like Tonkinese, to see higher problems with things like this because there genetic lines are so tight. Get a mutt cat. They are much healthier overall.
So, now we wait....
Will update if anything new comes up before July.
I just got off the phone with Dr. Laura. There's a lot going on with Tosca.
1) Her potassium is low. That can cause seizures. We have started her on a potassium supplement that smells (and tastes) like a combination of soy sauce and maple syrup. She's not thrilled with it at all.
2) Her liver enzymes are a tad high. A specialist spoke to our vets the other day and said any elevation in liver numbers is bad. It can be caused by several things including meds. One of the symptoms are hepatoencephaly (deterioration of brain function because the liver is unable to remove toxins). I have to take her off the Prozac and retest in a month.
3) Tosca had a positive titer for FIP. It could be heredity; it could be from her vaccinations. It doesn't mean she has FIP, it just means she has a positive test. This is a form of the corona virus. It's an intestinal bug, it's pathogenic. It's normally seen in young cats. It's not that Tosca can't get sick from this but it's highly unlikely. We are to retest in a month.
If she is positive for FIP, it's very important to keep her stress level low. Normally FIP would cause respiratory issues. Neurological issues are possible but unlikely.
Does this mean Marina has FIP? We don't know yet. I'll take her in for a blood test when I take Tosca in. We can't test until Tosca has been off the Prozac for a month so I will most likely take them in July 13.
The bottom line is there is no reason to panic. All of this is really good news because there are reasons Tosca could be having seizures rather than a neurological disorder. It's not uncommon for "high end" cats, like Tonkinese, to see higher problems with things like this because there genetic lines are so tight. Get a mutt cat. They are much healthier overall.
So, now we wait....
Will update if anything new comes up before July.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Tosca Seizure Log
Tosca began having seizures 08/26/2012. The first seizure was very typical. During the preictal phase, she came and lay down on my lap. During the ictal phase, her eyes were twitching and her third eyelid was very visible. She was awake but unresponsive to me. Post ictal lasted for a couple of hours. She was lethargic and curious what had happend.
Tosca had another seizure in Jan 2013. This one was ataxia of the back right leg. It would list to the left when she walked and she seemed quite confused. There was no obvious preictal phase as she and I were snuggling on the bed before ictus. Post ictus was confusion and snuggling.
After the first seizure in August, I noticed Tosca being more aggitated and licking her fur quite a bit. By May 7, 2013, I realized this could be neurological. These episodes could be seizures. I talked with Dr. Laura on May 9. She believes the symptoms I described of pacing, licking, hissing, holding the mouth funny was a sign of petit mal seizures. She told me to keep track of the seizure activity and let her know if there was more than one a month or two in 24-hours.
Friday, May 10, 2013, I got home about 8:30 pm. Tosca was having one of her "fits." She was aggitated, licking and biting herself, she was hissing. She wanted to be up high (this was unusual), she wouldn't walk on the floor (unusual), she was obviously hallucinating. There was something awful walking on the floor. She wouldn't get on the sofa or on the bed. I took her to the emergency vet at 12:30 am. By that time, she had mostly calmed down, but was aggitated because she was at the vet. The vet suggested waiting until Monday and following up with Laura if things did not improve. She belives it isn't a seizure, but a preictal neurological event. She told me it's just a matter of time before Tosca has a grand mal seizure.
All day Saturday Tosca was in a state of neurological stress. She was biting, meowing, up high, afraid of the floor, hissing, the normal fit stuff. Later she had a bad one where she was running around the yard, couldn't get comfortable, she vomited, yowled, climed up high to the cat bed. This lasted about 30 minutes of really bad and 45 minutes to an hour of slow recovery. By 6:30 pm, she went to sleep and stayed that way until about 10:00. After that she was groggy and stayed in her bed.
Sunday Tosca was still afraid of the floors, but Marina started tormenting her again so I knew things were better. She did have some mild episodes but not many. Tosca spent quite a bit of time outside this weekend as that is the place she feels most comfortable.
By Monday 05/13/13 morning, Tosca crawled in bed with me and snuggled for a couple of hours. That was true progress. I think she's 95 to 100% back to normal at this time. I did take her to the vet Monday morning for a blood test. I also told them I posted a couple of videos on facebook they can view to get an idea of the severity of the situation. We will see what Laura says when she calls. Blood tests won't be back for a few days but we expect them to be normal.
Tosca had another seizure in Jan 2013. This one was ataxia of the back right leg. It would list to the left when she walked and she seemed quite confused. There was no obvious preictal phase as she and I were snuggling on the bed before ictus. Post ictus was confusion and snuggling.
After the first seizure in August, I noticed Tosca being more aggitated and licking her fur quite a bit. By May 7, 2013, I realized this could be neurological. These episodes could be seizures. I talked with Dr. Laura on May 9. She believes the symptoms I described of pacing, licking, hissing, holding the mouth funny was a sign of petit mal seizures. She told me to keep track of the seizure activity and let her know if there was more than one a month or two in 24-hours.
Friday, May 10, 2013, I got home about 8:30 pm. Tosca was having one of her "fits." She was aggitated, licking and biting herself, she was hissing. She wanted to be up high (this was unusual), she wouldn't walk on the floor (unusual), she was obviously hallucinating. There was something awful walking on the floor. She wouldn't get on the sofa or on the bed. I took her to the emergency vet at 12:30 am. By that time, she had mostly calmed down, but was aggitated because she was at the vet. The vet suggested waiting until Monday and following up with Laura if things did not improve. She belives it isn't a seizure, but a preictal neurological event. She told me it's just a matter of time before Tosca has a grand mal seizure.
All day Saturday Tosca was in a state of neurological stress. She was biting, meowing, up high, afraid of the floor, hissing, the normal fit stuff. Later she had a bad one where she was running around the yard, couldn't get comfortable, she vomited, yowled, climed up high to the cat bed. This lasted about 30 minutes of really bad and 45 minutes to an hour of slow recovery. By 6:30 pm, she went to sleep and stayed that way until about 10:00. After that she was groggy and stayed in her bed.
Sunday Tosca was still afraid of the floors, but Marina started tormenting her again so I knew things were better. She did have some mild episodes but not many. Tosca spent quite a bit of time outside this weekend as that is the place she feels most comfortable.
By Monday 05/13/13 morning, Tosca crawled in bed with me and snuggled for a couple of hours. That was true progress. I think she's 95 to 100% back to normal at this time. I did take her to the vet Monday morning for a blood test. I also told them I posted a couple of videos on facebook they can view to get an idea of the severity of the situation. We will see what Laura says when she calls. Blood tests won't be back for a few days but we expect them to be normal.
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