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ralphylauren · Mar 12, 2008, 07:31 AM

Hi, my 16yr old male cat Max was diagnosed with overactive thyroid about a month ago. The reason we took him to the vets however was because he suddenly started to have 'fits'. He would be perfectly OK and then just fall over onto one side, lie still for about 10seconds then get straight up, seemingly fine. The vet said his heartrate was very rapid (due to the hyperthyroid) and prescribed both anti-thyroid drugs and beta blockers. 30mins after taking the two pills though, the rate of 'fits' increased to at least one every 2mins. He was taken in and monitored overnight. The vet prescribed another heart pill which allows more blood to flow from the heart.

Max was doing great on these 3 tablets until yesterday when the 'fits' returned. Now they last longer, he loses control of his bladder and looks about dazedly once he can get up again. He also seems to be losing more strength in his back legs and is just sitting looking miserable. The vet took blood to see where his thyroid is, but is not sure what these episodes are. With them happening so frequently I thought they couldn't be strokes but seeing him today I'm not so sure.

Does anyone have any experience with something similar? Many thanks

tickle · Mar 13, 2008, 08:57 AM

If your cat is l6 years old then I think you can expect anything on a day to day basis. He is not exactly a spring chicken any longer. I know, you probably realize this and they could be a series of mini strokes which absolutely no one can do anything about.

ralphylauren · Mar 13, 2008, 09:12 AM

Thanks... I think. The vet got back to me today and I've been sitting studying the cats behaviour - seems to fit most with spinal/central nervous problem. (impossible to pay for an MRI scan) He'll be going on yet another pill for seizures so hopefully that will get them under control as he's fit as a fiddle otherwise. If they don't work...

morgaine300 · Mar 17, 2008, 12:17 AM

First, I don't think that just because your cat is 16 that you need to just accept anything that happens. I don't even consider 16 all that old. I run a cat group and have many, many members with cats that age and up to over 20 years.

However, I don't know much about this particular issue and don't know if these are strokes. But there's Yahoo groups for just about anything, so I looked up seizures first and this is the hit page:
Yahoo! Groups : Search Results

I tried searching stroke, but am getting unrelated things. But there's nothing saying this is a stroke. You might try looking through the hits on seizures and joining whatever group(s) you find appropriate and ask there. There's usually a lot of members and the group will be specific to that topic and I think you'll have better luck.

Sometimes all those pills do some pretty strange things, and sometimes the vets don't really get it. What's the heart pill? (That's pretty ambiguous.) And did you have general bloodwork/urinalysis done? Or just test the thyroid again? Any cat that age should have full blood/urine lab work done probably a couple of times a year.