Bouncing Back

George had a grand mal seizure on April 23rd. It was one of the scariest minutes ever. Only seizure he ever had. One moment he was resting in front of me, then he jumped down, skidded across the floor, fell on his side and started thumping and shaking violently. After 30 seconds he went still for about 15 seconds, then got up and walked wobbly legged out of the room. I picked him up and put him on the bed. He settled down and rested in place, looking a bit disoriented.

The vet said to wait a couple of days and see if he had another. He did not. We did not take him in. George is really out of control when it comes to visiting the vet - almost impossible to handle so the vet and I agreed it would be better not to bring him in. Possibly he had a brain tumor, which would have been untreatable. Possibly it was epilepsy or a relatively benign neurological condition, which might be managed by anticonvulsants. A week later he went on diazepam and has been taking 1/10th of a milligram once a day. It is a cream which I put on my finger tip and apply to the inside of an ear so that it is absorbed transdermally. He has no problem with this.

Fortunately cats can tolerate long-term use of diazepam (dogs cannot). It has the beneficial side effect of increased appetite. We also notice now that George twitches less than he used to. Perhaps he has had a neurological disorder for some time. We have long noticed it but have been more concerned with the chronic renal failure since he was diagnosed with that disorder 4 years ago

George has his ups and downs but mostly he is up and he keeps bouncing back from the downs. Every so often he'll get lethargic and lose his appetite for a couple of days or more. We would take him to the vet but that would be traumatic for him. Somehow he bounces back. Starts eating again. Gets affectionate and playful. He's down to 10 pounds something from about 13-14 pounds 5 or 6 years ago but he has been maintaining 10 something pounds for a couple of years.