Izoras seizure care & diagnosis

On Wednesday Sept 7th our sweet, otherwise healthy cat, Izora, started having focal seizures.

Focal seizures occur in the face, and interrupt one side of Izoras brain activity. It can progress to both sides, although we aren’t sure yet if it’s affecting both. While she has the seizure, she drools and looks around acting scared, because she temporarily loses her vision.

We called around to every emergency vet there was around here and everyone had a 6-11 hour wait. We called VECC in Newington, NH, and they saw her right away. That day she was sent home. The next day, she went back to VECC for her seizures. she was placed on an IV of phenobarbital which apparently helped her seizures. They did a full blood work panel and found her sodium was a little elevated. But otherwise, everything was normal. She was tested for Toxoplasmosis and Crypto. We were asked if she could have gotten into anything. Izora doesn’t even eat treats if you give them to her, never mind a foreign object or a toxin. We don’t have plants, we don’t have anything for her to get into. That night we were called to come get her, as we pulled into the parking lot, we received a call that she had another seizure and that she’d be staying overnight again.

Friday September 9th we finally picked her up and we’re so happy to hear she was doing well and glad to have her home.

She was given phenobarbital in a pill form to take every 12 hours, which we’ve given her on the dot. From the moment she came home, she was not herself. She was trying to hang out with a few of our cats that she typically doesn’t get along with, looking for companionship. It was almost like she didn’t know who they were. Basically from the minute she came home, she was having these seizures every 10 mins from the rest of that day, into Saturday, and all throughout Sunday as well. Sunday night we decided to bring her to Manchester Vet ER. They took her right in due to the frequency of her seizures and started her on a diazepam IV drip. This has lessened the frequency of her seizures, thankfully. She was tested for FIV, FELV, checked for cardiac issues, a urinalysis was done and bloodwork wasn’t rechecked. Sodium levels went down.

Today, Monday Sept 12th, we exhausted all of our options to find an underlying cause. She will need to go to Maine to a Neurologist to determine if she has a tumor- and what our options are to keep her quality of life best.

We have spent well over our budget for this, and will need to spend much more on CT scans/ MRIs at her neurologist visit.

if any of you have ever met Izora, you know that she’s a young (4years) girl who has so much more life to live. She’s sweet and wants pets from everyone. She wants to sit in everyone’s lap. She will knock your phone out of your hand if you stop petting her. She loves to wave her fluffy tail around in my son Brody’s face and he loves her just as much as we do. Our cat Salem is her best friend and would be sad without her, as would we.

as much as I am embarrassed to ask for help here, I’m never to proud to say I tried everything to help my cat that I love. If you could share/donate, it would be much appreciated & every little bit counts toward her recovery.