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  #1  
Old August 19th, 2013, 01:38 PM
lovekitties lovekitties is offline
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Location: UK / Malta
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my cat is dizzy and losing balance, please help

Hi all,
One of my cats is showing symptoms which are similar to some symptoms posted in other threads, yet I can't find any obvious correlations.

Our vet is stumped and cannot suggest anything constructive yet. We're considering doing a test for Thyroid soon to check for that too.

He is a European shorthaired male [adopted stray], neutered.

SYMPTOMS AND INFO:
My cat has been weak on the hind legs, walking as though his is dizzy. He loses his balance easily, and especially when he shakes his head - he just falls over.
He is lethargic most of the time and barely has the strength to walk around. He eats reluctantly most of the time and i have to hand feed him to entice him to eat. Unless it is something he really feels like and purrs when i offer it to him.
He often kind of 'stares' very often with a dead gaze...
He moans when i pick him up. He does enjoy being brushed... I suspect he doesn't have the energy to groom himself. He seems to have dandruff too now.

He has just started shaking a bit today... hind legs and also his head. Its not constant though, i just noticed it for a while this morning.
I cannot comment about his litter usage as I have 3 cats.

His bloodwork is all fine, no sign of diabetes either. Thyroid hasn't been tested yet.
He eats wet food, mostly canned Whiskas as he doesn't like much else. Sometimes he accepts to eat the raw food that I feed my other cats. Now he is eating canned tuna sometimes and ham.
He has lost a substantial amount of weight too.

We can't determine his age as he was adopted as an older cat. He is definitely older than 5yrs. He does go out, but not very far, mostly in surrounding gardens or small field next door.

We vaccinated him a few months ago and recently had to sedate him to take his blood to be tested. The sedation had a very strong impact on him - it knocked him out very much. His symptoms started before the vaccination.
He had a bad ear mite infection a short while ago, and we administered canaural for just over 3 weeks. It seems to have got worse around the time all this was happening.

He had one good day last week - more energy and he even jumped onto a low wall! That was the only day and after that, back to usual.

We are in constant contact with out vet who is also baffled by this.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thank you!
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  #2  
Old August 19th, 2013, 06:36 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 4,371
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovekitties View Post
Hi all,
One of my cats is showing symptoms which are similar to some symptoms posted in other threads, yet I can't find any obvious correlations.

Our vet is stumped and cannot suggest anything constructive yet. We're considering doing a test for Thyroid soon to check for that too.

He is a European shorthaired male [adopted stray], neutered.

SYMPTOMS AND INFO:
My cat has been weak on the hind legs, walking as though his is dizzy. He loses his balance easily, and especially when he shakes his head - he just falls over.
He is lethargic most of the time and barely has the strength to walk around. He eats reluctantly most of the time and i have to hand feed him to entice him to eat. Unless it is something he really feels like and purrs when i offer it to him.
He often kind of 'stares' very often with a dead gaze...
He moans when i pick him up. He does enjoy being brushed... I suspect he doesn't have the energy to groom himself. He seems to have dandruff too now.

He has just started shaking a bit today... hind legs and also his head. Its not constant though, i just noticed it for a while this morning.
I cannot comment about his litter usage as I have 3 cats.

His bloodwork is all fine, no sign of diabetes either. Thyroid hasn't been tested yet.
He eats wet food, mostly canned Whiskas as he doesn't like much else. Sometimes he accepts to eat the raw food that I feed my other cats. Now he is eating canned tuna sometimes and ham.
He has lost a substantial amount of weight too.

We can't determine his age as he was adopted as an older cat. He is definitely older than 5yrs. He does go out, but not very far, mostly in surrounding gardens or small field next door.

We vaccinated him a few months ago and recently had to sedate him to take his blood to be tested. The sedation had a very strong impact on him - it knocked him out very much. His symptoms started before the vaccination.
He had a bad ear mite infection a short while ago, and we administered canaural for just over 3 weeks. It seems to have got worse around the time all this was happening.

He had one good day last week - more energy and he even jumped onto a low wall! That was the only day and after that, back to usual.

We are in constant contact with out vet who is also baffled by this.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thank you!
Canned tuna and ham does have salt , and too much salt it bad for pets and not a balance diet , will you can eat wet food at all? How long have you had your cat? I was thinking maybe you could call the shelter and see if they the cat history or if they had some virus going on their shelter.
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  #3  
Old August 20th, 2013, 06:04 PM
lovekitties lovekitties is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: UK / Malta
Posts: 7
Update

Thank you for your reply.

He has been on a wet food diet since he adopted us. Occasional dry food. Mostly Applaws / Whiskas. We only fed him ham because he would not eat. We tried to give him raw food diet like our other cats but only accepts it when it is freshly made. Tuna very occasionally too.

Yesterday, he had a great evening after a bad start to the day. In the morning he was very low and lethargic with no appetite and also had slight shaking of head and leg.
In the evening he started slowly pacing around the room as though to exercise. His balance was not good, he lost balance, and when he hit his ear and shook his head, he fell over!
Shortly after, he had a voracious appetite for ham and raw x chicken diet. he drank too. He then started walking around, his balance improved and he even turned around without losing balance. he explored around, visibly curious and better, even his coat looked better; his dandruff seemed to have gone!
He also felt ticklish on his tummy [he used to be extremely ticklish before the onset of his symptoms].

This morning, back to a bad day. No appetite, lethargic... the usual. This evening he accepted canned tuna [not ham] and ate almost a whole can purring. But his balance is awful and he can hardly stand up, but almost crawls.

I suspect it has something to do with his head/neck... he moans when i pick him up and when i try to prop him up from his neck.

We are all baffled
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  #4  
Old August 20th, 2013, 06:15 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 4,371
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovekitties View Post
Thank you for your reply.

He has been on a wet food diet since he adopted us. Occasional dry food. Mostly Applaws / Whiskas. We only fed him ham because he would not eat. We tried to give him raw food diet like our other cats but only accepts it when it is freshly made. Tuna very occasionally too.

Yesterday, he had a great evening after a bad start to the day. In the morning he was very low and lethargic with no appetite and also had slight shaking of head and leg.
In the evening he started slowly pacing around the room as though to exercise. His balance was not good, he lost balance, and when he hit his ear and shook his head, he fell over!
Shortly after, he had a voracious appetite for ham and raw x chicken diet. he drank too. He then started walking around, his balance improved and he even turned around without losing balance. he explored around, visibly curious and better, even his coat looked better; his dandruff seemed to have gone!
He also felt ticklish on his tummy [he used to be extremely ticklish before the onset of his symptoms].

This morning, back to a bad day. No appetite, lethargic... the usual. This evening he accepted canned tuna [not ham] and ate almost a whole can purring. But his balance is awful and he can hardly stand up, but almost crawls.

I suspect it has something to do with his head/neck... he moans when i pick him up and when i try to prop him up from his neck.

We are all baffled
I wonder if chiropractor for pets could help if you think it's neck. My daughter's cat was not able to move his hind legs and had to drag himself around the house. The vet had no idea what happen to the cat , he was rescue cat and may of had an old injury that came back. I hop you can find out what wrong with your poor kitty , it much be very heartbreaking not knowing how to help him. If you do try a chiropractor be sure to check out them out to see if they're license to treat pets .
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  #5  
Old August 20th, 2013, 07:15 PM
Loki Love's Avatar
Loki Love Loki Love is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Regina, SK
Posts: 536
I'm guessing this bloodwork would show signals to a neurological disorder - this clearly sounds like what's going on.

What was the vaccination for? Could it be a possible side effect?
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  #6  
Old August 20th, 2013, 08:12 PM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 4,371
Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki Love View Post
I'm guessing this bloodwork would show signals to a neurological disorder - this clearly sounds like what's going on.

What was the vaccination for? Could it be a possible side effect?
Do you think it could be some kind of virus infection ?
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