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2023 Author: Alex Livingston | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 11:39
Just like people, some pets also suffer from epilepsy throughout their lives. Among these, it is dogs that are most affected, but cats are also affected, especially cats who are more advanced in age. In this article we will analyze the causes and ailments related to seizures in older cats.
What is epilepsy
L' idiopathic epilepsy or epilepsy primary it is a lifelong condition that occurs in young animals (up to 4 years of age in cats); it is much more common in dogs than in felines and causes only 25% of the attacks usually found in cats. The adjective "idiopathic" indicates that the cause of the disorder is not known with certainty, while in all other cases (secondary epilepsy) seizures are a symptom of other diseases.
Many seizures in cats are caused by brain damage. It may seem an alarming statement, but not all brain damage is serious or fatal: minimal damage can be almost imperceptible in cats but it can be enough to cause convulsions.
To understand why they are more common in older specimens, it is necessary to understand how they work: they are in fact the result of a ' abnormal electrical activity in the brain. To put it simply, it's as if they were caused by a faulty electrical system. Just like a fire that breaks out in our house, they are unleashed in the brain, releasing enormous and unwanted energy.
This energy transmits signals to the rest of the body, causing the worrying behavior our pet displays when it has seizures. And just like our home, the older a cat is, the more likely it is that the "system" will have trouble functioning: over time, the likelihood of being affected by an epileptic attack increases. But that doesn't mean that all cats will suffer from it sooner or later.
Causes of seizures in older cats
Causes of seizures in older cats are:
- Stroke: a stroke is caused by a cerebral hemorrhage, which can trigger abnormal electrical activity of neurons and a seizure in cats. They usually affect a particular hemisphere of the brain and the corresponding side of the body. If your cat has a stroke, then, the seizures will only occur on one side. Obviously older cats are the most prone to stroke risk.
- Head trauma: can cause a seizure in a particular part of the brain. Depending on where exactly the head injury occurs, the cat will show different symptoms during a seizure. Older cats are no more susceptible than others to the risk of head injury, but to convulsions caused by it.
- Infections: it happens more rarely, but some infections (especially fungal infections) can cause feline seizures. Some of these infections, such as FIP, can be fatal but also cause brain injuries that trigger the attack as they expand and exert ever greater pressure on the brain.
- Problems with the cardiovascular system: any disorder that limits the proper blood supply to the brain (hypertension, ischemic encephalopathy, polycythemia) can cause attacks. These disorders can appear in animals at any age, but are more likely to develop in old age.
- Medicines: an overdose of drugs is to be connected with the appearance of epileptic attacks. Among the most common mistakes made by cat owners is that of using products (such as pesticides) specific for dogs, which can lead to overloading the feline's brain.
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