Animal Welfare Professionals

I am looking to put this video out there in hopes that someone has seen this before and might know what the problem is. Please note many xrays of the head, brain, and body have been done along with lots of labwork. Labs is fine nothing unusual. nothing showed up on the xrays for the brain or ears, the radiologist said there was no reason to do further scans like MRI. They did find a nodule in his left lung and would have to do further tests to find out what is going on with that but that it is not in connection with the condition in this video. This particular day he had 8+ episodes and we had to have him sedated in order for them to stop. So far, none of the veterinarians we have seen knows what this is, everyone of them is stumped.

Back history. Wilbur is 6 years old. He was a rescue kitten, at 3 weeks of age, 3 or his 5 siblings did not make it, his sister still lives with him, both are fixed, she does not show signs of having any problems like this. Wilbur started having these episodes in June of 2018, we had went on vacation and he had gotten out when the pet sitter came to check on them, when we got home a week later he came home staggering with this head tilt and shortly after a few days he started having the episodes. He did not show any signs of being injured in any way. Until recently he was eating just fine and getting around fairly well, just of late he has started losing some weight and acting as though he is not feeling well, he is kept in a kennel now which seems to reduce his stress and the episodes he has.

Wilbur is lucky to have you!

Did you mean to insert a video? I don't see one in your post. 

Okay I fixed it, it is there now. Thanks for letting me know it wasn't there!

Other than it being some sort of traumatic brain injury, I don't know! We had a kitten who had spells of ataxia (nothing as wild as that) and we weren't ever able to get past the generic "something neurological."

All the brain scans and blood work came out normal

I'm sure you have gone over this with the vet, but have you checked his vision during these 'attacks'.  Are his eyes dialated during these episodes? It looks like a neurological issue, but I am not a vet - just a foster mom... 

At one time we fostered a kitten who had a very bad sinus infection that then entered his brain (in spite of the multiple bouts of antibiotics).  He was very sick and when he had a similar episode (as your baby) he hissed and his eyes dialated.  By the time we got him to the vet (about an hour later), he attacked the vet & started foaming at the mouth.  We had to have him put down (the vet suspected rabies - thankfully it was not).  It ended up being a 'mid-brain infection'.  According the necropsy he would likely not have survived the infection and if he had, would have been greatly affected neurologically.  I'm not letting you know this to scare you, but to just provide information...  Your baby is NOT in as bad a shape as our little one was - and our little baby went down hill very quickly, within a couple of hours...  I just wanted to pass this along in case it may help your vet rule out something or point you into another direction - NOT to scare you.

I also know someone who had a kitten with distemper who has done quite well, in spite of his disability.  He held his head sideways, walked in circles and couldn't jump up on things, but has done well with his other kitten companion over the past 3 years that his humans have him!

Have you considered and inner ear issue?  I'm sure all these things have been considered...  I'm just throwing things out there that I have 'seen' over the years of working a foster mom... Holding their head sideways usually points me towards ear or vision issues? 

I just feel so sorry for all your family - your baby, especially, and his sister, who I'm sure is witness to this and fearful and missing him at times...  I wish you all well and hope that you find the answers you are looking for!  Blessings to and for you all!

Thank you for that information. We have considered all of those things and Vesicular, which was our first thought but his ears appear fine even on the x-rays. I would love to have every doctor see him and do all the tests we could in order to find out what is causing this if only to help someone else. It is terrible to see so many doctors and none of them have a clue as to what is going on, that's not to say they are smart or educated because they are, it just seems to be something unusual that nobody has ever seen. Wilbur was sitting up looking outside this morning so the Cerenia they gave him for nausea may be helping, he will get another dose this afternoon and hopefully he will want to eat something.

Please keep us updated as he & you ALL progress through this...  I also wanted to suggest that you post your question(s) & video on the various FB pages as well as the vet websites online - if for no other reason that to educate and see if anyone else has seen this...  I suspect that your Wilbur is not the first and, while the posting in multiple locations may not help you, it may help someone else - especially as you find some things that help the symptoms...  But be prepared for the negative comments and IGNORE them.  You do what YOU think is right for your home & your babies (which you are) and remember that!  But it could be that you will find SOMEONE who has seen this before...  I will look forward to seeing how he progresses and as always, blessings to your household!

NOTE - I just saw the note about Feline Vestibular Disease & there is treatment - this could be what it is...  I googled & there was a video of similarly acting cat...

Thank you, I have emailed a variety of vets, so far one has responded back and may actually be promising since they say they have seen this before, so we are in the process of getting his records to them for review for a 2nd opinion (actually 4th, lol)

It looks vestibular to me, but this is just an impression from watching the video.  Cats with vestibular disease will have a head tilt and will be off balance.  He may be trying to get away from the “feeling” of dizziness.  Vestibular disease will not necessarily show up on an X-ray or lab work, so see if your vet can do a neurological exam on him or ask if they can refer you to a neurologist.  

It looks possibly vestibular to me too, but definitely a job for a neurologist.  Is there a vet school nearby that might be able to do an exam and workup for a reduced fee as a teaching experience?

I had a kitten with ataxia and really bad nystagmus...best we could figure out was toxo cysts in her brain.  So we treated to kill the toxo cysts and her brain sort of rewired itself over time and she did improve quite a lot.  A cyst should have shown up on the x-ray though.  Unless it's dead and gone and just left space in the brain like with Quinley.  Has Wilbur ever been outside?  Regular vaccine history?  In rescue or owned?

Poor guy. He is very pretty. Poor little fella. I will pray for him and you guys. I hope all is well. At the end he really looks like he is in distress. That isn’t a seizure of some sort I’m sure right? Please keep us updated with details of his condition. I wish you guys the best. He will be just fine the little guy. 

All 3 doctors have assured me that it is not seizures. Since we got back from the last vet and spending nearly $1000 he has slowly returned to his normal behavior including his head tilt, there are some moments where it looks like he isn't feeling well but he is eating and getting around like he did before. Hoping he does not have another episode before we go see the new vet on the 22nd of March.

Felt sorry for him. Hope he gets well soon.

Update with Wilbur. He saw another cat specialist two weeks ago, she sent him home with subq fluids and injectable cerenia once a day. She did more bloodwork and urinalysis. All of the tests have shown up negative. She recommends a. MRI but honestly the rescue just doesn’t have the $3000 to spend on one kitty, we are running a fund raiser but it’s not gotten but under $100 so far so it is not likely we will have that done anytime soon. Wilbur does feel better getting his fluids every day but he is still not able to move around on his own right now so he is kept in a kennel for his safety.  It’s just frustrating to not have found something after the $1500 in tests we have already spent.

#PetHealthandNutrition

I am so sorry you are dealing with this! I also had unusual neurological symptoms in my cat recently. I didn’t think it was seizures at first, till it developed into them. Since I could not afford a specialist visit. I did countless hours of research on my own. I was positive it was thiamine deficiency. The vets I saw told me they could only get it from a raw fish diet. But this is not true. I read neurologists studies where they did not initially believe this was the problem, but after MRI test found it was. Those cats were fed a commercial canned diet with approved amounts of added thiamine and were not recalled. I read medical studies that the test for levels of thiamine are not conclusive, and may sill be deficient. The vets refused to listen to me and I had to say goodbye to my girl. I am still devastated that simple thiamine injections may have saved her life. I would not have hurt her if this indeed was not what was wrong. Other countries recognize this but here in America they don't even keep thiamine on hand.