Woke up at 2am to hear the cat fall off the side of the bed. Switched on the light and he was walking aimlessly in circles, massively dilated pupils, and he wouldn't respond to anything. Cue a rush to the vets 30 miles away where we took him out of the car to find him almost back to normal.

Vet isn't sure what the problem might be but gave him a steroid injection and antibiotics, and so far (fingers crossed) he seems to have recovered. This morning he's very quiet, but still seems to know us and where he lives.

Anyone seen this before? Vet suggests inner ear infection or small stoke.

He's been to cat rave, and taken some cat like disco biscuits given the symptoms you're describing

Rough night on the tiles by the sounds.

Sleep walking?

Funny (sort of) nickc… the words I used to the vet were "looked absolutely stoned". Apparently cannabis or chocolate can do this to them, though I dunno where he would get hold of that out in deepest darkest Devon (the cannabis, I mean).

Cats do suffer with Epilepsy (Seizures) but is a rare disease in comparison with dogs. I would monitor him for any further recurrences of this behaviour.

Theorectically dogs and cats do not suffer with true "strokes" with the same pathogenesis as humans which is an area of brain tissue dying off d.t. a focal lack of blood supply (what we call an infarct) although they can get the same result from other diseases or lesions (if that makes sense). Cats can however still get infarcts in the areas of the brain which control motion (cerebellum) but if severe prob. wouldn't get better quickly. A "cerebrovasular insult" – technical name for possible transient lack of blood supply is alos possible (sorry don't want to get too technical 🙂 )

It maybe just a one off but keep an eye on him if you can. How old is he? Did they look down his ears with an otoscope? I would think that if it were an infection/polyp he would show progressive signs not sudden loss of balance maybe? Any history of illness recently?

we used to have an epileptic dog and my first thoughts were your cat is epileptic, then I read foxyrider's post too.

It was a real pain Charlie having epilepsy as I was in the middle of training him as a gundog (retriever) when we found out and so had to bin the idea of using him as a working dog as when he used to fit, he'd just lie down and not move for a while – which obviously you cant have happening whilst in the rough. He was going to be a good working dog too.

Thanks foxyrider – he's about 11, I think. The vet did indeed check his ears and clean out his right one, but it didn't seem particularly mucky to me. He's been perfectly healthy until last night.

Hopefully it'll be a transient problem and he'll be OK again soon. Not nice when pets suddenly take ill like that.

Amazed at you finding a vet at 2.00 in the morning though!!

To much Katamine 🙄

Hi Flaperon – Yeh def keep an eye on him then – if he gets more "episodes" then perhaps mention epilepsy to the vet when you go back.

Obviously there are many things that cold cause a problem like this but its best to rule in/out the most common first (epilepsy) – also they could do a neurological examination if necc. to see if there are any deficits i.e. droopy eyelids, perm. dilated pupils, head tilts etc – but most of these you would notice I think. Sounds like it "wore off" in 30 mins so does sound like epilepsy to me IMHO. My neighbours do had a small cluster of fits recently but is now fine so its not always a long term problem!

Hope your cat gets better soon.

Reference finding a vet at 2 in the morning, a couple weeks ago I was heading home after visiting wife and new daughter in maternity unit, about 10:30pm. Got into car, turned on headlights and saw a hedgehog lying on its side in the field in front of me. Went to have a closer look – still able to move, but clearly not well with a fair amount of mucus on its snout. I drove it back to our place, called the RSPCA who gave me a case reference number to give to a vet. The number means the RSPCA will pay the vet up to £60 towards the treatment of the animal. Called our local vet, got the emergency number, called that and was hooked up with the chap on night duty that night. Had the hedgehog to him by about 11:30! Vet suspected pneumonia. Got a call two nights ago to say healthy hedgehog released by RSPCA!

Amazed at you finding a vet at 2.00 in the morning though!!

Pretty much all vets have an oos service I think. Ours certainly do, they share it on a rota with other vets in the area.

Sorry to hear about your moggy flaperon, I hope he's ok. Must have been very scary.

ps lovely hedgehog story Markie!

Yup you will always (In the code of practice) get a 24 vet even if its not your personal one as a lot of vets either share OOS like mrsflash said or will sign over to a dedicated OOS service. Nice to hear the good stories about my profession 🙂

Poor mog. That must be a scary thing to wake up to.

sounds like the beginnings of a cracknip habit?

i hope your cat feels better!!!

oh dear… hope kitty is better soon…

too much Khat perhaps !

My cat did something similar a few years back, turns out he's diabetic and he'd gone hypo (or hyper, I can never remember which is which).

A lad I once knew years ago gave his cat a small amount of LSD and put a red cross on its head with a permanent marker.

That cat had all the symptoms that you describe.

Cat on a backhander from the vet.

Animal treatment available 24/7 on demand without waiting lists via a private and charity based system. Human treatment pretty patchy and often appalling based on a Government tax payer funded system. Discuss….

Cat rave, or have you applied flea powder or the squrty stuff out of the little tube.

No flea powder or worming tablets given. Foxychick – thanks so much for the help. We have an excellent relationship with our vet, with 30-odd horses they're here quite a lot and I did my work experience at their practice many moons ago.

99% sure it's a stroke, he had one pupil more dilated than the other this afternoon and I think he's running a fever now. Felt like a furnace when he was sitting on my stomach earlier and he's been dispatched into the garden to cool down.

He's got antibiotics but I think it'll be a few days before we see results. It's hard to describe, the cat part of him is fine (he eats, grooms, sleeps etc) but the personality is gone. He doesn't recognise me and moves away if I come near, and I don't know if this is a result of the stroke or the fact that he feels miserable from a fever.

I wonder if the cat I knew died last night.

Hope your cat's better…..
sounds very like what happened to our cat a couple of years ago. She was about 15 at the time, just got off the chair and appeared to be drunk. Wandered around in very wobbly circles, even climbed up the stairs!

I was frantic, called in to work to say my cat was on it's last legs, got hubby home from work to help me get her to the vets.

By the time Dave got home about an hour later she was fast asleep, woke up when he went to her as if nothing had happened! Didn't want to upset her by taking her to the vet so we said we'd keep an eye on her and see how she got on, take her if we needed to.

Two years later we have a 17 year old cat, healthy as anything, just a bit deaf. We presume it was a mini stroke but she's still going strong and no sign of anything since.

Hope yours is a one off too.