Auditory Induced Reflex Seizures in Cats
Can cat seizures be triggered by everyday household noises? Yes, rarely, but this current news story is really about online media hype. It is not a new medical condition. It is more a manufactured news story.
There is a news story circulating on the internet that cats can suffer from a seizure when they hear certain common sounds in the household. It sounds intriguing. Are these epileptic seizures and why has this only come to light today? Seizures are quite obvious and shocking. It would be very apparent to a cat caretaker if their cat had a seizure for no apparent reason. If this was happening in significant numbers it would have come to light sooner and someone would have given a name to a new medical condition by now.
The International Cat Care website is routinely quoted in these news stories but using the search facility on their website I have found a page on surveys that states:
….we have found over the years that cats may have seizures in response to particular noises…..This is not something that is unique to cats. In human patients, the condition where seizures occur in response to a trigger is known as reflex epilepsy.
Auditory induced reflex seizures in cats a little known and very rare condition, if it exists. I think this news story is about the International Cat Care website doing a bit of promotion work in issuing a press release to online newspapers. I argue that they have probably done this because they have recently renamed their site and given it a new domain name. This is a brave restart for the site and they need some publicity to attract visitors. I may be cynical but that’s how it looks to me.
The symptoms of these “seizures” include:
- a jerking motion
- foaming from the mouth while unresponsive
- become jumpy or suddenly frozen
Once the noise stops the seizure stops. The sort of sounds that can cause this reaction are:
- crinkling of foil packets (say crisps packet)
- paper being crumpled
- noise of a digital alarm clock.
I’ll be honest; my initial reaction is to be very cautious about these claims. They are probably true in rare cases but I am not convinced. I suspect that In some cases the reactions are not “seizures” in the conventional sense as takes place during an epileptic fit. In some cases, the reaction may be acute anxiety caused by a hardwired reaction to sounds that mimic sounds that can indicate danger. This having being inherited from the ancestor to the domestic cat, the wildcat. Or they are responses inherited from parents which are hardwired. Being frozen and jumpy can be sign of fear and high anxiety.
If household sounds are causing genuine epileptic fits, my initial thought is why are some cats suddenly more sensitive to these sounds? The reports indicate that something has changed in the household. The truth is I don’t think anything has changed. It is just that the newspapers like cat stories if they fed to them.
Epileptic seizures can be caused by acute poisoning or head injury (trauma). Other causes are metabolic disorders and strokes. Epilepsy in cats can also be caused by unknown reasons (idiopathic).
If there has been an increase in these reflex epileptic fits, a possible, highly speculative scenario: is the chemicals in cat flea treatments such as Frontline spot treatment build up in the body over time. Perhaps some cat caretakers are over applying the treatments. This results in the cat being poisoned, which in turn makes the cat sensitive to certain sounds. As stated, that is pure speculation but parasite treatments generally can be very toxic to cats and essentially are heavy duty poisons.
Also overdosing on veterinary medicines can cause poisoning. Giving cats over-the-counter pills and treatments can lead to poisoning the cat. These may cause seizures that take place, by coincidence, at the same time as the cat’s caretaker is making a certain noise or the cat has become sensitized to that noise. Incidentally, poisoning can mimic epileptic seizures.
Conclusion?: I think we have to be cautious with these newspaper stories. The online newspapers are concerned with news not cats. The so called sensitivity to household sounds by some cats is called “Tom and Jerry syndrome“. Newspaper hype, basically. It is not a new medical condition. It is more a manufactured news story.
This is not the first time newspapers overhyped a cat story. They totally misrepresented the Poodle Cat as an example.
Photo on Flickr