u/shirleyah

Is it normal for a 10 week old Scottish fold kitten to be super energetic and hyper almost 24/7 😭 I got him a few days ago and have barely been sleeping because he wants to play all day and runs around jumping on everything so I have to make sure he’s not hurting himself. I also introduced him to my adult ragdoll cat and for some reason he keeps going after my adult cat and jumping on him/biting him so it’s really freaking my adult cat out (and me).

This is my second Scottish fold cat. My first Scottish fold who was my soulmate passed away recently and I’ve been heartbroken ever since. I thought getting another might help me heal but now I’m just stressed and exhausted. My first scottish fold was the sweetest chill baby ever and loved to watch tv so it was so easy being home with him. My Scottish fold kitten I have now is sweet as well but crazy and I can’t even try to get him to watch tv because he can’t stay still.

Has anyone ever had a hyperactive Scottish fold kitten and did they ever calm down over time? I know I will love him very much but I’m just freaking out at how energetic he is. I feel like I can’t keep up with him since I’m still pretty depressed. But I do try my best to give him lots of attention and playtime.

I had to say goodbye to my soul cat recently. He was the sweetest Scottish fold and only three years old… It kills me that I don’t know exactly what happened to him. Has anyone gone through a situation like mine?

One morning shortly after waking up I saw him sniffing something or at least it looked like that… and then he started frantically running so I followed him and it looked like he was trying to throw up but then it turned into foaming at the mouth and falling over and shaking, and peeing a bit on the floor. I didn’t know it was a seizure but I knew I had to rush him to the animal hospital so we did that immediately. They confirmed it was a seizure because it happened again while he was there. They asked me if he had gotten into anything toxic and I said no because I’m very careful at home and don’t leave any toxins or medications out. He was given midazolam and phenobarbital and stayed at the hospital for 2 nights until we had to transfer him to a different animal hospital with an in-house neurologist. After the initial seizure, my cat was very weak in the legs and could barely get up and move.

Unfortunately while he was at the second hospital, he got a urinary blockage- probably from all the stress :( so they had to unblock him. After getting unblocked, he seemed to be getting better and eating more. The neurologist ran just about every test to rule out any issues that could be causing the seizures. An MRI, spinal tap, many blood tests and X-rays, and he even saw a cardiologist that ran heart tests on him. Everything came back clear including a toxoplasmosis test so the neurologist was very confused. The only strange thing was some excess fluid in his joints. We were hopeful that he could come home soon but he was still having some focal seizures. They added on keppra to his medication to try to stop it. But then he started having a fever- also unexplainable but they added clindamycin to his meds to see if it was an infection of some sort. After some days at the hospital, they thought it was okay for him to come home after seeming ok and seizure free for a minimum of 24 hours. After about a week at this hospital, we took him home with his seizure meds, clindamycin, and gabapentin. At this point he could walk around but with some clear joint pain and leg weakness. While he was home he seemed okay (a bit confused at times and walked around the apartment in circles) but was eating and able to go the litter box, and even playing a bit. It was all good until we started seeing focal seizures (facial twitching, random hissing, frozen in confusion). After just 2 nights we had to take him back to the animal hospital because in the morning we witnessed very frequent focal seizures. I believe they call this cluster seizures? It was so heartbreaking because we were so hopeful that he was getting better because he seemed like he was getting stronger and better at the hospital. We took him back and they had him on midazolam drip in addition to all his meds for a couple days since they kept seeing focal seizures. He was getting worse with fevers and his eyes looked a bit cloudy and his skin looked a bit yellow so the neurologist decided to do a FIP test because she was suspecting neuro FIP. She said it was a good thing that it could be FIP because FIP is treatable. As soon as she suspected it, she put him on the neuro dose of the FIP med GS-441524. His fever and cloudy eyes seemed to go away after starting the meds so we were really hopeful at this point and hoping it was FIP… the test ended up coming back negative even though he had been exposed to coronavirus before (she said most cats have been). I was wondering if it was a false negative though so I didn’t stop the meds. His legs were getting way weaker and he was so out of it from all his meds. The seizures still didn’t stop so they upped the dosages of phenobarbital and added zonisamide. So he was on all 3 of the possible seizure meds for cats because he was on keppra too. After 24 hours of being seizure free, he was able to go home again. He was so weak in the legs and seemed really out of it when he was home- it was heartbreaking to see. He was wobbly and his legs would tremble from weakness. The first night back home, we realized he was having bladder issues because he didn’t use the litter for a while. I think he went after 20 hours of not going? And then next day it was the same and it kept getting longer between each pee every day that went by. We had a follow up appointment to see how he was doing and ask for next steps. The neurologist explained that she was very puzzled by his case and that she even consulted with other neurologists outside of the hospital to see if they could identify anything she might’ve missed. No luck there. The diagnosis given was refractory epilepsy because none of the seizure meds stopped his seizures. At this point, she advised that humane euthanasia was the most compassionate thing we could do for him. It broke my heart. I didn’t want to do it but also didn’t want my sweet boy to keep suffering. I told them I wanted to do it at home so they gave me some recommendations for at home euthanasia services.

I waited a few days to see if he would get better. But he didn’t… it kept getting worse so we made the appointment. It really broke me to even call the number. It took me hours to have the courage to do it. I felt so guilty and sad for putting him down. He was my soulmate and I feel like I died with him. Now I keep second guessing everything… like if they suspected neuro FIP sooner would this have happened? (even if the FIP test was negative). What if I waited longer? Would he have gotten better or suffered more? I just don’t understand what triggered the initial seizure because he was so healthy + active and had no history of any issues.

Also thank god I have pet insurance because these bills came out to about 35k before insurance reimbursement and I would not have been able to try everything possible without it. I was reimbursed about 90% of the bills.

I really hate that I don’t know exactly what happened to him… I love and miss him terribly, so does his brother cat :(

I don’t really know how to navigate all my emotions. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without crying these last 2 months of hell. I feel so sad and guilty because he had to go through so much and stay at the hospital for so long.