Thanks for sending this. That makes alot of sense to me. I will keep this email in my files. In the past I had a kitty that exhibit the same thing what your describing the Vets didn't really know what it was. This was about 25 yrs ago...
In a message dated 3/18/2005 8:50:08 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Hi. This is Spirit Cat (mari). I've been a member of the list for
three or four years but don't post much anymore. But I read all the
posts. We have had leuk positives (and negatives) for over 20 years,
but in the past few years we have also been giving a forever home to
those with other special needs.
When I saw the posts on OCD I got started following this thread
closely because two of our more recent family members have exhibited
"strange" symptoms very close to what is being described. We have
conferred with our vet and he has diagnosed feline hyperethesia which
is fairly common.
It is a condition that manefests itself in "destruction" of a body
part, most commonly the tail or rear flank. One of our two boys (one
we are sure has it the other we are watching closely as he is just
exhibiting the first classic signs) has chosen his foot as his object
of choice.
Some research links the condition to feline epilepsy (another
condition that is thought to be very uncommon in cats and currently we
have three grand mal seizure epileptics and one cluster seizure cat).
Because of the destruction issue the illness is often called
mutilation disease. Classic symptoms are "rippling of the back" when
they are given full body pets. They will often be found to be staring
off into space for long periods of time totally unaware of the things
going on around them. Then they will take off like they are being
chased by demons. It is characterized by truly obsessive
licking/washing of a particular body part - often to the point of
baldness and skin sores. They will choose a part of the body and will
literally destroy it. Chew off the end of their tail to the point
that care givers have had to have the tail removed.
Our confirmed boy has chosen his foot. When we took him literally
from the arms of someone who was dropping him off to "find a good
home" we knew he would just continue to the back as at the time he was
five weeks old and rear paralyzed. He was very malnourished and vet
could find nothing really wrong with him. We put him on high quality
food and vitamin supplements and within a few days he was able to get
up and use his back legs. He did still exhibit this sort of "short
circuiting" of the nerves when he would jump on things but it didn't
slow him down.
However, one day he jumped and got his rear foot caught in the bars of
one of the cages and it made a little sore. We started treating it
but the next morning the foot was swollen to three times its normal
size. We took him to the vet who said that he had torn the outside
toe away from the foot and it would need to be removed but we had to
get the swelling down first and gave us antibiotics and a surface
spray. In actuality we now know HE had done more damage to the foot
by chewing it.
The swelling started to go down and I made his surgery appointment.
However, we didn't need to keep it because on the morning of surgery I
looked at his foot and he had removed the toe himself. It healed and
we thought everything was fine until a month or so again when it
looked as if he had injured another toe on the same foot. However,
after conferring with our vet and doing research on our own, we know
that he is doing it himself. So now Junior takes phenobarbitol which
is the drug of choice for controlling this condition. Other drugs
often prescribed with more side effects are valium, zoloft, etc.
Thankfully, right now the phenobarb is working and the foot is healing
and he has stopped worrying with it.
It is my recommendation that if you suspect that your babies may have
this condition that you make an appointment with your vet to discuss
it. When I was doing my research I came across several stories where
caregivers had come home to blood spattered walls and cats who had
mutilated themselves.
My research indicates that this may be a "form" of epilepsy or it may
be stressed induced or that they just aren't sure. Recommendations
are to schedule several very active play sessions so that they can
work off excess energy and we have found that this does help Junior (a
member of a large multicat family). Also it is suggested to not do
full body pets something that all of ours get as as we use that to
check for changes in their bodies. However, by petting them all the
way down the back to the tail it causes their skin to ripple and seems
to set the condition in motion and they go after their body part of
choice.
I know none of us want our babies on any more medication than
necessary, but it has helped Junior immensely to be on phenobarb just
these few short days. We are comfortable with phenobarb as we use it
for our grand mal epileptic cats and our dog who has also been on it
for grand mals for over ten years.
Sorry this is so long and I am sure I have left out something I meant
to say, but when I saw these postings I had to write because we are
currently dealing with this situation and in over 40 years of caring
for all kinds of disabilities I had never run into this situation to
this extreme.
/mari
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