That was scary

Sorry, this is going to be another entry about cats, but something scary just happened: Ming had some sort of seizure.

He was just sitting there watching me, as he does, and I noticed he had one of his front paws up by his head like he was scratching his ear, but he wasn’t scratching – he seemed to have it stuck, and looked like he was trying to force it down but it wouldn’t move. My first thought was that he’d got his claw caught somehow, but then I realised that he had nothing to get it caught on – he’s a shorthair, and he doesn’t wear a collar.

As I got up to try and help him, he stood up and took a few steps away, still with his front paw in the air, then collapsed. And not in his usual “I’m so tired I’ll just flop right here” way – this was a proper collapse, like his legs just slid out from under him. His front paw was still up by his head, and now the back leg on the same side was also curled up weirdly.

He didn’t seem to be in any distress or anything – I bent down to scratch his head and he started purring (I know that cats sometimes purr when they’re in pain, but Ming’s usual response to pain is a continual low growl), but he obviously couldn’t stand up – he lifted his head to my hand, but the rest of his body refused to follow.

About that time I yelled for MrPloppy, and by the time he came through Ming had regained the use of his front legs and half-hoisted himself up, and a few seconds later his back legs started working again too, and after a few wobbly steps he seemed totally back to normal.

He seems ok now – he’s walking normally, and just ate his breakfast, leapt up on the bed, and had his usual morning spat with Saffy about who gets which bit of it to sleep on – so we’ve decided we won’t take him to the vet unless he seizures again or seems to be in distress. I’m guessing it was some sort of mini-stroke – he’s certainly of an age that if he was a human a stroke wouldn’t be unusual.

But that was a scary way to start the day!