Seizures are a relatively common neurological disease of cats. A seizure is a clinically detectable manifestation of paroxysmal, excessive, and synchronous discharges of a population of hyperexcitable cerebral neurons. They are usually sudden in onset, short in duration and spontaneously resolve. Seizures which occur frequently are categorised as epilepsy. Seizures are thought to occur through the action of […]

Sacrocaudal dysgenesis is a common neurological disease of Manx cats. This is a malformation involving the caudal part of the neural tube and associated sacrocaudal somites. As a rule there is agenesis of the caudal vertebrae and the caudal sacral vertebrae. Spina bifida often occurs in the remaining sacral vertebrae and occasionally the 7th lumbar vertebra. This vertebral column […]

Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency causes a clinical syndrome in cats associated with vascular and neuronal damage. It is due to an inadequate dietary intake of thiamine, a component of the B complex group of vitamins, relative to the body’s overall needs. This deficiency is more common in cats than dogs and is especially prevalent in […]

Spina bifida is a rare neurological disease or cats characterized by the presence of a midline cleft in the vertebral arch of one or a few vertebrae[1]. The cleft may involve most of the vertebral arch or only the spinous process. This anomaly results from failure of fusion of the two vertebral laminae and may be accompanied […]

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Clinical signs 3 Diagnosis 4 Pathological features 5 References   Introduction Niemann-Pick disease (NPD) or Sphingomyelin lipidosis is a neurovisceral lysosomal storage disease characterized by neurologic dysfunction, hepatosplenomegaly, and early death. NPD is an inherited defect that results in the visceral and neuronal accumulation of sphingomyelin. Human beings exhibit five subtypes (A, B, C, D and […]

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease in which IgG antibodies attack the acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction (see figures below). Acetycholine is the chemical responsible for communication between nerves. In MG, the body develops antibodies against the sites where acetylcholine binds, thus blocking their action. This results in skeletal muscle weakness. There are […]

Spongiform encephalopathy is a neurological disease of cats that affects the central nervous system. Spongiform change in the central nervous system can involve the grey or white matter, or both, and is characterised by leucoencephalopathy, with the presence of vacuoles in the myelin sheaths, in the dendrites or axons in the neuropil, in the neuronal cell bodies or […]