feline hyperesthesia syndrome is also known as twitching, rippling, or rolling skin disease.
that's because the presentation of the disease causes the skin to move in a way that looks like
the cat is feeling that there's an insect crawling on his back. the condition is still poorly
understood and it might actually be a combination of more than one cause, or might be a result
of completely different causes that just have the same presentation. i'm dr orion, a veterinarian
and a veterinary behavior residency graduate. here are the causes and the clinical signs for
hyperaesthesia syndrome, but stick around to learn about the diagnosis and the treatment.
it can be dermatological like everything that causes skin issues. for example, fleas
or skin infection. it can be neurological, like brain tumors, slipped discs, anything in the
spine, the brain or in the neurons. in the nerves themselves. it can be caused by everything that
causes pain or discomfort and of course it can be behavioral. not all cats will have all of the
clinical signs so don't look for all of them. look for even just some of them. even just one. pacing.
agitation. leave me alone. vocalization. meow meow meow meow. excessive licking of the back,
the legs, the tail. you got me. I'm not gonna try to do that. and even biting of self
or having redirected aggression towards other people or other pets.
some cats will even be sleeping when all of a sudden they will jump up, start running
around vocalizing. maybe even defecating, and maybe go into hiding. and all of that without
any observable trigger. sometimes petting the cat or touching the cat will be the trigger, but many
times it will happen even if there's no one around the house. you should try and video record your
cat alone and see if it happens then as well. of course, as the name implies, sometimes you will
see the skin on the back of the thorax, of the rib-cage, or the back of the abdomen, rolls. and
sometimes you might also see the muscles of the back kind of tenses up. but despite of the name
this doesn't always happen. the diagnosis is made by collecting the information about
when this phenomenon is most likely to happen and what exactly is seen when it does. according
to the history, much more advanced diagnostics may be done. for example blood work, x-rays,
skin cytology, and you might even be referred to a specialist like a neurologist or dermatologist, or
of course, a behaviorist. another option that is sometimes used in order to diagnose the problem,
is to do a medication trial. basically that means that we will start treating. for example,
skin issues, or we will start treating seizures and see if the cat responds. if the cat
does respond, it means that it's more likely to be that problem. if the cat doesn't respond
then we rule out that problem as the cause. so for example, if we treated a skin issue and the cat
didn't respond by getting better, it's less likely to be a skin issue. how do we treat hyperesthesia
syndrome? that depends on the cause. i will let my fellow veterinarians explain how to treat it
if it's neurological or if it's pain or if it's dermatological, but this is how you treat it if it
is behavioral. first it's always a good idea to reduce the stress and anxiety as much as you can.
next, there are a few medications that were suggested as a treatment for this
specific disease. anti-anxiety medications like fluoxetine or prozac, and clomipramine were used
to treat this problem. other medications that have anti-seizure properties as well
as behavioral properties like anti-anxiety properties are clonazepam, and gabapentin.
gabapentin can actually also help with neuropathic pain so that is why many times this is my drug of
choice and it will be my first trial. if you got to this point of the video i would really
appreciate if you could share the love with me by clicking the like and the subscribe button.
that way youtube will show this video to more people with cats with hyperesthesia. they want
to learn as well as you do, right? help them out. you might also be interested in this video
about what to do if your cast hyperesthesia syndrome is getting worse. check it out.