Cricky

Our little Cricket has been acting strange lately. For the past several days, she has had "spells" that are generally five to ten minutes long, and involve twitching, compulsive self-cleaning, tail-swishing, darting across the room suddenly, and a crazy intense look on her face. Sometimes this occurs multiple times per hour, other times it is more like every few hours. It is heartbreaking because she looks both physically and mentally distressed and possessed. We were up at 4am with her racing around our bed in a strange terror. Yikes.

Of course we consulted the internet first, and her behavior matches the description of a rare "syndrome" called feline hyperesthesia. It seems kind of quack because there is no test to diagnosis it, the causes aren't clear, and no real effective treatment exists at this point. And the syndrome resembles typical cat behavior, only amped up with a strange compulsiveness. It seems to ultimately be a combination of acute skin sensitivity and obsessive behavior. It is possible (and our hope) that her skin is just dry due to the change in season, and perhaps wet food and other skin/coat care cat products may do the trick. Hopefully if we can cure the skin sensitivity, we can end these spells!