Calling all cat owners...

At 11 o'clock last night my 16 year-old cat suddenly began displaying some very alarming symptoms. Of what, I do not know. That's where you come in. If you have ever heard of a cat with problems similar to those I am about to describe, please tell me. My vet had no clue.

When I found her last night, her tail was smacking about uncontrollably, like a fish smacking about on the deck of a boat. The muscles in her rear legs and hips were twitching and spasming, and she could not walk straight as a result. She got angry with her tail for not sitting still, scratched at it with front claws, and then bolted from the room, her lower spine jerking from side to side as she struggled to run. When I finally found her hiding from herself under a chair in the living room, she was calmer and sitting down, but I could see that her hips and tail were still in spasms.

I described all this to my vet, having woken the poor man up at 11:30 on a Saturday night, who has thus far proven himself an extremely capable doctor (indeed, I wish my own doctor was as patient, thorough, and thoughtful as my vet), but he said he had never hear of symptoms like that before in the whole of his career and was at a total loss for advice.

This morining Noelle seems better. Her muscles are still, but I havn't seen her move yet, so I don't know if she's still having locomotion problems. She's curled up on the floor of my room in a pile of dirty clothes (what a cutie!).

So please, if you have ever heard of a cat with similar problems, please leave me a comment or email me directly at (deleted). I would very much like to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, because I find it difficult to believe that these symptoms were a fluke occurance and will not flare up again. I'm sure it's only a matter of time, and I don't want to spend another night like last night. I've had this cat more than half my life--I can barely remember the time before we got her (that's a cute story for another blog). Any insight you can offer would be very welcome. Thank you.