She was diagnosed fairly young, and in the last few years has worked her way up to what is now 3x daily Pregabalin (18mg). She still gets fairly frequent twitch attacks (seems to be a daily occurrence), and I feel terrible every time I see it. 99.9% of the time she's fine - likes to cuddle, or at least be in the same room as us. Likes to play fetch (she'll bring us toys to throw). Perfectly normal seeming cat, until the twitching stars. Then she's looking over her back, frantically licking at it, and running off to a different part of the room (or house).

We've started getting other suggestions from her specialist for non-pharmaceutical options. The only one that seemed even potentially feasible is the Assisi loop. Has anyone used that before? Any luck with it?

So we went to the vet for a second time about possible FHS. Originally last summer we took our cat in for twitchy skin and episodes of suddenly running off into another room. She was originally put on 2mgs gabapentin. We increased her dose to 3mg and the symptoms got worse. Vet stated today to get X-ray because it could be a spinal injury and to possibly consult with a neurologist and get a $2k MRI. Excuse me??? My cat doesn’t have loss of limb function nor incontinence nor hesitation in jumping or limping. Can someone please give me advice? I think we should try something other than gaba before going the neuro route!

My cat seems to mellow out when he is in a puppy/kitty t-shirt, but he’s still able to tear fur from his legs. I’m wondering if anyone has tried putting their kitties in a recovery suit & if that has helped? or if it will just stress them out more? i know they are clean animals & need to groom.

My cat's FHS started back in December. After some trial and error with meds, we've landed on Prozac. But Prozac apparently tastes horrible because I couldn't get her to take it. So I ended up having to manually pill her every day, which we both hated. It got to the point where she no longer trusted me and would run away when I'd try to pet her. My neighbor told me that she is also giving her cat Prozac but got her prescription from Mixlab. So now I get these tiny "micro chew" Prozac pills that I hide inside a Churu Bite and now my cat eats them without a problem. This whole ordeal with FHS has been a nightmare, but at least I don't have to manually pill my cat anymore, which was just the shit icing on the shit cake. I hope this helps someone else who's having trouble getting their cat to take their meds.

EDIT: There are probably other pharmacies that will compound medications in various forms that work for you. I'm not necessarily trying to sell anyone on Mixlab, but they have the form that works for me - the "micro chew" form. The first online pharmacy I tried made very large chews that were too big to hide inside something else, and my cat didn't want them at all, even though they were supposed to be chicken flavor.

Hey y’all! This is Cash and he’s about to be 5 next month:

The first clip of this video is from around 2021/2022 (when he was around 1 year old)when he first started doing this. At the time I didn’t think too much of it and thought he was playing with his tail or his nails would get caught.

Over the last couple years he would do this every once in a while and I would just redirect him or hold him for a bit.

The second part of that video is from about 2 weeks ago (he is currently 4 years old). I noticed he started to attack his tail more and he would bite it. I discovered he had an open wound at the base of his tail (I’m assuming from his biting) about 10 minutes after this video .

This lead me to learn about FHS. I would like to get opinions on if this looks like FHS to y’all because I have no prior experience. If it does look like FHS, how do I go about getting a diagnosis? I called a feline only vet near me and asked and they had no clue what FHS even was…

Thanks in advance!🐱

Is anyone else’s kitty aggressive when they’re experiencing FH? My guy has definitely gotten a lot better. I’ve also gotten a lot better at managing my reactions (less yelling, less pulling away to avoid injury, etc).

He got my ankle on the weekend and hasn’t done that for a couple months. This morning he attacked me in bed. This is all without warning by the way. I can sometimes tell when he’s having a twitch moment but these attacks are unprovoked.

In bed I put up a barrier to stop him (blanket). If that doesn’t work I encourage him off the bed to reset (a gentle push). If that doesn’t work I get up and leave. Anyway I ended up crying in the bathroom. I know he can’t help it but he draws blood and it hurts and it’s not personal but sometimes it feels that way if that makes any sense. I also think he may have peed a little on the bed which he does not do.

Anyway. FH is heartbreaking and I feel quite alone.

Does anyone else give their cat phenobarbital? How do you get these stupid pills to cut in half and not disintegrate? I’ve waited SO many and I’m so tired of it… plz help

My cat is not diagnosed, but he’s always had these “attacks” since he was younger. It’s been a day and he’s been like this continuously and we’re seriously thinking of bringing him to a vet. It just hurts me to see him like this. His back twitches, he licks himself excessively and even yesterday it was worse.

My cat, Truffles, recently was just switched from her gabapentin being every 12 hours to now every 8 hours. I have a multi cat household and I am a nurse in the hospital so often am gone for 13+ hours at a time on my work days. Has anyone found a way of safely using a microchip and/or automatic feeder to give meds in a multi cat or pet household? I would like to avoid having to pay a pet sitter to come give her meds every single day I have to work but I also want to make sure I have a reliable way that I know she will always get her med even when I’m not home.

Hello! I’m trying to get a general idea of how many episodes are normal for a cat on hyperesthesia treatment. We’re using Solensial (since August 2024). He originally had phenobarbital and then Gabapentin. Then I switched to a specialized cat vet and we agreee to try Solensia.

I recently asked for (and have received) prn Gabapentin for when he has a “bad week”. I track the episodes I witness fairly accurately (sometimes hard to distinguish between regular zoomies, tho I can usually tell). I would say significant episodes are happening 2-3 x a week still. However, he is much less aggressive so the Solensia is helping.

What should my expectations be? I’m sure every cat is different and there probably isn’t a great answer. I would be curious to know your experiences with frequency of episodes.

*Update* Vet appointment was today and we did go home with a thirty day capsule supply of gabapentin, and we opted to have the blood panel but won't get the results for a couple days. They sedated her for the blood draw because she was so stressed and I left her with them for almost two hours. During that time she also had a myofascial massage of her back and sides, as they noticed the skin was very tight (to the body) along her lower back and that is one of their suggestions to try at home too. Will get more medication discussion when the blood results are back, but the vet visit notes suggest the amitriptyline as an alternative to the fluoxetine, and to combine with the gabapentin or pregabalin. No meds until tomorrow, so we will see how she does with this first trial.

*blood work normal; she has been having an episode this morning after getting the meds (before they can take effect) so I sent a few more questions about switching the anti-depressant to a different one also, since fluoxetine has not been effective.

+

Almost two years ago I adopted two tortie sisters that came from a co-workers "garage" cat, and at about age 8 months they both started developing the twitching and rolling back symptoms of FHS. Calypso has it much worse, and will get manic and race around, but Circe usually only has back twitches when she gets over stimulated by playtime. They have been to the Vet for this a few times, and usually I think our Vet is pretty good and she mentioned treating other cats with the disorder. However, her go-to solution is first homeopathic. Both cats have been getting a dissolved dose of hypericum perferatum (st johns wort basically) twice each day, and Calypso was started on fluoxetine about a year ago. The symptoms seem better when they wear shirts or halters, but the meds have not stopped anything. Changes to diet have not helped.

Next Monday I have an appointment for Calypso to specifically address her FHS and find another treatment plan. I've read so many stories about cats on other meds that are more effective, and even though every cat is different, I am wondering if switching to gabapentin may be a more effective medication to try. They have not done bloodwork before, so I am wondering if that might be helpful too?

I guess I am looking for advice- did getting bloodwork done help with developing a treatment plan for your cat(s)? We would have to travel 5+ hrs to get an MRI so that is not an option unless it is an emergency, but are there other tests that I should ask about? Other meds that have been effective for your cat? I have a list of questions and want to cover as much as possible- it is a 2 minute car ride and Calypso hates being in the car so I don't want to have to go back too often.

My cat has had feline hyperesthesia for 2 years now. At first he was on gabapentin which was working but we kept having to increase the dosage overtime which would make him very lethargic and just wasn’t sustainable for forever. We changed his vet to a cat specialist who is very knowledgeable and caring who changed his medication to phenobarbital. For a whole year he had barely any episodes, like maybe once a month we would forget he even had this condition.

3 months ago I took him home to my parents house (where he used to live for most of his life) and it’s like something snapped in his brain and he started having numerous episodes a day with no way to help him. He also started trying to bite his tail which he never used to do. Once we returned to my apartment he calmed down a lot more and would only have one episode a day which is still drastically different than how he used to be. Recently, however, he’s been having numerous episodes a day again and I don’t know what to do to help him. I have Feliway calming pheromones and tried increasing his dose. I try hard to give him an environment that is enriching but not overstimulating. Nothing feels like it’s working and it’s making me so sad.

I have noticed it’s when he naturally gets higher energy that this was happening although now it’s just happening all the time. That makes me think something calming or anxiety reducing could help. Should I try putting him on phenobarbital AND gabapentin? Is that safe? Is there any other combo that might work? Any advice would help.

It's been a 2 year struggle. My Bengals fhs has gotten progressively worse. The attacks were near constant. I tried every med they could think of. Cleaned my entire house top to bottom. Replaced every cat tree. Removed every plant. Change his diet multiple times. It looks like the twitching was being caused by a nerve between some compressed discs in his spine.

I took him for a neurology consult because my regular vet was out of ideas. They did an mri and found several compressed discs. They did an epidural on the area. For a month the was zero twitching. My cat had gone through periods of relative calm before though. We waited for the epidural to wear off, which took 2 months. For the past month the twitching has been pretty bad. I took him in this morning and got another epidural. This was to see if the epidural was helping. Hours later there is no twitching.

So my options are:

Epidural every 2 months for the next 5-10 years at $900 each

Back surgery and about 2-3 weeks of confined healing in the house. The surgery will be 8-10k.

Cat is only 7 years old. I am leaning towards the surgery but might do one more epidural in 2 months to give me time to get a reco ery area setup. He has to be held in an area where he can't jump up or down on anything.

I'm happy to finally have some sort of reason for the twitching, but damn if it isn't an expensive fix. At least now I can take him off the mega doses of gaba he's been getting and let him be a normal cat again.

My 5 year old orange boy has always seemed different than our other three cats. Usually in the evenings, but sometimes mid day, you can see the skin on his back twitch and then he gets insane zoomies, running around the house full tilt, messing with our blinds. He howls and howls, sometimes pausing to aggressively lick his back. These episodes can last for 10-20 minutes, we do what we can to try to get him to snap out of it and just calm down, but at times it can get really frustrating listening to the howling and him running around the house. When petting him, you really have to pay attention because it can quickly become overstimulating and he’ll try to bite at you. Every once in a while he will have a major episode where he is just frantically licking himself all over, pupils huge. Never has he licked himself enough to cause any noticeable fur loss. I want him to feel more comfortable in his body, and we’re also thinking about starting a family here soon, so we need to get this behavior under control. We try not to take him to the vet more than necessary, because he is very reactive and has needed to be sedated for exams in the past. Does this sound feline hyperesthia? If so, what are my next steps? I see other members of this sub discussing gabapentin and getting it without the assistance of a vet. He has taken gabapentin before and done quite well with it.

Edit to add: his diet consists of Hills Urinary Hairball Control dry food

My cat over grooms t the point that he is missing hair and he also has these freak out grooming episodes where he will lick his body like there’s an emergency randomly. He licks and scratches and bites himself.

I have seen a local vet a few times. The symptoms are periodically seeing his back muscles roll and his tail twitching. He has been more vocal than normal as he is typically a quiet cat, but the worst part is chewing and licking his tail and his hind so much so that he has no fur on his hind and his lower part of his tail. WE have been dealing with this for two years and the first 4 years of his life were symptom free. Flea treatment as a preventative. Three other cats none of which have ever had fleas. Indoor cats. We have tried Zyrtec to address potential allergies. We have changed our boys food to Blue Buffalo Wilderness Duck recipe to also address potential allergies. He has also had a basic blood test to test for allergies and it was negative. We also given him small doses of pure omega 3 to address potential skin issues. We have tried clomipramine with little success. We also have cat pheromones to try to relax him as well. the only thing that we saw some success was a shot of steroids where his fur was well on its way coming back. I know steroids can be bad long term for his well being. The vet wants us to go to a dermatologist which I believe will be very expensive and not get us any closer to resolving his issues. Can you offer what else we can try so I can discuss with my vet? We just want our boy to a point where he is not licking and biting his back end. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Update Gabapentin is on the way as well as Royal Canine Select Protein Pea & Duck Formula. I know no miracles i just hope to get the constant grooming to calm down. I know this will most likely be a battle for the rest of his life, but we just want him to be as comfortable as he can be. Looking at possibly hemp as well, but I need to read more.

Do you think FHS affects indoor or outdoor cats more or do you think it doesn’t matter?

My cat is an indoor cat, then we moved house and now she goes outside in the garden every so often. Before her FHS diagnosis, she was solely an indoor cat

Here’s Ms. tiny cat (who is far from being “tiny”🤏🏻) She got a diagnosis about a year ago after a plethora of test and imaging. She’s been on gaba the whole time, but I don’t think she’s a very severe case of fhs - she does know how to signal that she is not comfortable and she needs her medication, so we give it to her as needed. She does this thing where she lays on her stomach and extends her legs backwards (pic #1) or she also lays belly up and also extends her legs outwards (pic #2) as well. She does seem content, but I just can’t figure it out and would hate to be overlooking her possibly trying to communicate with me. She’s been especially sensitive and very much been using displacement behaviors to tell me that she’s in need of some kind of help. She won’t give me no help hinting at anything specific and I just don’t know how to respond or how to handle this situation. She’s such a good girl, very sweet and very intelligent but I don’t know what she could possibly be wanting help with and these positions are about all I have to go off of.

Have to suddenly fly home with my cat for the first time. She normally travels in a very large carrier/kennel because she is 15-16 pounds and difficult to coerce into any other type of carrier. She's also hard to give meds to, most days I can get some gaba in her but I'm worried about actually getting her to be sedated for a while.

Anyone flown with a fat cat or an fhs cat? Any general tips? It's a delta flight from LaGuardia ny to Florida

In short my FHS cat takes gaba most days, I haven't really been able to get any advice from a vet about her so I give it to her on my own accord bc I know it can help. The issue is she weighs 16 pounds, is very hard to give meds to, and doesn't seem to be responding to gaba much. I have to take her on a plane from New York to Florida in about a week and feel like gaba can't sedate her anymore. She's difficult and we've never flown so I really need her out of it. What would you do? Does she have a high tolerance now?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been dealing with a really tough situation with my 6-year-old British Shorthair, O, and I feel completely drained. He’s always been a bit of an unusual cat—quirky behaviors, sensitivity to sudden changes, and a habit of marking places with scent rather than covering his waste properly. But about a month ago, everything took a sharp turn for the worse.

It started right after we had guests over for a few days. Once they left, he snapped into a full-on anxiety state. His FHS symptoms kicked in hard:

• Severe rippling skin episodes

• Obsessive licking to the point of near self-harm

• Sudden hyperactivity and bolting across the house

• Extreme post-meal attacks—right after eating, his symptoms spike

• Tension and erratic movements, like he doesn’t know what to do with himself

At first, we tried Apoquel and antihistamines, thinking it might be allergy-related. That helped a little, but the symptoms came back after his next stressful vet visit. Our vet then suggested fluoxetine (Zedprex, 0.5cc daily, liquid form), and we’re now on day 5.

The Current Situation – Mixed Results & New Problems

• He seems calmer in general—less panicked, fewer extreme outbursts.

• But he’s still licking a lot and showing post-meal episodes (sometimes even worse).

• Constipation has become a serious issue.

• Before fluoxetine, he already had some irregularities with his stool. His poop was often hard and in small, separate pieces, so he was already on probiotics and malt paste.

• Since starting fluoxetine, he went 72 hours without pooping and just passed a small, dry stool today.

• His water intake has dropped significantly, and his urine output is lower too.

• He’s still eating, sometimes obsessively, but this whole situation worries me.

My Questions for You All

1. Has anyone else seen fluoxetine cause constipation and reduced thirst? If so, did it balance out over time?

2. For those who have used fluoxetine for FHS, when did you start seeing a real difference? Did the obsessive licking ever actually stop?

3. Has anyone noticed FHS attacks worsening after meals? Could diet be a bigger factor than I realize? (He’s on Hill’s k/d wet food + Royal Canin Savour Exigent kibble).

4. If fluoxetine didn’t work, what did? Gabapentin is an option, but it would require another long, stressful vet trip, which I’m trying to avoid unless absolutely necessary.

I feel like I’m constantly second-guessing every decision, and I’m just exhausted. If anyone has gone through this with their cat and has insight, I’d really appreciate it. Even just knowing I’m not alone in this would help.

Thanks in advance. ❤️

My Miso got really startled by something a few days ago we're still not sure what. Ever since then she's been hiding in the basement, terrified, twitching, running around, the whole works. Days 1 and 2 were bad, we could barely approach her and she was terrified of everything, now on day 3 she's still twitching but distracting is helping her and she also came back upstairs. I've heard of episodes lasting a few hours but when Miso gets it really bad like this, she doesnt get better for days. It's been a few months since I've seen her this bad. We're contacting a vet soon to get gabapentin but I'm just wondering if this is the case for anyone else?

I'm an emotional wreck right now so I'll write a much better more explanatory post tomorrow but plain and simple: can this cause hallucinations?

Looking about the room with dilated eyes at nothing but as though something incredibly captivating or even frightening is there?

Please share.

Trying to figure out what to think. My cat has a vet appt scheduled early this week. Yesterday, suddenly she went into a fit I’ve never seen her do before. She was frantically darting as if she was running away from something but nothing was there. Her tail was violently thrashing around. Tons of back twitching. She was panic grooming all over and reacting to the back twitching. She kept running from her hiding spots but couldn’t settle on one location. Dilated pupils, at some points fast breathing. I had no emergency vet clinics available at the time.

This carried on for roughly an hour. Not completely non stop, just was going on for quite a bit for first hour, then hour two it lessened a bit. Then for the rest of the night she was able to settle in one location for some time. She was able to eat and use litter box regularly without issue. She was jumping up on places no issue.

At one point I tried combing her back because I foolishly questioned if she had a bug crawling on her back so I wanted to help. She was not aggressive to me in any way.

She didn’t talk to me at all. (Only times she refused to talk to me is when she doesn’t feel well)

She did have moments yesterday of having her tail held high and rubbing against me.

During this “episode” yesterday, she was still aware even while in complete distress. She was responsive to me and engaging.

Today she ate fine, used litter box fine. Has been talking to me more as the morning progresses. Tail has been up most of the morning as it is usually.