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My diabetic senior cat is shaking his head. Is it a seizure?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Domestic Shorthair | Male | neutered | 13 years and 8 months old | 12.5 lbs

My cat is almost 14 years and diabetic. He receives two doses of insulin at the same times everyday. Tonight, he was laying down and began shaking his head back and forth very quickly for about 10-15 seconds, he settled back down for about 30 seconds, then began shaking his head again for another 10-15 seconds. He didn’t itch/scratch his head afterwards or during the incident; I’ve never seen him do this before. Is this a seizure or possibly linked to his diabetes?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on May 20th, 2018

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Without seeing this firsthand, it is difficult for me to say for sure but based off of your description, it does sound like this could be a seizure. With Copper being diabetic and seeing that he is geriatric, I would highly recommend having him examined by a veterinarian so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. If he has not had his glucose levels checked in a while or his fructosamine level checked, I would highly recommend having these done. I hope this helps and that Copper gets better soon! Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

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1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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