Quote Originally Posted by SoldiersGirl View Post
I'm not certain this is a health issue, but as Brenda is a 15 year old cat and I'm an overprotective 'mother' I'd appreciate any advice you can give. When Brenda goes to drink her front paws jerk/twitch one at a time and at least once each but sometimes more. They jerk enough that she can inadvertently kick nearby objects including the water bowl itself. It doesn't seem to deter her from drinking at all but I hadn't noticed her doing it until recently so it worries me a bit even though she is in good health otherwise. We also moved somewhat recently and so I have wondered if it is something about the change from hard Texas water to softer Oregon water that has her doing this. I've never heard of such an occurrence, but then again not many people I know have moved their cats cross-country. It is also possible that she has been doing it longer (even forever) and I didn't notice because her water was in the bathroom instead of in the same room as me during the 8 months she lived with me before the move to Oregon. I'm usually fairly observant though so I think I probably would have noticed one of the times she happened to be drinking at the same time I was in the bathroom. Thank you for any thoughts and advice you can give - even if it's just to tell me I'm crazy and overprotective and of course there is nothing wrong with her
Glad to know that I'm not the only one seeing / having this problem.

My girl Sophie is about 15yo, and I've been giving her Methimazole for her Hyperthyroidism.

One of the quirks of the liquid medication is that it has to be kept in the fridge.

I noticed shortly after starting to give it to her (orally, obviously), that she'd do this little Michale Jackson foot dance with her front paws...usually first her right foot, and then her left foot (for a couple of twitches each). I just chalked it up to it being cold (sort of like when humans eat ice cream too fast).

Then, I noticed an odd sound every time that she went over to the water fountain (which I have elevated off the floor on a cardboard box, so she can more easily drink from it).

I can't see the fountain (obstructed by a small wine fridge), but I knew when she was over there and what she was over there for, because there is nothing else over there for her, and I can see the back half of her body and tail sticking out from behind the wine fridge.

So, I noticed some "thwacking" noises when she'd go over and start drinking, but by the time I was able to get eyes-on, the twitching had stopped. This happened multiple times, so I made it a point to watch her the next time she went over to get a drink of water.

Sure enough, as soon as she started drinking the water, her right foot would twitch forward (and thwack the cardboard support box), and then when her right front paw was finished and firmly on the ground, her left front paw would do the exact same thing.

As one person commented below about temperature, that's what I thought when she first stated doing it with the cold medicine from the fridge, but then when she started doing it with the room temperature water, I was left kind of wondering what is going on.

Then I started to wonder if somehow the act of swallowing was somehow triggering this reaction, but kind of dismissed that because when I feed her wet food, she has no twitch reaction.

And fwiw, she doesn't seem to have any pain in her paws after they thwack the cardboard.

Having said all of that, she has had an occasional seizure (maybe 4 in the last 2-3 years). I told my vet about it, and that while spacey and disoriented for about 10 minutes afterwards, she goes right back to being a cat...as if nothing has happened. My vet said that seizures in cats in the mid-teens (my interpretation, not her exact words), are not that uncommon (which surprised me), but she said that if she starts having them much more frequently, then we'd have to hunt down what was going on, but she didn't seem the slightest bit concerned about the "occasional" seizure in a cat that age (as long as she recovered in a decent amount of time...which Sophie always has).

So, the seizures MAY indicated a neurological issue that MAY have a side effect of this little MJ foot dance she does....but I have no idea if they are related in any way.

If somebody finds/knows the answer to why cats do this, please reply to me, I'd love to know.