Hello, I am new to the forums and I appreciate any advice you may have for me in advance.

I'll tell you about my current situation with my dear friend kitty. He is turning 5 in a month or so now, and out of the blue he has started to have cluster seizures(roughly 2 per day). He has had a relatively normal life. He is an indoor cat, and loves to laze around the house mostly.

It all started last week when I saw that he had a twitch in his face and I though maybe it could of been a dental problem, so I searched his gums but found little. The next day he started to have another one and by this time it was occurring about twice a day. I thought I would take him in for a check up with the vet and try and determine what was going on with him. I waited until the next morning, and this seizure was alot different. He began running in a circular motion, face twitching and salivating heavily from the mouth. Each one of these last from anywhere from 15-30 seconds. Once he 'comes too' he looks around and meow's a bit and then goes straight for his food dish. After 10-15 minutes or so he is back to his regular self.

Now a little bit leading up to the seizures. My cat has always been quite a scardy cat.. He is easily spooked, and has always been kind of a lone ranger in a way.. does his own thing, comes around when he feels like it. The day before the seizures started I asked myself what had changed in the past that may have triggered these seizures and I have only come up two possibilities. I bought him some kat nip, which he never has had before. I sprinkled a pinch or so down and he rolled around and loved it. I later put some on a toy of his and left him to play. I am not sure if somehow he managed to hit his head somewhere inbetween that time, or that the nip somehow triggered some sort of epileptic break?

Here is what I have done so far. I have taken him to my vet, and he checked his temperature and made sure he didn't have any sort of fever. He looked at his pupils, and looked around a little more. He told me that to better predict what could be causing the seizures that we would likely want to do a full blood sample and tests for any irregularities.

I haven't had the blood test completed yet just because I haven't quite got the money, especially if it is going to come back normal and will result in having to do more tests and prescriptions. My Dr said that he recommended we try putting him on valium so that we can break the seizures because he has been having 2-3 / day. I started him on a dose of valium Thursday, and he is getting 2.5mg every 6 hours. This dose has pretty much sedated and he just lays there. Last night he got up around midnight and walked around and meowed for about 5 minutes. He then went back to lay down and turned and had a little bit of a seizure where his face twitched and he started salivating quite a bit. The thrashing wasn't as bad but I expect that was because he was pretty loopy and couldn't really move his body all that well anyhow.

I guess my question is, I have no idea what to do next. My Dr said we can try and put him on phenobarb, and see how he reacts to it, and see if that helps with the seizures. All I know is that having him doped up on valium all day to stop the seizures is pointless because hes like a cat with no soul, he just lays there helplessly and that is know way for him to live. He is so young at age 5, and I am shocked that this has even happened. I hope anyone out there could give me some advice on what I should do next? Should I start the phenobarb and see how that works? Or should I schedule him to get his blood work done up?

Also, I have recently changed his diet since the seizures because I read that sometimes diet can effect them also. I he was on Whiskas's for most of his life, but have recently changed to a grain-free high fat content dry food.

I appreciate any help or advice. Thanks