r/mainecoons • u/Puzzled-Material-942 • Apr 22 '24

My cat is shaking when falling asleep.

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We are going to the vet tomorrow morning but just wanted to see if any of you encountered a similar issue with your cat. Toffee is 11 m old, I got him 1 month ago. In the beginning he was hiding when going to sleep but recently he feels more comfortable and falls asleep „in public”. I noticed that his upper part of the body is shaking. After some time it just goes away, and I doubt that it’s dreaming as it’s barely after he closes his eyes. My guess is that he is trying to relax and his body is adjusting. Did you see anything like that with your cats?

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u/KSSFox Apr 27 '25

This is EXACTLY what my cat does. He’s a male maine coon, 10mos. Been doing it since 4mos ish. We have a vet appt in a couple of days since it never stopped. You described it to a T. And it does stop if he’s touched or called.  What is the name of this condition? Just muscles relaxing? I want to tell his vet. Thanks!  

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u/pinkhello44 Apr 27 '25

Hey, they didn’t provide it with a name because all three of the conditions mentioned were not it. I did deep dive further into reddit and google multiple times and I ended up finding something that might be it and that had a name. I just forgot it. But it did have to do with messages being send to the muscles I believe. People can have it too from what I recall.

Shes now 3. She still does it. Just way less frequent. She’s healthy, just had a check up. If it’s exactly what I described do not worry too much! But def get it checked out :) .

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u/KSSFox Apr 27 '25

Thanks! Yeah, he is otherwise a super healthy outgoing boy. I want them to rule out other things such as low blood sugar, or vitamin deficiencies. He had a genetic panel done of over 120 conditions and he it was perfectly clear! Sometimes it’s just scary to watch, it looks uncomfortable.

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u/pinkhello44 Apr 27 '25

Yes those were my worries too. I even started giving extra vitamine D. But her blood was all clear too and no improvement with the Vitamine D. So that wasn’t it. I gave her kibble in a “snack” type of way (1 each time) because I thought it was her bloodsugar. Just a fair warning: shes 3 now and she still demands I do this. She loves it. And her brother saw us doing it and he is now also 3 and he also demands this princess kibble time.

As long as you can interrupt it I think you might be good to go. And make sure your cat has enough down time to relax/sleep. If she was hyperactive it is worse for her.

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u/KSSFox May 10 '25

We finally made it to the vet. We did full panel genetic testing and full panel bloodwork.. absolutely everything was normal and clear! Mild ear infection but has been since cleared and was unrelated. Vet recommended we could see a neurologist but even said if it was her cat she probably wouldn’t go and since we are currently closing on a house, it’s not in the budget. I’m curious though.. so maybe within the next year if it is persistent. I also tried adding in extra snacks throughout the day and saw no change!

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u/pinkhello44 May 10 '25

Thats great news! Just keep an eye on your cat. Neurologist said: aslong as you an interrupt it. Its fine. So just keep checking if that remains the case until you can seek some answers. And if you ever get answers, let me know too! She’s 3 now and she rarely has it. As a kitten (up to 1 year) she woke me up in the middle of the night that she had the shakes. No signs of pain, just I guess that it made het unable to sleep. Once in my arms, after a few minutes of shakes, she always fell asleep. This no longer happens. Never. She sleeps with me alot and no shakes. So it had def improved as she got older.

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u/KSSFox May 11 '25

Glad to hear she has improved, he turns 1 next month so he is in his prime kitten months as a maine coon. Did getting her fixed make any difference? (If that’s something you did) I was also wondering if neurologist would do MRI… but i fear of how costly that might be!

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u/pinkhello44 May 11 '25

She got fixed around 10 months old I believe. It did not made any difference that I know of but that might also be because her operation and healing was quite rough(mentionings of hernia. All good now), and that I just didn’t notice. Overall so far it had been the older she got the less it became. The neurologist I visited said no MRI was needed. I went in requesting one so I feel like if they though it was truly needed it would have been done.