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Cat and tics


Shelley19

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Hello :) We are just getting started on our journey to figure out how to help our 9 year old with her tics, motor and vocal. While we're waiting to get in with an environmental doctor we have eliminated gluten, dairy and sugar (as much as you can avoid suger!) from her diet to see if that makes a difference. We've also added magnesium and a multi vitamin and installed a EMF protection device in our house. We just started all this just 6 days ago. Five days ago my husband took our daughter on a trip to visit her grandmother up north (UP Michigan) and on that trip her tics subsided markedly. We were pretty excited! Maybe we had stumbled on a trigger! But since they returned 2 days ago the tics have been increasing again and are almost back to their previous level. I can think of only two things that are different; The climate and allergen's may be different where she was (it's full blown ragweed season here) and we have a cat where as grandma does not. Has anyone found cats (their dander etc) to be a trigger for tics? We love our kitty but we'll try a kitty free home for awhile if it might help. (Not get rid of the cats just find a babysitter for a bit) BTW- I haven't used chemicals for cleaning in a long time and our house is fairly new (no molds) with a whole house air exchange so I don't think it's our house.....Any thoughts on poor kitty being a possible culprit??

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Hi and welcome

yes, anything that one is allergic or sensitive to can trigger tics as when the immune system ramps up, it seems that tics increase.

 

As far as the cat goes, there are special cat shampoos that actually neutralize cat dander and that are very successfully used by people who want to keep a cat but are sensitive to the dander. There are many assorted brands on the market. Seems a lot easier to treat the kitty than cause it stress by rehousing.

 

Also, you mention your house is new and so I wonder if the known tic triggers of new carpet (formaldehyde) new woodwork (arsenic) or new paint may have a role? And yes, the outdoor allergens from your specific area may also be triggers.

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Thanks Chemar! I wasn't aware there were special shampoos. I will surely look into that. It was interesting to note that a day spent away from home again yesterday also yielded a much more tic free day. I didn't hear a single vocal tic all day until we returned home. I think she is sensitive to chemicals (never real good to go shopping) and I know seasonal allergies weaken her system as the ticcing always gets worse this time of year. Almost our entire house has wood floors which were selected for low emissions because of an older daughters chemical sensitivites. I'm pretty careful about what we have in our house but it could be a culprit, so my mom has agreed to take the cat for a week and we'll see what happens. That way I will know if the cat is truly a trigger before I proceed.

 

Thanks for the insights. This is a great site and I love reading the posts on this forum. It's so very encouraging. After waiting 2 years for our sweet daughter to "grow" out of the tics I'm now determined to do whatever I can to make them a non issue.

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A quick update on the cat experiment. After I dropped off the kitty my husband and I wiped down most of the surfaces in the house, vaccumed and cleaned the wood floors and soft furniture and I washed all her bedding plus blankets, "pillow pets", chair pads and anything else I could fit in the washer. We all showered and DH put a new filter on the furnace. The first day, no change. I waited a couple of more days with no decrease in her main tics and today, after getting some special shampoo for kitty that's suppose to neutralize the cat dander I brought my poor cat home. So, I'm thinking the cat may not be an issue...We have an appointment with an environmental doc at the end of the month who can tell us for sure (I hope). It will be interesting because she's adopted, from China, so there is much of her history we will not be able to provide. Hopefully they test for metals because she lived for 13 months in a heavily industrial polluted part of central China. In the mean time we will stay on the diet, supplements, and kitty neutralizer.

 

It is interesting though that she seems to be down to three tics. Of course they are three of her most obvious tics; head shaking, like she's flicking her hair out of her eyes, this is the worst one..also throat clearing, and these little yelps that are usually pretty low volume and don't draw too much attention. Her tics, if I'm remembering right (wish I would have started a journal two years ago when the ped. told me "don't worry she'll grow out of them") her tics are the worst from August till winter sets in. I don't even remember noticing her ticcing all winter..Maybe it's the the blasted ragweed wearing her system down. Time to get a air cleaner for her room I think...Sorry, thinking aloud again. This is like a puzzle, but I'm good at puzzles! So hopefully, someday, we'll get this figured out. In the meantime we have a sweet and very happy little girl who wishes she didn't have tics just so she could have sugar and cheese again. :) I'm very thankful.

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You probably already know this, but make sure you vacuum & dust the house really well after the cat goes to your Mom's, since the cat dander will still be floating around even though the cat won't actually be there. :)

 

********

Yes, thank you! We did and it was exhausting. But at least my house finally got clean all at once! It's amazing how much one little cat sheds...I know it takes awhile for the dander to be completely gone, supposedly the shampoo will help a lot.

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Hi Shelley,

 

I definitely saw an increase in tics when we brought home a kitten, and we did give it to my mom after about a week. While I think we could've tried a number of things to reduce the dander, etc., it just seemed like any potential trigger after what we have experienced with tics and having come so far in reducing them was going to be removed from the house. We saw this again after committing to watching the class guinea pig this summer. Sure enough, after a couple of days in our home, I saw an increase in my son's vocal tics.

 

I know my response is a bit late, but I thought that I should comment as I really almost posted the same question several months back!

 

Eve

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Hi Evemac, Thanks for your reply! It makes me feel a little vindicated in giving my poor cat her special baths. Oh boy she hates them, but she forgives me as soon as I'm done.

We've had the cat for two years and I never made a connection to possible sensitivity to her dander till now. If I had to do it over there would be no cat but if I found a new home for her now, dd would be crushed... We've implemented diet restrictions, a couple of supplements, neutralized the cat, and reduced screen time and her tics are about 60 to 75 percent improved over two weeks ago. I've ordered a HEPA air purifier for her room and we'll see if that helps too, getting rid of more dander and helping with the seasonal stuff will be good I think.

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