cats get brain freeze too

[mellowtigger]

It happened again recently.  I usually keep a glass of iced water at my bedside, and sometimes my cat decides to take a long drink before settling in for the night.  If I'm planning ahead for my own benefit, I sometimes put it in the freezer for a while before taking it to bedside.  On those nights, when the whole drink is very cold and she decides to sip from it as soon as I myself get settled in, she may take several laps before suddenly hissing at the glass then walking away from it.

Nobody knows for sure yet, but some vets think it might actually be their teeth that cause the pain rather than a nerve cluster farther back in the mouth.  I suspect that it's brain freeze, not a painful tooth.  When I have teeth acting up due to cold, they respond right away.  They don't wait for several applications of the cold before registering it, which is what happens when Hope drinks from my cold glass of water.