cat cough

every few days one of my cats starts making weird noises, it sounds like she is coughing or trying to puke the hairball but nothing ever comes out.
what could that be?

My two cats started like that, then followed that was sneezing and it turned out they had the flu..

So perhaps you should go to the Vet for a quick check up if thats feasible for you.

i have no problem takin her to the vet, and in fact i asked the vet when i brought her to the clinic when i was neutering her, they checked her out and she seemed to be fine. this happens like once a week for last 2-3 month.

Originally Posted by vmf

i have no problem takin her to the vet, and in fact i asked the vet when i brought her to the clinic when i was neutering her, they checked her out and she seemed to be fine. this happens like once a week for last 2-3 month.

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Hmm, in my experience in medicine (i'ma pre-med student) sometimes symptoms are just starting to emerge and even the most experienced physician will miss the diagnosis.. so that's why I think you should have your baby checked again.

It's just, sometimes you can't expect people to go the Vet because of every single thing but but but! if it's really no trouble for you financially and logistically, I would get it checked out... if it's hairballs, then you probably will be asked to change food or add fibers in the diet.. I heard (not sure) that a certain type of grass (if not all?) help clear up the hairball problem.

As far humans are concerned, I know too well of the benefit of fibers and the same benefits are enjoyed by cats just not too sure if it also helps with hairballs but I would like to assume it does.

good luck

thank you very much for your reply. i will get her there soon, im just trying to avoid a trip to a vet in the car. the condition does not get worse or better with time, it stays the same. i will update the thread when i get more info

My kitty does the exact same thing. Once a week or so, she will cough and hack at something and nothing ever comes out. I have asked the vet about it and he put her on antibiotics the first time I mentioned it. Those really didn't do anything for her occasional cough, so I mentioned it to the vet again and he said that if the cough doesn't seem like it is getting worse, and she isn't producing anything with the cough, and her eyes and ears and nose look alright, then just monitor the situation because she really isn't sick enough to torture her with further testing. The cat grass didn't help, the change in litter didn't help, she is a short hair cat, so I don't think it could be hairballs, so I really don't know what is going on....

ok i took her to the vet, she said that it might be due to allergic bronchitis or hear problem. she she told me that there are some noises when she breathers. she made an xray and it turned out fine, heart is of a normal size as well as lungs, then she took a blood test and it turned out that she has high levels of smth, forgot what it is and that means that she is allergic to smth so i got steroids and antibiotics for my cat. the vet said that steroids should help and if not then we would have to do tests to find out what exactly she is allergic to. tests are around 600$ so she told me b4 shelling out these money i should try steroids. hopefully steroids are going to help. if not i will take out carpets etc first and change litter sand. after that i will do the allergy tests.
hopefully she is going to be ok.

it could be a mild asthma, which doesn't always show the first time on xrays. Steroids are the standard treatment, so see if that works. If it does, then you and hte vet should try and determine the smallest possible dose that stops the attacks,as it is not good to keep a cat on large, or indeed any, steroids long term if possible.

how bad are steroids for the cat?

so far ive been giving her steroids for 4 days, half a pill every day and it does not help.
the cough does not start out of a blue. she starts coughin only when she gets stressed or scared. like when my other cat plays with her too hard or when something falls or this morning she bit me thought the blanked so i screamed at her and she got scared and started coughing.
does this mean she has a heart problem?

Originally Posted by vmf

so far ive been giving her steroids for 4 days, half a pill every day and it does not help.
the cough does not start out of a blue. she starts coughin only when she gets stressed or scared. like when my other cat plays with her too hard or when something falls or this morning she bit me thought the blanked so i screamed at her and she got scared and started coughing.
does this mean she has a heart problem?

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No, of course not. Stress can trigger symptoms of asthma, so it just might be that.

I'm thinking that if it can take 2 to 4 days for a depomedrol injection to kick in (two of my cats have had these injections for allergies), it would most likely take longer for the pills you're giving to start working. How much medication is in that 1/2 pill?
I think you should wait 7 days for the pills to kick in and if by that time still nothing is happening, talk to your vet. (It's possible your vet will want to increase the dosage, at least temporarily.)


Purrs

Violet

i had a simialler problem with my oldest cat gracie , he started coughing well more of a hacking , scared me at first , was like once a day he would have this coughing fit as such , then went to more night all through , took him to the vet they said everything seemd fine with him , then about 2 weeks later 2 of my other cats started hacking every day , again they went to the vets and still nothing , so i had 3 cats coughing all night , then one day it all just stoped , the last time i heard any of them cough was about 4 weeks ago , so fingers crossed , i did ask the vet if it could be a type of kennle cough , (wasnt my normal vet) she laughed at me and said dont be silly only dogs can get that , i was gob smacked , i mean it was only a suggestion , all i did in the end was give a small amount of honey , i let the cats lick it from there spoons once a night and once in the morning . dont know if it was that , that helped?? but its gone , hope your kitty is ok and that it resloves itself soon.

im giving her half a pill for first 5 days and then 1/4 of a pill for the next five days. today i gave her last 1/2 of a pill and she was coughing just 10 mins ago
hopefully by the end of the cycle she will stop or at least do it less oftern

Just keep giving the pills in the dosage the vet says, until either the cough is controlled or the pills are obviously not working, in which case you will have to try something else. But give it time. And hopefully, once the cough is under control with relatively high amounts, you can work to reduce the dosage. Steroids are bad long term (over years) because they can lead to heart problems and diabetes, as in humans. But over the short term you are doing the right thing.

So Lisa's vet did everything he could: took xrays, tested for asthma, put her on steroids and gave her deworming medicine. None of it helped. He referred me to an animal medical center for digital xrays (very expensive) and again everything came out okay and the doctor said she's fine. But she continues to cough and has had 4 attacks in the past 5 hours, especially after the other cat starts playing rough and Lisa freaks out. Im very concerned.

Okay pardon these questions as they may come accross stupid

What are you feeding the cat ( brand type )? Has it changed ??

How old is the cat ?>?

I'm feeding her an all-natural canned food, two brands "California Natural" fish formulas and the "Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul" hairball control formula. She refuses to eat dry food. (She's a picky eater and picked these 2 brands out of many other natural ones that I offered her). Also, at first I though she might have allergies to fish, so I only fed her chicken food for a week, but her coughs didn't suppress at all.

The first 3 months I fed her the 9-Lives brand and then switched to natural kind, though very rarely when I run out of food, I give her "9 lives".

She turned 1 year couple weeks ago.

I am thinking grain allergie or inhalent .... what cleaners are used in the house??/

swiffer cleaner and clorox disinfectant wipes. I got an air purifier and changed her litter from Fresh Step (which honestly gave me allergies too) to a scent-free World's Best a week ago. I noticed improvements in the sound of her coughs - they're now not as deep and seem to be easier on her, though more frequent.

I checked the ingredients of her food and it has brown rice, flaxseed, oatmeal and barley. Could those trigger grain allergies?

barley I suspect first as it is a "kissing cousin" of wheat

flaxseed can be a culprit

rice and oatmeal are possible but not near as likely

cafeful with the wipes , she may be getting residue