Is there asthma/allergy medication for cats?

My Torrie has feline herpes and has been having alot of colds lately..Doc said she has allergies/asthma..and gives her a steroid shot. They are not lasting as long as they use to. Is there a medication I can give her on a daily basis to help her out. I love this vet but he is a little old fashioned.
If anyone knows of a med..please let me know so i can ask him about it and he can get it for me. Thanks

YES there are inhalers for cats if the asthma is bad enough... I would IMHO start with diet

Have you been to http://www.fritzthebrave.com/ ?

It's a very helpful website from people who live with a cat with feline asthma. As far as drugs, if this is feline asthma, a flovent inhaler is really the current veterinary best practice. I'm not doing it because Artemis is hard to handle, flovent is NOT cheap, and her asthma is fairly mild (no symptoms right now, knock on wood!).

Sharky is suggesting doing a low-allergen diet to hopefully identify and remove any allergens your cat is getting in food that very well might be causing an allergy/asthmatic reaction.

If you find one, let me know. Both of my kitties have been having URI-like problems for the past month. Been to the vet several times and have not really found anything to take care of the problem for any great length of time.

l lysine can help the herpes ... I give my dog quercitin for allergies ( food and enviornmental )

I use a Inhaler for Coco because the Depo Shots keep giving her Bladder Infections. Her inhaler is Flovent and it works with the Aerokat. The Flovent was 250. It is not cheap. I also belong to afew Asthma groups on Yahoo and they know alot. The site Enuja listed is a good site.
Here are the links to the Asthma Groups I am in on Yahoo.
This one is if decide to get a Inhaler. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/f...a_inhaledmeds/
These is the other one.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/f...sthma/messages
Tell them I sent you so you will get in.
How often does the Vet give the steroid shot?
Its not good to give it more then 2 times a year.
There is Pred but it has the same side effects as the shot.
Coco just started her inhaler in May.

We don't know what corticosteriod the vet is giving. To quote fritzthebrave...

Common drugs treatments are a short acting dexamethasone or long-acting formulation of depo-medrol. The cat needs visits to the veterinarian as symptoms recur, often at increasing intervals as the body develops a tolerance. For mild asthmatics, this will be once/year at the start of their active asthma season; for others it is as often as every season, and for some unlucky cats, every few weeks.

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It may not be good to give depo-medrol more than twice a year, but the same is not true (beyond the general disadvantages of systemic corticosteriods) of shorter-acting injectable corticosteroids.

What shot is your vet giving?

He just told me a steroid shot for her wheezing....I assumed it was predisone. He gave her an antibiotic shot also and she bit the hell out of me..it was painful for her.
She already has had 3 in the last 6-8 months..so I guess no more!
I see the inhalors your using are flovent, proventil, albuterol...are these special inhalors for Cats or human medications with a cat applicator. I am familiar with asthma and COPD, my husband has it. ....I also have a nebulizer...i really think that might help her more than anything. We have the equipment, now I have to get the vet to agree and give me medication. She has a really stuffy nose...what can i do for that? She snored all night long...her something about childrens nose drops.."little noses"?????

Childrens nose drops can be very helpful so try that. It's what my vet recommends as a first step if a cat has a stuffy nose.

Yes, these are all human medications with feline applications. There is a "spacer" called the Aerokat (I'd give you it's website but fritzthebrave explains it and has much better pictures than the company's website) that is mask that fits on a cat's face and a part that fits a regular human inhaler. It's supposed to be a great leap forward in feline asthma treatment.

However, it might be important for you to also look at the symptoms and diagnosis part of fritzthebrave and other websites. Has your vet done any tests to determine that this is feline asthma (which is a catch-all term anyway, but still)?

Here are some Pics of Cocos Aerokat. This is the Aerokat

This is the Mask.

Did she have the Xrays and test to make sure its Asthma?
I have Asthma also and I notice alot of time mine acts up when Cocos does.
Is your Cat Allergic to anything?

Thanks for the info...I notice that Torrie acts up when my husbands asthma acts up...his is more bronchial...like a change in the weather. She gets better when the weather has low humidity and is dry out. I though of giving her a treatment but everyone thought I was crazy...no one in my family understands how important my kitties are to me. They call me (my vet also) the "Mother Theresa" of cats. When Torrie starts an attack I am going to give her an aerosal treatment of albuterol..I will talk to my vet first though. Thanks to all!

My Asthma acts up the same times as Cocos does also. Ask te Vet about giving the albuterol. first. Cats need the mask though when you give the treatment.

Originally Posted by Laurie314

Thanks for the info...I notice that Torrie acts up when my husbands asthma acts up...his is more bronchial...like a change in the weather. She gets better when the weather has low humidity and is dry out. I though of giving her a treatment but everyone thought I was crazy...no one in my family understands how important my kitties are to me. They call me (my vet also) the "Mother Theresa" of cats. When Torrie starts an attack I am going to give her an aerosal treatment of albuterol..I will talk to my vet first though. Thanks to all!

Click to expand...

Molly had a severe asthma attack this past May. She was open mouth breathing. She had been coughing seasonally for 5-6 years. When she was diagnosed the vet didn't see the need for a steroid. She came home from the ER with Albuterol when needed and prednisone 5mg twice a day. Her coughing came back while she was at home. We took her to a regular vet who gave her the Depo shot. They hope it's just seasonal like has been in the past. She received her 2nd shot today. It can last 2-6weeks. She went over 8 weeks since the first shot. She hasn't been coughing but has had a hard swallow for a few weeks. She hasn't coughed since her first shot.

Our vet would like to see how she reacts to the shots first. Hopefully it won't be year round. They fell that the pills and inhaler was stressing her out too much.

I also belong to one of the asthma groups that Mews2much is at. They strongly recommended pills and the flovent.

my old cat marvin had asthma & arthritis she he as given Depo-Medrone shots. i really noticed the ever decreasing amount of time they were effective for & he put on a ton of weight. if allergies are a problem, try a food called James Wellbeloved (not sure if it's worldwide of just uk) - it's got scarcely any additives in it & my vet recommended it for treatment of my mums dog, who has severe allergic dermatitis. it's really done the trick for her, may help puss?? hope it all works out ok.