New Member looking for some ideas

Hello all.

I have a 12yr old, female, tuxedo cat, Jersey. She started wheezing about 7-8 years ago. Unfortunately, at the time we did not take her into a vet. It was something that was gradual, to begin with.
Shes always been very playful and active. Running does not seem to cause her to wheeze, though we have often thought she had asthma.

The past few months we have been dealing with a vet who seems to not have any idea what may be her problem.

They did do Xrays and found a spot the size of a dime on one of her lungs, did an extensive blood test, which everything came back normal on.

They told us she probably had asthma. Her wheezing has gotten worse in the last year, she was wheezing 5-6 times a day, every day.

She was put on an antibiotic, Doxycycline. Within 2-3 days, she stopped wheezing! We were stunned.
She did her 2 weeks worth of pills and stayed fine the whole time. A week and a half later, she started wheezing again. *sigh*

We called and talked to the vet, they said to start her on Prednisone. Which we did for almost a month. With no results. She continued wheezing.

We weened her off the Prednisone and the vet put her on another round of Doxycycline, which again, made her wheezing disappear. She has now been off them for about a week, and today, started wheezing again.

Has anyone ever had a pet with these types of issues, or have one now? We aren't sure why the antibiotics are helping and the steroids don't.

We're stumped.

Hi Valorie!

Welcome to The Cat Site! Sorry to hear about Jersey, it's worrying when our kitties aren't well!

To be honest, I'd consider getting a second opinion from another vet. Do you know if there are any cat specific vets, or more specialty vet hospitals around? You can get Jersey's vet records and x-rays and tests done so far, and take them with you to save a bit of money and save everything being redone.

I'm not sure what the problem might be, but maybe someone here will have some ideas you can talk to your vet about?

We love kitty pictures too, so feel free to head on over to the Fur Pics forum and post some photos of Jersey

As I understand it, asthma in cats usually responds to prednisone - that this responds to antibiotics naturally suggests there is some type of infection. I went hunting, and found this from in this link http://www.felineasthma.org/links/gunn-moore.htm:

CAUSES OF LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT (LRT) DISEASE (Table 1)

• Chronic bronchopulmonary disease:

This describes a commonly occurring, yet poorly understood, group of conditions that affect the airways and alveolar space. It includes ‘feline asthma’, bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and emphysema. In many cases, the exact aetiopathogenesis of the different conditions remains unclear.

The main clinical signs are coughing, wheezing and respiratory distress. Coughing arises because of:
• Tracheobronchial inflammation and irritation
• Excessive airway secretion
• Bronchoconstriction

Disease is seen most frequently in young to middle aged cats (2-8 years of age), with female cats and the Siamese and Burmese breeds perhaps being over-represented. Historically, the cats may have previously experience cat ‘flu’, have initially shown a degree of seasonality to their disease, or had their clinical signs exacerbated by airway irritants (smoke, temperature changes, aerosols, dusty cat-litter). Coughing may conclude with a terminal retch to clear mucus from the pharynx.

In cats with episodic signs clinical examination is often unremarkable. During an episode of coughing or in cats with more protracted disease, increased lung sounds can be heard on auscultation (wheezes and crackles), the chest may take on a barrel-shape, and a ‘heave line’ may be evident.

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I think a new vet - and a second opinion - are definitely in order.

Thanks to you both, I really appreciate the feedback.

We've discussed trying to find another vet. We will definitely do so now that her wheezing is back.

Originally Posted by ValorieB

Thanks to you both, I really appreciate the feedback.

We've discussed trying to find another vet. We will definitely do so now that her wheezing is back.

Click to expand...

Just make sure you get all her records first! They may charge a ~$15 fee for "administrative" costs to copy everything, but it's better than paying to have everything redone.