This is my second thread on this topic, but my goal for this one is to be more specific.
If you hadn't heard already, my cat Bruce started panting lately (mid September). It isn't constant, and it first starts after he exerts. It varies in how long it lasts, but he generally recovers pretty quickly.
We've had everything done to ensure that he's fine - we had an echocardiogram done, we had blood-work done, we had a chest x-ray done, and we've had him physically examined. Not a single one of these things showed that anything was wrong. He's still eating and drinking as usual, he's active (almost too active - he annoys the other cats too much) and he's acting like a perfectly normal cat.
The vet has said that we've ruled out anything life threatening/serious (cancer, heart disease, etc, etc). He thinks that it's something in his upper-respiratory system, and this would make sense because according to the SPCA records, Bruce was INCREDIBLY sick as a kitten with multiple respiratory viruses - he was close to dying.
I've been wondering if this upper-respiratory damage he has is causing some restriction, and therefore he needs to breath through his mouth when he exerts - but this begs the question, why hasn't he always panted? Well, I think I may have found the answer: Allergies.
It's October, so fall allergies are out in full-force. Not only that, but we recently switched his food, litter, and his pro-biotics. He was having dry-food for a long time, but the vet recommended that we switch to a wet food. We started giving him California Natural wet food, and he seemed fine. Recently though, we started giving him Evo food. Around this time, he started having the panting. Furthermore, we started using Feline Pine, instead of a certain dust-free litter that we were using. And lastly, he was having fortiflora pro-biotics, but we recently switched him to Pet-Dophilus pro-biotics.
With him already having upper-respiratory damage, could one, or multiple of these switches be causing him to have an allergic reaction, and therefore, having issues breathing?
As I said, we've had everything serious/life-threatening ruled out, so I don't want to hear about that, but I want to hear some opinions on which of these things could be causing this.
(P.S. - I'm going to switch him over to California Natural again, and I'm going to try a new litter. I'm also going to switch back over to fortiflora pro-biotics. I'll see what happens with these changes.)
Thanks in advance,
-Vert
If you hadn't heard already, my cat Bruce started panting lately (mid September). It isn't constant, and it first starts after he exerts. It varies in how long it lasts, but he generally recovers pretty quickly.
We've had everything done to ensure that he's fine - we had an echocardiogram done, we had blood-work done, we had a chest x-ray done, and we've had him physically examined. Not a single one of these things showed that anything was wrong. He's still eating and drinking as usual, he's active (almost too active - he annoys the other cats too much) and he's acting like a perfectly normal cat.
The vet has said that we've ruled out anything life threatening/serious (cancer, heart disease, etc, etc). He thinks that it's something in his upper-respiratory system, and this would make sense because according to the SPCA records, Bruce was INCREDIBLY sick as a kitten with multiple respiratory viruses - he was close to dying.
I've been wondering if this upper-respiratory damage he has is causing some restriction, and therefore he needs to breath through his mouth when he exerts - but this begs the question, why hasn't he always panted? Well, I think I may have found the answer: Allergies.
It's October, so fall allergies are out in full-force. Not only that, but we recently switched his food, litter, and his pro-biotics. He was having dry-food for a long time, but the vet recommended that we switch to a wet food. We started giving him California Natural wet food, and he seemed fine. Recently though, we started giving him Evo food. Around this time, he started having the panting. Furthermore, we started using Feline Pine, instead of a certain dust-free litter that we were using. And lastly, he was having fortiflora pro-biotics, but we recently switched him to Pet-Dophilus pro-biotics.
With him already having upper-respiratory damage, could one, or multiple of these switches be causing him to have an allergic reaction, and therefore, having issues breathing?
As I said, we've had everything serious/life-threatening ruled out, so I don't want to hear about that, but I want to hear some opinions on which of these things could be causing this.
(P.S. - I'm going to switch him over to California Natural again, and I'm going to try a new litter. I'm also going to switch back over to fortiflora pro-biotics. I'll see what happens with these changes.)
Thanks in advance,
-Vert