Asthma - what's normal?

I have a cat that was diagnosed with asthma about a month ago. He's been on a Flovent inhaler twice a day since then. I had originally taken him to the vet because he had been having coughing fits every day, and got the asthma diagnosis. I noticed a drastic change in him since starting him on the Flovent. He perked up and noticeably had more energy and he stopped coughing. Now last night and tonight he has had mild coughing fits. They didn't last as long as they did back when I first noticed something wrong, but I'm concerned because it seemed like the coughing had stopped. He's acting absolutely fine right now, but he just had about a 30 second mild coughing episode.

Is this something I need to call the vet about tomorrow? Or is it normal for cats to still have minor coughing even while being treated for asthma? Has anyone had experience with this?

Call the vet if they're open in the morning so that they're aware of it. Maybe the dosage needs adjusting.

What changed around the house? Is the heat on? Are you using a humidifier? Are there any other asthma triggers that you have not gotten rid of yet that would still be setting him off? (meds can only control so much)

You know what? We did just turn on our heat. I wonder if thats triggering it again. Last night I was trying to figure out if anything had changed, but I didn't even consider the heat. The vet opens at noon today so I will give them a call then (its 9:30 now).

I figured it was something. There's always a trigger.

If you don't have any cool mist humidifiers or a whole house humidifier, go price some and see how many you'll need for the sqft of you home. I need to pick up another one myself, but luckily we don't have the heat on yet. (My lips are starting to get chapped so I can tell the air in general is getting drier here. )

If your furnace wasn't cleaned out and serviced, go clean what you can. Change any filters and vacuum out any dust and cat hair around it.


I hope you can get the coughing under control.

I'm soon to be going down the Flovent route with mine, but in the meantime I've been trying to get any household triggers taken care of. Including litter.