Hello,
My 13-14 yr old cat Spookie has something going on but I had her recently checked by the Vet and was essentially told it's nothing...but I don't feel the Vet really checked her mouth very well though I suppose it's maybe not that possible to do a good oral exam on a cat unless they're sedated?
This all started about 8 years ago when I took her in for a dental. She's an extremely skittish cat and goes nuts when you take her to the Vet. She will desperately try to bury herself in the carrier (so I always put a couple of extra towels in the carrier for her to 'hide under') and she's very stressed. On this occasion, she sounded sort of "snuffly".....it's hard to describe. She had no signs of an upper resp infection (no nasal discharge, no eye discharge, no coughing, etc) but when she's stressed she sounds snuffly....it's hard to tell if it's coming from her nose or not. Well the Vet at the time was fearful she had an URI so decided not to do her dental. I had tried to explain to the Vet at the time that she ALWAYS sounds like this when stressed (eg: if I take her into the bathroom here at home to brush her as she is a long haired cat and sometimes gets matts from loving to roll around on the carpet, she'll get sounding this way from running around inside the bathroom trying to get away from me; as soon as i let her out of the bathroom, this noise stops).
She's always been one to snore a little when sleeping. But over the past few months when she's grooming herself, she sounds like a St Bernard.....she sounds like she's all slobbery when she's grooming herself but she's not. She never drools. She eats very well. She's not lost any weight (she's maintained her weight of 12.5 lbs for years). She's so loud and slobbery sounding when grooming that i started to become concerned that maybe she had something going on............and all I could think of was a nasopharyngeal polyp.
She's due for a dental and I was planning on getting it done this month but now I'm concerned that we need to find out what's going on here before she goes under a general, in the event that whatever is going on might cause issues with them inserting an endotracheal tube (tube down airway) during the general.
now tonight I'm reading up on other possibilities. Perhaps she has oral cancer but from what I've read, it's very fast progressing so I doubt this is it.
She does sneeze periodically which I told the Vet 3 weeks ago (who examined her for all of this) was new for her.
Perhaps she has sinusitis and this gurgly sound that almost sounds like the back of her throat is post-nasal drip?
I am thinking about going to another vet to get a 2nd opinion. I wish she could have someone do a good inspection of her mouth, even if it requires given her a bit of anesthetic for a couple of minutes so that they can properly check her mouth (under tongue, roof of mouth, back of top of tongue, etc).
She doesn't have any difficulty eating. She's always eating dry food and canned and lives for food. No drooling. No really bad breath. Occasional cough but horks up furballs only. She doesn't have any difficulty breathing. The Vet who saw her a few weeks ago said her breathing sounded fine (listened to her lungs; no wheezing or fluids, etc).
Does any of this sound familiar to anyone?
Sometimes I hear this gurgly sound, almost raspy, at the end of a meow as well.
Thanks for any info/experience you can share.
PS - she is a strictly indoor cat. I have 3 other indoor cats. None of them have these symptoms, nobody has every had an URI, they are all healthy.
My 13-14 yr old cat Spookie has something going on but I had her recently checked by the Vet and was essentially told it's nothing...but I don't feel the Vet really checked her mouth very well though I suppose it's maybe not that possible to do a good oral exam on a cat unless they're sedated?
This all started about 8 years ago when I took her in for a dental. She's an extremely skittish cat and goes nuts when you take her to the Vet. She will desperately try to bury herself in the carrier (so I always put a couple of extra towels in the carrier for her to 'hide under') and she's very stressed. On this occasion, she sounded sort of "snuffly".....it's hard to describe. She had no signs of an upper resp infection (no nasal discharge, no eye discharge, no coughing, etc) but when she's stressed she sounds snuffly....it's hard to tell if it's coming from her nose or not. Well the Vet at the time was fearful she had an URI so decided not to do her dental. I had tried to explain to the Vet at the time that she ALWAYS sounds like this when stressed (eg: if I take her into the bathroom here at home to brush her as she is a long haired cat and sometimes gets matts from loving to roll around on the carpet, she'll get sounding this way from running around inside the bathroom trying to get away from me; as soon as i let her out of the bathroom, this noise stops).
She's always been one to snore a little when sleeping. But over the past few months when she's grooming herself, she sounds like a St Bernard.....she sounds like she's all slobbery when she's grooming herself but she's not. She never drools. She eats very well. She's not lost any weight (she's maintained her weight of 12.5 lbs for years). She's so loud and slobbery sounding when grooming that i started to become concerned that maybe she had something going on............and all I could think of was a nasopharyngeal polyp.
She's due for a dental and I was planning on getting it done this month but now I'm concerned that we need to find out what's going on here before she goes under a general, in the event that whatever is going on might cause issues with them inserting an endotracheal tube (tube down airway) during the general.
now tonight I'm reading up on other possibilities. Perhaps she has oral cancer but from what I've read, it's very fast progressing so I doubt this is it.
She does sneeze periodically which I told the Vet 3 weeks ago (who examined her for all of this) was new for her.
Perhaps she has sinusitis and this gurgly sound that almost sounds like the back of her throat is post-nasal drip?
I am thinking about going to another vet to get a 2nd opinion. I wish she could have someone do a good inspection of her mouth, even if it requires given her a bit of anesthetic for a couple of minutes so that they can properly check her mouth (under tongue, roof of mouth, back of top of tongue, etc).
She doesn't have any difficulty eating. She's always eating dry food and canned and lives for food. No drooling. No really bad breath. Occasional cough but horks up furballs only. She doesn't have any difficulty breathing. The Vet who saw her a few weeks ago said her breathing sounded fine (listened to her lungs; no wheezing or fluids, etc).
Does any of this sound familiar to anyone?
Sometimes I hear this gurgly sound, almost raspy, at the end of a meow as well.
Thanks for any info/experience you can share.
PS - she is a strictly indoor cat. I have 3 other indoor cats. None of them have these symptoms, nobody has every had an URI, they are all healthy.
