My cat has difficulty breathing

I have a 5 years old female cat. She has difficulty breathing. I took her to the vet yesterday and the vet said she had a light bronchitis. She said she couldn't tell if it was due to a bacteria or due to asthma. She made me buy antibiotic doxycycline and said if my cat didn't get better in 24 hours then the bronchitis is due to asthma and that I would have to come back to buy asthma drugs.

It seems like my cat is better than yesterday but she still isnt moving much. Normally she moves alot and play.

If it turns out she has asthma, how can I help her? What kind of drug is used to treat asthma? I would like to avoid going to the vet another time since it costs so much and I don't have much money. I already paid 300$ yesterday for the vet, xrays and the doxycycline drug. Since I know its asthma if she does not respond well to doxycycline, I thought maybe I could get her the drugs for asthma without going back to the vet.

Thank you very much

I've not had a cat with asthma so I'm not sure what type of drugs are available for that. I suspect that you won't find over the counter medicine. If it comes to that, I suggest you call your vet to talk about the need for another vet visit. If they did a complete exam and all they need to do is prescribe medications, then you may be able to save some money by avoiding another vet exam.

I've never heard of an antibiotic working in 24 hours. It usually takes a couple of days to work into your system and start showing improvement. If your girl is not back to normal a day after starting antibiotics, I'm not sure that I would worry too much. She is healing and it takes a lot of energy to heal. If she's still slow after 3-4 days, then I would start to worry. Also realize that some cats get a bit ill from antibiotics and that alone can slow them down for a while.

Welcome to TCS . Sorry your kitty is ill. Agree with Amy - there is NO way an antibiotic will make a cat show improvement in twenty four hours, especially for something like Bronchitis. There is another member here on the site that has to give her cat Doxy for four week's for bronchitis. It could take quite a few day's before you see an improvement. I would at least give it a week, unless your cat takes a turn for the worse with breathing, then she must be seen right away. Hopefully that will not be the case :cross:

I am not sure about the asthma - hopefully other's will come along soon that might have more information about that possibility. :nod: Here is an article written for TCS about Bronchial Asthma - so you have a bit of information that might be helpful.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/bronchial-asthma-cause-and-natural-treatment-for-cats