Cat purposely pressing down on his throat

Hey everyone,

So, my cat has been doing this for a few months now, but he had stopped and now he's doing it again and I wanted to see if anyone else had had their feline companion do this.

My cat goes and finds the edge of something (right now he's using the lowest rung of my clothes dryer, but he's used the edge of the chair and the edge of a plastic box before) and puts his neck over it and then presses his whole body weight down on it, therefore constricting his esophagus. He then swallows repeatedly and gags a bit and either throws up/regurgitates or just gags but nothing comes up. If something comes up, he promptly eats it again (which is why it's so hard to catch him in the act -- there's never any evidence!).

He sounds to be like he's a bit stuffed up (I can hear the air wheezing as he breathes through his nose), and he runs out of breath very easily while playing and starts panting. But other than that, everything is normal. Not wheezing while he pants (except through the nose), and no panting unless he's playing, and his activity levels, appetite, and bowel movements are all normal. I just get a bit worried/freaked out by the seemingly self-induced gagging/vomiting thing he keeps doing. Though, it may be he does it to try and prevent himself from throwing up? 

Much obliged!

Have you taken him to the vet to rule out esophageal growths? Also have him checked for Feline Herpes.

I have not yet. But when he first started doing this back in December, I told the vet and showed her a video and he had a chest x-ray done and there was nothing there. The vet and I suspect he had a URI back at the end of November/beginning of December when he was coughing up a storm and first started panting. I also took him to the vet mid-January when he first started regurgitating, and she didn't feel anything abnormal then, either. She thought it might be a hairball problem.

The poor cat went to the vet every 2 weeks from end of November to mid-January and I wanted to hold off in taking him to the vet until his next appt in the beginning of June. Especially since this is the only thing he's doing that's abnormal and everything else is fine... 

Have never heard of a cat doing this! BUT horses have this behavior (called a "vice"). It is called cribbing or wind sucking. Cribbing is when they put their teeth on something solid and pull back, arch their neck and gasp in air. What you describe sounds similar to the behavior in horses. Horses do this out of boredom and it becomes a very bad habit causing their teeth to be ground down and air in their stomach which can cause colic. I have never heard of a cat doing that and I am sure it is unrelated but am mentioning it. I would recommend having an esophageal scope done asap.

I had a horse that would do this, but he wasn't cribbing. He was manually moving a mass of food in his esophagus, quite possibly due to a tie back in his throat.

Sounds like a similar situation with this kitty. Any roaring heard on the stethoscope when he breathes?

What do you mean by "a tie back in the throat"? I am wondering if maybe he didn't swallow a piece of string from his toy...? There's a strong toy in cat tree, which he's already destroy, but the string was still there and he played with it occasionally, and I noticed last night that half the string was gone. Though, he bought me a piece of string this morning that looked like it was the missing string... And his bowel movements are normal. (I am so glad no one judges statements like that on this forum).

As for the breathing, the last time he was at the vet in January, the vet didn't hear any roaring (and he'd already been doing the whole pressing down on his throat since at least the beginning of December, possibly the end of November).

A tie back is done on horses.

If he auscultated his throat, I would think that a string would cause an adventitious sound but maybe not? You said he sounds stuffed up...has a vet seen him like this?

Yes. He's been kinda stuffed up/congested since November when he was coughing and was all phelgmy sounding. The vet put him on steroids and antibiotics for a couple weeks and he got over his cough, but I don't think he's ever fully shaken the cold/URI and the congestion... I take him with me to the bathroom every night when I shower to get some steam in him to see if it might help. I've read that saline drips with goldenseal is supposed to be good for helping with congestion, but I've never given him drips like that and I'm not sure I'd want to do it without taking him to a vet first to double check on that.

His whole pressing down on his throat thing just freaks me out and I haven't been able to find any information online as to why he might be doing that (it seems to me like he's trying to make himself gag? Or maybe he's having post-nasal drips and doing that prevents him from throwing up?).

I think a vet visit would be a great idea. He may need to be scoped.

I know it's been a while but I was wondering if there was any solution to this?! My cat seems to be doing the same thing and just like you I haven't found any related articles or knowledge about this. My cat, Nala climbs up the bookshelf and hang her head across the edge pressing her throat in like someone who's possessed. I can't imagine it doesn't hurt her but I've no idea what it could be. I'm booking her in to the vet ASAP but was wondering in the meantime if anyone got smarter about this odd behaviour?!?

Thank you very much

Nope, no solution. Es still doing this and does it pretty much at least once a day. Have taken him to a new vet this past month who told me that in 30+ years of practice he had never heard of a cat doing this. He checked his throat for growth and irritation and there was nothing there and his throat wasn't irritated or anything so just let him be. I suspect he picked it up as a habit from when he got a URI when he was a kitten and was trying to get rid of mucus. It's not like I can psychoanalyze my cat into stopping so I just let him be. He always eats whatever he regurgitate so... Good luck with yours and I hope it's something as simple as a bad habit!

Very strange that no vet heard about this. There's at least two of them out there now!

I know this is old but, my cat does this too. She always has. She is also always congested and sneezing, sometimes more congested than others. Nothing ever comes out. She'll hang her head over a box, bucket, trash can, litter box until she gags, hacks then she swallows. Just wanted to let you know there's one more out there.

My cat does it, too. Sits on my lap while I'm working with hands on keyboard. Presses throat down on my horizontal arm. He doesn't appear to have any signs of congestion.

My cat does the same as Vriska's. When I'm on my computer, she'll hunker down in front of me and then press her throat down on my arm until she choking. I either pull her up or she'll get up on her own but at that point she's gulping and gurgling. Occasionally she gets the hiccups afterwards. She's perfectly fine before and after. She only does it when I'm typing on my keyboard and never does it to anyone else but me.

My cat does this, too! I finally got a video of her gagging and showed the vet and they weren't really sure about it. They think she has a mild case of asthma - her breathing sounded good, x-rays and bloodwork showed very mild inflammation. Otherwise, she is totally fine, so it's a total mystery to me. She does have food and environmental allergies, so they thought maybe it's related to that. It's just really shocking to me that no vets seem to really know too much about this behavior.

Hello guys! My cat is 9 years old now and 10 days ago she started doing exactly the same: pressing down her throat on a chair´s edge and then regurgitating\gaging without throwing up, only swallows afterwards.
And she´s been doing it every evening around the same time. I am not sure if I should take her to the vet to be checked because she looks quite well: eating normally, no signs of pain, playing and sleeping normally...I´ve sent the video to her vet and she couldn´t explain this behaviour. And there´s nothing online to clarify about this problem or behaviour, especially Brazilian posts (my cat is from Belgium but we are living in Brazil at the moment).
Have your cats been doing this for a long time? Has anyone found out the causes?

diandraz said:

My cat does this, too! I finally got a video of her gagging and showed the vet and they weren't really sure about it. They think she has a mild case of asthma - her breathing sounded good, x-rays and bloodwork showed very mild inflammation. Otherwise, she is totally fine, so it's a total mystery to me. She does have food and environmental allergies, so they thought maybe it's related to that. It's just really shocking to me that no vets seem to really know too much about this behavior.

Click to expand...

Hello! Has your cat been fine since then? Does she keep doing it with no bad consequences?

kate a said:

I know it's been a while but I was wondering if there was any solution to this?! My cat seems to be doing the same thing and just like you I haven't found any related articles or knowledge about this. My cat, Nala climbs up the bookshelf and hang her head across the edge pressing her throat in like someone who's possessed. I can't imagine it doesn't hurt her but I've no idea what it could be. I'm booking her in to the vet ASAP but was wondering in the meantime if anyone got smarter about this odd behaviour?!?

Thank you very much

Click to expand...

It´s been quite a while, but has your cat been doing that since then? Could you find out what it is?