Asthma?

Hi everyone,

My 7 month old kitten has been coughing intermittently since we got her home from the cat shelter. I took her to the vet a few days ago and he couldn't seem to make a diagnosis and sent me home with some hair ball remedy and some de wormer, and was confident that it was not a cold/kennel cough. I called the shelter and they had already de-wormed her a few weeks ago so I didn't give her another dose. She had quite a bad coughing attack on Monday morning, coughing so much that she was gagging and ended up vomiting all her food. The vet said her lungs, heart were normal and her gums looked pink - ruling out asthma I'm guessing? The coughing stopped from Tuesday-Thursday and now at 3am she has begun to cough again. My boyfriend played with her quite a bit before bed, running her string you across the floor which she dives and chases, and I'm wondering if the exercise/dust in the carpet started this. She has quite a pronounced cough, wheezes, and gags up foamy mucous. She breathes very fast while it happens. She seems to get over it within a few minutes at most. Tonight she began to purr about 10 mins after the attack and that seemed to start another attack. She often sounds like she's wheezing and often when she meows no sound comes out. I'm starting to think this is asthma and it just was not diagnosed - but I have no idea and am beginning to stress out. Please help

Did the vet takes xrays or anything? One of my cats has intermittent coughing/wheezing spells. The vet did an xray when I brought her in for a spell she couldn't quite recover from and said the pattern in her lungs was consistent with asthma.  Try to catch the episode on video, if you can and show it to the vet. That will help you with an answer.

auchick said:

Did the vet takes xrays or anything? One of my cats has intermittent coughing/wheezing spells. The vet did an xray when I brought her in for a spell she couldn't quite recover from and said the pattern in her lungs was consistent with asthma.  Try to catch the episode on video, if you can and show it to the vet. That will help you with an answer.

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Thank you so much! The vet didn't take an X-ray but said that if the coughing persisted with no explanation then that would be the next step. I just hate the idea of putting her through all that if I don't have to but it seems I don't have much of a choice. If you don't mind my asking, what was the treatment prescribed for your kitty for the asthma? Is it manageable? Thanks again.

Hello, 

My kitty actually ended up not being prescribed with anything. That last major episode was almost 3 yrs ago and many typical asthma triggers were present the night before it happened so I've made some changes to help avoid those the best I can. She only has her minor episodes about once a month so the vet didn't think starting treatment would be necessary until it got more frequent. However, she did say the treatment would either be an albuterol inhaler with a chamber that you put over the cat's face for about 10 sec. vs oral predisone, which would obviously be more convenient but has long term side effects.  

I found this website very helpful when I received the diagnosis. My cat's episodes are very similar to the ones shown in the "coughing" video. http://fritzthebrave.com/

Hi there! Try to get it on video, and get your vet to take xrays. They are a little more expensive, but it is worth it. My cat is on asthma medication, prednisone, it is very cheap, I got 100 tablets for like $10.  Her coughing and wheezing as stopped and she has not had an "attack" in 3 months. I actually need to bring her back in for follow up XRays.  From my understanding, if it is asthma, it can come and go throughout the year, depending on the weather. 

Please take this seriously, even if she does purr after a coughing episode, she can develop serious lung damage. For the longest time, I didn't want to believe my cat has asthma and now she has permanent lung damage, and will always have difficulty breathing. I feel very guilty. 

If she does have asthma, it is very simple to treat, and her quality of life will be much better.