My cat has a recurring cough?

My 3 month old kitten was adopted 9 days ago on Saturday. The following Wednesday, he developed a cough.

He gets up and lowers his chest, extends his neck, but it is unproductive and nothing comes out. He has no discharge anywhere, doesn't sneeze, his breathing sounds normal if I put my ear to his chest (when not coughing). Stool is normal, he eats, drinks, purrs and plays.

The coughing happens in 5-15 second bouts, and is only in the morning (around 6am) and night (around 10-1am).

I took him to the vet Friday (two days after coughing started/3 days ago; he was getting his second round of vaccines). Of course he did not cough there and sounded alright, so he was prescribed Amoxicillin 2x daily for a week which I started that day. We took a stool sample that day and it was negative for intestinal worms.

His cough has not improved yet though, and I am growing concerned. I am wondering what it might be, and if I should go back for further testing or wait until he has been on the antibiotic for the full week? Have you had any experiences like this?

(As a side note, my apologies for my empty profile! I just found and joined the site today)

Hi and welcome to the forums  The first thing I'd do is call your vet and ask his or her opinion on where to go from here, and if you should come in or finish the antibiotic.  They won't charge you for the phone call since they did see you and prescribe the antibiotic, and they would be best situated to know whether this merits a repeat visit now or not. 

I am a little confused about what to tell you generally since it seems the cough is happening at very specific times, and I've never dealt with anything like that.  Does the coughing happen after anything specific in the morning and evening? Maybe this is an obvious question and you'd have mentioned it, but for example, does the coughing tend to happen right after he eats?

I hope you get this figured out.  I know firsthand how frustrating it is not to be sure exactly what is wrong or what to do.

This is a very unusual case indeed! I was hoping that the antibiotics just needed time to kick in.

I will give them a call as soon as they open. If there is a physical trigger, I have not been able to narrow it down.. The only thing I can say for sure is that it's when he wakes up, or is (finally!) settling down to sleep for the night.

I'll come back with an update after my phone call. Thanks so much for the reply!

Cats do have asthma you might ask your vet about that also

Since it seems to happen in the morning and evening, I'm thinking maybe it's allergies.  Human allergies are worse first thing in the morning and then again in the evening (dawn & dusk) and I've noticed with my kitties those times also seem to be trigger times as well.  The other thing it might be is asthma.  The crouching down and extending the neck with a non-productive cough are often signs of asthma.

klmeyer93 said:

 
This is a very unusual case indeed! I was hoping that the antibiotics just needed time to kick in.

I will give them a call as soon as they open. If there is a physical trigger, I have not been able to narrow it down.. The only thing I can say for sure is that it's when he wakes up, or is (finally!) settling down to sleep for the night.

I'll come back with an update after my phone call. Thanks so much for the reply!

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does your cat groom a lot? it might be hairballs....maybe he's trying to cough it out but cant....maybe ask your vet about hair balls. Happened to my cat. same coughing as your kitty, but nothing comes out. until one day it did...along with some vomit -___-

My boy Munchie has asthma, just like people he is generally worse in the mornings and evenings.  Maybe a thought to check with your vet about.

Charlie the kitty does this. She has asthma. It's a crouched, neck extended pose and then she coughs for a bit. It can sound like a honk occasionally.  For a few months she was prescribed various things. One of the vets at the practice finally asked if we'd be okay with an x-ray to look at the lungs. The result told the vet that it was very likely asthma.

The coughing comes when the seasons change from warm to cool or from cool to warm.

She ended up with a steroid delivered in a syringe in pet tinic. She hates pet tinic and finds all sorts of ways to elude me when I try to give her

The suggested dosage once under control is giving it to her twice a week. The problem is that the steroid can lead to diabetes.

When we got the furnace replaced, they put in a whole house air filter which helped.

I also have a cat with asthma. He was diagnosed when he was about 6 months old. He coughs just like you are describing so it may be worth checking out. His asthma has actually improved over time, but for a while, before I got him on medicine, he would cough mostly in the morning and at night.