Rapid, irregular breathing

Hi guys, the sweetest moggy adopted me recently, and it's been a total blast hanging out with the little guy. He's a dream cat- but there's one thing that's been nagging at me, and that's his breathing. I notice that he has pretty frequent ( but short) episodes of rapid, irregular breathing. Sometimes it's just fast and shallow, or sometimes it's deep, seemingly labored. Whatever it is, it's definitely not a normal breathing pattern. There basically aren't any other clinical signs ( pale gums, audible breathing etc).  However I chanced upon articles describing sudden cat death and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and they just basically gave me the morbid impression that pretty much every cat drops dead. I recognize, however, that looking up all this stuff and worrying incessantly does neither pet nor human any good.

 The vet has reassured me that it's very unlikely to be HCM based on his heartbeat etc. We did an X-ray, no enlarged heart and everything else seems fine. I don't want to come across as paranoid, because I've been repeatedly reassured by multiple people- and I really don't want to come across as second-guessing the vet's opinion (i should mention that the vets are excellent, caring professionals, so I really do respect their opinion). Should I just go ahead and ask for an EKG anyway? 

None of us know how long we have on this earth, we could be setting swimming records at 104 or we might wind up under a bus tomorrow,

and it's silly to sit around dreading the many 100001 ways that a human or animal might die rather than just enjoying what we do have today.

But I suppose because I just got him, I really wouldn't want our time together to be cut short abruptly before we've even really started, by something that was right in front of my very eyes, but that I didn't check into enough. Anyone been through the same thing with the breathing?

No particular knowledge of this problem.

Feline asthma cannot show this kind of breathing as a symptom? Probably not but thought that I would mention it. If it were asthma, it can be managed easily with inhaled steroids (flovent and an aerokat). Asthma would presumably show up more as coughing than rapid breathing.

Is it at all related to exercise?  Or any other thing that starts it off?

Mani said:

 
Is it at all related to exercise?  Or any other thing that starts it off?

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Hard to tell if there's any one thing that sets it off, it happens quite frequently throughout the day. Not related to exercise, he's usually chilling out and resting on his side when it happens.

Am sorry your poor cat has this, seems pretty scary. Did all the bloods & urine come back fine? Rapid breathing can be a sign of other pain elsewhere, so may make sense that the x-ray came back ok.  It's strange that nothing seems to set him off, I could understand it if it was after playing etc.  Does your vet seem concerned about the breathing or come up with any other possible causes? If not, I'd go for the electrocardiogram, just to finally rule out heart problems.

I wish you all the luck with this.

Fleabags Mom said:

 
Am sorry your poor cat has this, seems pretty scary. Did all the bloods & urine come back fine? Rapid breathing can be a sign of other pain elsewhere, so may make sense that the x-ray came back ok.  It's strange that nothing seems to set him off, I could understand it if it was after playing etc.  Does your vet seem concerned about the breathing or come up with any other possible causes? If not, I'd go for the electrocardiogram, just to finally rule out heart problems.

I wish you all the luck with this.

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Thanks, I appreciate that

They didn't do a blood test, actually. Is this something I should look into? They don't think it's anything because he seems in good health for his (estimated) age; no wheezing, panting, or anything like that. Just really weird breathing patterns. 

Yeah, I would've thought they'd have tested blood and urine, esp when the x-ray showed nothing wrong with the heart. Weird breathing can be caused by any type of pain, or other things that restrict breathing, like damaged ribs or blood/mucus around that area (which sometimes can be pain-free) or something like pleurisy.  Did they check his ribs too with the x-ray results or his lungs? Lungs too can be a reason why he's breathing strangely.  At least a blood & urine test can rule out other infections, which would be a little easier (and probably cheaper) than the EKG and may mean that its not needed if something else is found first.  Unnerving that your kitty is suffering while all cuddled up. To me there has to be some reason behind it and the vet, although sound very caring, aren't thinking too hard over this!! But I am not a vet, so probably being too harsh here '-)

Best of luck to you both again

Thanks again! The vet checked both the heart and lungs and gave me a detailed explanation- no problem with lungs, and no problem with heart that the X-ray can tell. At this stage it's still a complete mystery.

Again, I fully trust my vet, I guess the main thing is at this stage there isn't enough reason to warrant a more extensive battery of tests because he's not showing any other symptoms- it's still really hard to watch him breathe like that all the time though (though he seems very happy and calm otherwise)! I'll enquire about the possibility of the other tests if this keeps up... I wonder if it's something in the air in the house.