Help. severe respiratory distress

I am desperate looking for some kind of answer. 16 year old otherwise healthy female kitty has gone into severe respiratory distress 3 time since april 14th and had to be rushed to emergency vet. She has seen 6 different vets and a cardiologist. They are all stumped. she is fine between episodes and now it is like I am walking on glass waiting for it to happen again. Ends up costing between $500 to $1300 every time I have to bring her. They at first diagnosed asthma. she has slight asthmatic like changes in her x-ray.. then they ruled that out because she does not respond to the meds. Then they diagnosed cardiomyopathy. then took her to cardiologist did echo and she has no heart disease. They have done every blood test they could think of and it is all completely normal. If anyone has ever seen anything like this please give me some advice here. I am at such a loss.

I completely understand the worry about waiting for the next episode with baited breath. Not easy especially since you have not gotten answers as to the reason. To me, my first thought would be heart related. Does your cat pant during these episodes? Any cough? You obviously have taken her to many vets with no luck in finding an answer. How frustrating and how very expensive. I guess if all of these vets are saying that she is otherwise in good health for her age, then I am at a loss as to what it could be too. It is very possible that it is asthma if she had changes in the lungs. Just because she didn't respond to the medication (what was it??) does not mean it is not asthma/allergies, IMO. I have an asthmatic cat and it can be difficult to treat. What works to help some kitties may not work for others in this situation. It could be an environmental allergy too. I understand that these things are so very upsetting to us when we can't get an answer nor a cure to what is ailing our kitties. Maybe someone else will see your thread and have a similar situation. All my best to you and your cat.

The fully ruled out any heart disease.they also did a echocardiogram/ultrasound of her heart to be sure that it's not her heart..no cough no wheeze ever. Also they said an asthma diagnosis at 16 years old is very unlikely.they gave her multiple breathing treatments and lots of corticosteroids on the 1st two episodes and said she did not respond to them...she straightened out in the oxygen after about 6 to 8 hours...The 3rd episode thou..I came home from work and found her breathing at 120 breaths per min..abdominal breathing so idk how long she had been like that and that time it took her 14 hours in the oxygen and they shot her up with massive doses of lasix. They said they are not sure that helped but sent her home on it even tho no fluid in her lungs...I work 12 shifts my biggest fear is coming home to her dead...she definitely suffers when she is going thru this. I can't believe they can't figure this out.

makita1998 said:

. I can't believe they can't figure this out.

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How very, very scary and frightening for you AND for your girl. I am sorry that you both are dealing with something such as this and that the vets cannot find a reason. I imagine since you have taken her to multiple vets/specialists in your area you feel quite alone in this and so confused. I will see if I can do a search here on site for threads relating to what you describe and will post. Wish there was more I could say. Sending vibes for your kitty and hoping you can somehow find an answer. :cross:

Thank you for responding.She is acting completely normal for  now, playing eating running around, which I am now paranoid and discouraging her from activities that may in my mind set this crazy breathing off, the first 2 times it happened she had woken me up 530 am and the other 6am She sleeps with me every night so I am guessing it happened to her while she was sleeping, but cannot say for sure and the 3rd time I had come home from work found her on kitchen floor don't know how long she had been home alone like that her respiratory rate was about 120 with hard abdominal breathing and nasal flaring, no open mouth, which I was surprised about. I don't know what to do.

     My mother rescues cats all over New jersey she has many friends that do this also, no one can figure this out. For all I know, and I pray this will never even happen again, but that seem unlikely. I have been searching for an answer on the internet and anywhere I can. that is how I came across this site.

   Yesterday I took her in for more bloodwork and she was stressed and angry in the car, But thank goodness did not happen, She now goes crazy when she even sees the carrier. The vet said to me yesterday to stop driving myself crazy, 6 vets cannot figure this out, so I have to just figure out how many more times I can rush her to emergency vet, before I end up putting her down. I know she was being realistic, but it really annoyed me. It is like she has just given up on her. This lady has been her vet for over 10 years. I'm so frustrated. This kitty has been with me since she was 5 weeks old.

I am searching but not coming up with anything that goes along with what you are going through. This is truly distressing to not have an answer or a reason for these episodes. I will continue to look for support via other threads in the meantime. Hang in there and my thoughts are with you and your cat. This cannot be easy on either of you. So sorry about that.

Ohh, Makita and I both thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I have spent endless hours online searching, for anything that mimics an asthma attack and everything I have seen, FIP, Heartworm ect ect.. has been ruled out so far. What I wish I could find at this point is a kitty pulmonary research vet. to help and sent all her records to.. I have pages and pages of records on her. Thank you again, I really appreciate that you are trying. Just keep thing someone has to be able to figure this out. This cannot be the first time this has happened to a cat.

UC Davis Vet School might be a place to start looking.

Found this. You might find something helpful in these case studies.  http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmth/small_animal/cardio_kittleson/cases/

I did talk with one of our vets and kitty specialists at the shelter yesterday explaining the episodes. She said this very well could be an asthma attack especially if there is no panting (which would mean heart). Kitty is panicking too which leads to the extreme respiration. She suggested talking with the vets about putting Makita on Prednisolone. Starting three times per week - 5 mg. It can even be given daily if the episodes are more frequent. Since all other tests have proven this is not a heart condition nor heartworm, etc. then that leaves asthma/allergen. I know how frustrated and worried you must be and sending loads of vibes to Makita and you.

The very first episode was 4/14/14.. they gave her IV corticosteriods and she did not respond to it. I have a list of everything they gave her, just not in front of me.  The second time was not until June 1st (Sunday) they also again tried prednisolone po and sent her home on it. .Again they were not sure it helped.. but I gave it to her anyway. I picked her up Sunday evening, gave her the pred 5mg Mon morning she was fine all day and night. Tues morning she seemed fine wanted her food gave her the pred fed her went off to work came hone that evening and found her with the terrible abdominal breathing and resp rate.. she stayed in hospital until thurs afternoon and by that time they said the pred was not helping at all, and this time sent her home on Lasi and enalapril.. Also told me not to give her the pred.. So she was on Lasix but took her to cardiologist on that Friday. He did echo/ ultrasound of her heart and told me it is not her heart so now she is home and acting completely fine on no meds. It has been 10 days with no problem. So I continue to watch and pray.

Thank you so much any advice is truly appreciated. The only other thing I can think of from the first time was I had switched her to blue wet cat food, about a month before the 1st episode. She had always eaten fancy feast and natural choice. So I went back to that now, hoping maybe food allergy. I think I am reaching though.

makita1998 said:

Thank you so much any advice is truly appreciated. The only other thing I can think of from the first time was I had switched her to blue wet cat food, about a month before the 1st episode. She had always eaten fancy feast and natural choice. So I went back to that now, hoping maybe food allergy. I think I am reaching though.

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From what a trusted friend just told me today, Pred. does not work for all asthma cases. In fact, I took Wendall off the Pred and have seen no worsening of his coughs/gurgles. Lasix and Enilapril are for heart but since the vets found Makita's heart was normal, good that they discontinued the medication. :nod: No need then.

I think you are smart in trying to think of anything different, any changes at all, just before her first episode. I wonder about food related allergens as well. Probably would be doing the same by putting my cat back on the original food. It is incredibly unnerving to find out that just one or two ingredients in a particular food can cause health issues in pets. I have to avoid anything with Rosemary extract for my dog, Henry, who just started seizures. I also changed his diet just before they began.

Continuing the vibes and hoping that Makita will not have another but knowing there is a chance, is still such a worry.

Thank you for all the advice. I really do appreciate it..Makita has not had any episodes since that last Tuesday evening. I have taken her back to the vet to check her kidneys on her advice because they gave the cat 22 different
medications between the two episodes and now her bun is 94 and creatine is 4.9. So aggravating. She is showing no signs or symptoms of being sick thou..I am encouraging fluids and she is on a wet food diet so we going to recheck in 3 weeks. So now another worry. Her labs were all completely normal prior to these last 2 breathing episodes.

I was thinking of Makita and you the other day because I have an elderly dog ( 15 1/2 yrs.) who started with seizures whom is now on medication. Still, he has another episode. It IS SO AWFUL knowing there is that lingering and probable chance of another episode. They are so frightening for all involved. We all know that their time is limited when they get to these senior years but it doesn't make it any easier the thought of losing them OR trying to manage these old age illnesses that creep up.

My thoughts are with you. Not an easy time.