Cat breathes through his mouth when purring

The latest issue with my cat is dyspepsia which only happens when he is purring. This has been around for a few months now and the only way I can control it is to pet him for small amounts of time so he doesn't get into the deep purring when this happens. He will be 20 in May and has IBD, renal failure, pancriutus, anemia, and arthritis so he does have some issues. His IBD is mostly centred around his intestines and I am not sure if he has any damage to his esophagus or not, He has had recent r-rays and ultrasound (within a month or two and this issue was present before then) and they showed nothing. The only issue he had at that time was a lot of gas in his intestines which is still more or less an issue.

I have read about cats with issues with their vocal cords and others with paralysis of the esophagus but I am not sure about my guy and what may be done. If he is lightly purring there are no issues but he is a drooler so when he starts to purr he will start swallowing and then will start to breath out of his mouth, I can see it is hard for him to breath and he will usually end it with a sign or something and then stop purring or get up and move away. It is getting harder to one person his daily sub-q as well because he will typically purr through them and then he starts breathing through his mouth and wants to move around. I try to calm him down which works sometimes and not on others so I have to hold him down. I can always get an assistant for the sub-q but I don't want him to start avoiding it either.

He is kind of picky in his old age so he will only eat some foods or hard treats but I have tried different foods with no change. Without putting him out or cutting him up is there anything I can do to try and figure out what this is? He goes to the vet about once a month or so now and will not purr so it is hard to show them the issue.

Thanks for any input.

I'm so sorry that you haven't gotten any responses yet. Unfortunately, I don't really have the experience to offer you any suggestions. But I hope that by commenting, it'll bump up the thread & hopefully someone else with knowledge will see it. 

But thanks for being such a great kitty caretaker & taking care of your little one!

T that guy , can you take a short video of the event to show your vet?

And a question for you: does your kitty's abdomen pump during this episode? Have you ever watched his nostrils - do they flare at all?

I may just be "translocating" my experience with my cat's weird purr. But it was a year-long diagnostic extravaganza to diagnose her "weird purr." In the end, I decided to treat her for asthma - and that's what it was. She never - and still hasn't ever - had a traditional asthma attack. And it was difficult to diagnose, because sometimes there would be asthma pattern on x-ray, and sometimes there wouldn't. They put her on a trial course of pred (even though it was contraindicated for her due to her heart issue and high blood pressure) to rule OUT asthama. And the pred did nothing, so asthma was ruled out. Well, turns out pred doesn't treat asthma in quite a number of cats, and they need a different steroid. So I just wanted to ask you to take a step back, and re-look at the occurrence. Just make sure it isn't actually a breathing event - because Flowerbelle's always started with purring, when she was happy / excited.

Unfortunately, the only non-invasive option I'm aware of would be an x-ray, and that would only be of benefit if it is the lungs. Otherwise, a throat scope would be necessary to see if there's scarring or something. We did all of that - all the way up through an MRI. That did find an inner ear infection no one knew about and she got a myringotomy and went on Baytril for three months.

As to the sub-qs and moving around, what about using a cat grooming bag? That would restrain him and prevent him from moving around. These do run small, so get a size larger than you think you need if you want to try one.

Here are various models.



The key to successful use is treats. And getting the velcro closed around the neck first, then quickly zipping. They settle right down after the first time (in my experience).

Thanks for the reply and he has been on a number of steroids over the years and he is currently on Dexamethasone for his IBD. He has had a lot of blood tests over the last few years and the latest just over a month ago. He has also had x-rays and ultrasound and nothing odd has shown up and his blood numbers were all perfect including B12. I notice he tends to breath more through his stomach normally and when he is being pet he is breathing deeper and puts more effort into pushing it out. He seems to breath in through his nose and then breathes out through his mouth and no liquid in the chest or around the heart and no issues with the lungs.

The grooming bag is a little much for this guy because he is very gentle and he is arthritic so he needs to shift around a bit. He purrs while getting a sub-q which is more of an issue that him moving around because he is generally happy when attention is paid to him. I give him a sub-q myself because he has been with me his entire life from birth and is most relaxed with me but maybe I will try another person to see if he purrs less.

Thanks for the info though, I will look into this. That is the first I have read of asthma with this issue so it is good to have another path to look at.