Choking cat

For the past 2-3 years, I've been feeding a pair of feral cats--Boots and Socks--who visit my backyard. By now, they know me well. When I started feeding them, they'd leap over the fence to get out of the yard when I opened the door to the backyard and would only return after I'd filled their dishes and returned inside the house. Now, Boots rubs up against my legs as I'm filling his water dish and both cats playfully nibble my hand as I'm scooping food into their bowls.

About a week ago, Boots was eating rather excitedly and seems to have inhaled some food. He suddenly had a fully-blocked airway and panicked. After struggling for 5-10 seconds, he managed to expel the food. But ever since then, he gags and chocks when he eats. He can sometimes get a few bites down, but soon his airway gets blocked and he gags, gets scared, and slinks off without eating any more. Socks, of course, happily gobbles up the his own food and the food meant for Boots.

Boots's distress while eating has gone on long enough that I don't think its going to clear up on its own. Unfortunately, he's a feral cat. And while he now does let me touch him while I'm feeding him, if I try to touch him at any other time he just moves out of the way. Basically, I'm not going to be able to catch him and pick him up to take him to the vet.

I'm also worried that I don't have time to get him used to a cat trap so I can lure him in and trap him that way. There's also the problem that I feed the pair of them together, so any trap that catches Boots would probably also catch Socks.

Is there a safe, quicker way to catch a feral cat who needs emergency medical care? What do you recommend I do? I'm worried about the little guy. :-(

    -Ray

Are you sure he's choking? It sounds a lot like he might have a bad tooth that's causing him pain. Especially that eating, and then jumping back suddenly and running away part.

Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with trapping feral cats. All the ferals I've cared for have eventually become tame enough for me to handle somewhat, and navigate into a carrier (with a bit of help and two hands on the kitty). I know there are specific traps around the people use for TNR--I expect that might work, especially since they know you have food. I would definitely get him to the vet though. Are there any veterinarians or rescues in your area that deal specifically with feral cats?

Hi Pusheen,

Thanks for the quick response. It's definitely choking, not tooth pain. I feed him a combo of dry and wet food, with dry on the bottom and wet on the top. He gags and chokes before even getting to the dry food at the bottom of the bowl, and his reaction--crouched, rippling chest, etc.--has me convinced that as he eats, the food is often (though not always) getting lodged somewhere where it is blocking his airway.

I'm investigating drop-traps. I think I will need to do it soon, because he's becoming nervous about eating, and even when does try, he usually chokes after just a few bites. Hence, it's unlikely that food will lure him under the trap or keep him there very long if it does. But it seems more likely to succeed than trying to coax him into a more traditional trap.

I need to find a local vet who could take an emergency visit, too, but I'll be looking into that today as well.

    -Ray

It may be that the near choking caused an injury to his throat that has not healed or keeps getting re-injured and is not allowing the swelling to subside. Try giving him a separate plate with thinned down canned food that he can lap up, I keep a can of powdered kitten milk around to use for times such as this, it gives them great nutrition in a liquid form. I just had a kitten that had a terrible cold and couldn't hardly swallow, this got him through. I hope you either catch him, or the problem resolves itself! All the luck!

Di and Bob,

Thanks. Kitten milk is a good idea. I just picked some up at the pet store. I located a 24 hour emergency vet nearby as well. Traps are proving more difficult to get on short notice, but I'm working on it.

Cheers!

    -Ray

Yesterday and today I fed Boots kitten milk replacement liquid and he was able to lap it up without choking, so thanks for that suggestion--it is working. He's still probably not getting as much food, calories, or nutrition as usual, but at least he won't starve while wait for the Tomahawk drop trap and transfer cage that I ordered this morning to arrive in the mail. I couldn't find anyplace that sold these traps with a rush-order shipping option, so it looks like I will have to wait the agonizing week to 10 days for the trap to arrive. This long wait makes the kitten milk replacement liquid an even more important and useful temporary remedy.

Thanks again from me and Boots. :-)

    -Ray

The drop-trap arrived last weekend. I tried to trap Boots the next morning, but when I sprung the trap, he managed to leap out from under it before it hit the ground! He's gone so long without eating properly that now he's no longer even really lured by food, and he's super skittish. So I was worried that he'd never go under the drop-trap cage again. But this afternoon he did and I yanked the cord and got him. Whew!

Took him over to the emergency veterinary hospital, where the estimated cost just for diagnostics exceeded $5,000. Aye aye aye. I authorized it but, wow, that was a lot higher cost than I expected. I'd gone into the hospital a week or so ago and spoke with someone at the front desk. I was told then, unofficially, that I could expect a cost of about $1,200 or so for diagnostics, so the actual estimate was about 5 times what I expected.

I authorized it, though. What else could I do? Now I have to wait to see what the diagnostics uncover. I'm hoping it's a foreign object that can be easily removed, not a cancerous mass, since there is no way I could afford to treat a cancerous mass. Should know more later tonight or, at latest, by tomorrow afternoon.

Hoping for good news,

   -Ray

Wow, you are a really great person to take such care of a feral cat, especially for that much $$$. Please keep us up to date. I sure hope they give a break on that. I've had four cats in the vet for numerous reasons this year (hyperthyroidism, kitten care, general checkups and more recently, renal failure), and don't think I've spent $5,000 with all of them combined! It may be so high because it's an emergency vet though.

Well, the good news is that the final bill was a bit less than the conservative estimate. I ended up owing a bit shy of $3500. Still pretty hard on the wallet.

The bad news is that they found nothing blocking his throat or airway. What they found was severe dental disease, so his symptoms (which sure looked like choking/asphyxiating to my untrained eye) may have been caused by tooth pain, or whatever was in his throat (if anything) cleared on its own. The emergency vet also found problems in his stomach and duodenum and took a biopsy. But we won't have the biopsy results for another day or two.

So at the end of the day, my wallet is considerably lighter, but Boots is really no better off now than when I took him in because the vet mainly performed diagnostics, not treatment. Sigh. The one treatment they provided was some antibiotics to help with his gum disease (and they had a rabies vaccination available which they gave him as well, to protect him against rabid animal bites).

Not sure what else we can do for the little guy, but after keeping him confined in a recovery pen in the garage overnight, we just set him free again about a half-hour ago. He went straight to our backyard where we had liquefied food and water waiting for him.

I guess we've done what we can, but it is disappointing that what I thought would be something totally fixable, looks more like expensive, long-term health problems, probably partially associated with the hard life of a feral neighborhood cat, and perhaps also associated with just plain old age. The vet asked how old he was when we took him in, and of course I don't really know. I've been feeding him for about 3 years, so he's at least that old. But after examination, the vet thought he had the teeth of a 10 year old cat, not a 3 year old, so he may be quite a bit older than I was thinking.

    -Ray

That's really good of you to take such great care of an "outside cat". Terrible news that it might be long lasting stomach problems. Hopefully the biopsy concludes nothing but some inflammation or irritation from the gum disease, but hopefully the gum disease hasn't led to anything more serious. Thank you for all you do and have done! Keep it up and keep us posted, please!  

Well, I got the biopsy results back from the vet. There are signs that Boots has either inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or early stages of cancer. :-( There is a $600 test that could make the determination, but since Boots is an outdoor feral, the question is moot. The treatment for cancer would be to give him oral chemotherapy, which I cannot do because he is a wild cat. The vet could prescribe prednisolone, which should help if it is IBD and may help with some kinds of cancer. However, I feed Boots with his brother Socks each morning, and it would be nearly impossible to get prednisolone to Boots without also inadvertently giving it to Socks as well.

So, I've opted to leave well enough alone for now. The vet says she can prescribe the prednisolone anytime within the next 6 months, so if Boots does become distressed or stops eating in that time period, we can revisit the idea of trying to get him the prednisolone. He's eating OK now--though, in deference to his bad teeth, I've switched him (and Socks) to cans of "pate" cat food only (no more dry food). They seem be doing OK with it.

Cheers!

    -Ray

Wow, Boots is one lucky fella to have chosen you as his person!  Bless your heart a million times over!

Just curious, do you see symptoms of IBD yet?  The fact that he wants to eat is a good sign so far.

This is a sad situation for all involved! 

IBD is usually diagnosed through the history of long-standing diarrhea and/or vomiting, weight loss, increased mucous in the stool and possibly blood in the stool. I doubt with it being a feral you would have noted his bowel habits.

To be called inflammatory bowel disease, the condition must be chronic, infiltrates of inflammatory cells must be present, and other causes of these infiltrates (e.g., cancer, food intolerance, bacterial infections, parasites) have been excluded.

Ultimately, a biopsy, along with a complete blood panel would be enough to diagnose. 

Was there any treatment/dental work performed, since his condition was 'severe'?  

Did he give you recommendations for a diet change? Did he suggest probiotics, deworming, Cobalamin (a Vitaman B that is often depleted with IBD), or an increased omega-3 fatty acids in the diet?

I'm not real sure why you released him back 'to the wild' so soon if he is in need of medication and other treatments. IBD can be controlled but not cured. It is a life-long condition that need close supervision and care. Even with closely monitored care and treatment persistent mild signs, or recurrence of sever signs may occur. 

Basically, this cat is going to suffer a slow and painful death. It is my personal opinion that the best thing for this cat is to have it PTS if you are not prepared to care for it long-term and diligently.  

Wow you are a saint! It is amazing what you have done for that kitty. I second trying Feline Omega 3. Omega 3's is a great anti inflammatory agents. All the best to you and your kitties  

Hi Fyllis,

No dental work was performed because the emergency vet had no dental specialist to do the work.

I have not noticed any vomiting, weight loss, or diarrhea, but of course he is an outdoor cat and leaves the backyard to "do his business" where I can't see it.

No diet change was recommended, but I switched to softer food (pate) because of his sore teeth. I have a theory (totally unsubstantiated by any real evidence, admittedly) that his choking may have been due to biting down on harder food (I was feeding him a mix of wet and dry food then) and getting a wincing pain from the tooth, which may have caused him to gasp and inhale the food that was already in his mouth, causing him to choke. I am feeding him soft food now and have not noticed any choking. It's also possible that something had been stuck in his throat but cleared on its own before I could trap him and get him to the vet. But either way, that symptom is no longer present.

I will keep an eye on him and if he takes a turn for the worse, I guess I will have to try to trap him again. But for now, he is much happier being free and seems to be returning to his old self behaviorally.

Cheers!

    -Ray