Trouble breathing while purring

I am at a loss on what is wrong with our cat.  Over the past six months he has increasingly had respiratory problems when he purrs (it has never been seen when he isn't purring).  It began as a mild sound and when the vet checked it out she suggested allergies.  Otherwise he is healthy and active.  In the past few days his symptoms have gotten notciably worse.  He bends over coughing and has raspy breathing.  I've taken him to the ER twice in two days.  

The first vet felt he has asthma and prescribed Prednistab and Theophylline.  The next evening he had a particuarly hard time breathing and I brought him again.  

The second vet feels certain it is a nasal polyp.  She reviewed the test results from the previous night and didn't think it was as suggestive of asthma.  I had video of his last, and most pronounced, episode and that especially made her think it was a polyp.  While doing an oral exam, he had a mild seizure and the exam was cut short.  We have scheduled a CT scan in a few weeks to get a better look.  Until then, we are continuing the medications and watching him closely.

Also we have done what we can around the house to reduce any potential irritants: new air filters, new litter, open top litter box, etc.

I've been trying to look around online for any info on his symptoms.  I did find one personal account which matched up exactly (even took the same diagnostic route) but they never found an answer and had to put their cat to sleep.  Any thoughts, however out there they might be, are welcome.  

Below is all the medical info I have on him that could possibly be related to the condition (I know it's a lot to sort through).  

Here are his xrays:

Have you tried a daily antihistamine to see if that helps him at all? 

Thanks, I'll start looking into some of those.  It sounds like most recommendations are OTC too.  

We had another member whose cat did something strange while purring that was related possibly to asthma.  Her thread is quite long, but I do know they finally came to a resolution.  Here is the thread, if it might help you in some way:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/253783/...e-having-a-mild-asthma-attack-or-a-weird-purr

Thank you, I'll go through it and see if anything can help with our guy.  He’s been on the asthma meds for about 3 days but I don’t know how long they take to start kicking in if that’s the cause. 

Here’s a clip of his breathing: 

 

It seems to start when he purrs and escalates within a few minutes.  If I put him in the carrier and sit in the driveway with him, he stops immediately and can breathe normally again.

Thank you, I read through the thread.  Oddly enough I was adding a little turmeric to his food starting about a month ago (my mom feeds her dogs raw and uses it as a supplement and she gave me a bottle).  I had no idea I could use it to help with inflammation.  I'll try figuring out the recommended dose and see if that helps.  I tried adding a clip of his breathing but it wouldn't attach.

emily19 said:

 
It seems to start when he purrs and escalates within a few minutes.  If I put him in the carrier and sit in the driveway with him, he stops immediately and can breathe normally again.

Click to expand...

That's interesting...wonder if there's something in your house that's causing this, and fresh air is helping?

Also, in reference to your post about Tumeric, you can always pm LDG if you  have questions for her on treatments  for Flowerbelle. 

Thanks, I can’t think of any specific questions related to her experience yet but I may have more when we get the results of his scan. 

I feel really terrible instigating this but here is clip showing his purring leading to an episode and me taking him outside to end it: 
I’m only guessing but it seems it’s all related to his purr.  The second he stops his breathing is clear.  It also doesn’t take long for his breathing to change once the purring starts.  It’s still possible there is something inside irritating him.  We’ve started going through to remove anything listed as potential triggers (still waiting on his new litter to arrive). 

I think if I were to try something else inside to stop his purring, it would probably work too.  Maybe next time I can try distracting him with one of the guinea pigs 

I looked around for how long it’d take for prednistab to show any improvement.  A couple places said 48-72 hours and he’s been on his meds since the 12^th.  I don’t think there’s been any improvement.  I don’t know if that just means this isn’t the right combo of meds for him or this can rule out asthma.

OMGosh!  He is such a beautiful kitty!  I have a kitty who has been diagnosed with very mild asthma.  When would purr, it would cause her to do that overexaggerated swallowing thing.  Her purr also sounded raspy.  Sometimes she would then start the coughing associated with an asthma attack.  Other times, she would just do the swallowing.  Back in the fall, I took her to the vet because she'd started sneezing and I thought she was getting an URI.  Turns out it wasn't an URI at all, but her asthma.  She got a steroid shot and she's been fine ever since.  The vet said that it's more common in spring and fall when the seasons change.

Does he shake his head frequently or is that just associated with the purring and subsequent spell?  If it's more frequent, you might have his ears checked. 

Thanks, his head shaking only happens when he starts having trouble with his breathing.  Sometimes I notice the head shaking before the raspy sound starts, but they’re always connected.  The head shaking is also new –while the raspy breathing has very slowly progressed over the past 6 months, the head shaking only started this week (along with the raspy noise dramatically increasing too).  I haven’t seen him shake his head when he isn’t having an episode. 

I think you’re right about double checking on an ear issue though.  In another thread about a cat having trouble while purring, I think an MRI showed a middle ear infection.  I’ll make sure to bring it up when we go in for his scan.  The vet checked his ears but it could be something deeper that isn’t easy to see.

Did you try oral steroids with your cat or go with the shot first?  Was there are reason behind using the shot vs pills?  I’m debating scheduling a visit with his normal vet earlier than suggested to talk about the asthma meds.  The doses are supposed to begin tapering today and I still haven’t seen any changes.  I hate the idea of him struggling for the next 10+ days while we wait on his scan results.

We went with the shot because this kitty is difficult to pill, though we have really good success hiding pills in cheese.   My vet also said that since it was a mild case that this would be the least stressful way to treat it.  The vet seems to think, based on what we've told her, that it's really allergy induced since it seems to worsen when the seasons change.

Have you tried a daily antihistamine?  That might help him, too.

I haven't yet but did start looking at them.  I have some Zyrtec on hand (10 mg) but found different info on the recommended dose.  I also couldn't find out if there was anything you couldn't mix with them.

I have a 15 year old Cornish Rex.  Odessa had dental surgery several months ago.  Following that, she has had a couple of medical issues.  She got a viral infection, and I had to giver her some medications by syringe.  She had antibiotic shots, and they had to give her fluids, because she was dehydrated.  I took her to the Vet several times, and even saw 3 different Vets.  Odessa has had a problem with her breathing, and it is bothering me a lot.  They suspect she might have allergies, and it is seasonal.  In addition, she has the herpes virus.

I have been giving Odessa L-Lysine, and lately, Lactofferin.  I even have a small humidifier by her bed, and a big humidifier in my living room.  The breathing problems seem to come and go.  What bothers me mostly, is she will wake up from her sleep, and make a loud startling sound, that is scary.  Then, she sneezes rapidly quite a few times, as if she is trying to get something out of her nose.  After that, her breathing sounds kind of weird, with a sound, I can't describe.

I notice, when she is sleeping, her breathing is sometimes  labored, and not steady.  At other times, she sounds just fine.  There are also times, when her breathing is short, like she is kind of sniffing.  This is all so hard to explain.

Am I being a worry wart?  Is there anything else, anyone might suggest, that I can do for?

I feel like the Vet thinks, I am wasting my time.  Does anyone suggest any tests, that I could have done on Odessa to ease my mind?

Thank you.

Has the vet considered a collapsed trachea or partially collapsed trachea?

The reason I wonder is is because I've heard that purring involves the trachea. My sisters dog suffered from this and the coughing in the video reminds me a lot of what Benny went through. Also the issues when sleeping are very similar.

Judeez, the only thing I an think of is for YOU to try to video tape Odessa and show your Vet(s) so they can see what you're taking about. 

Personally, I don't think you're being a worry wart.  I check my cats' breathing all the time, just because.   If it's out of the ordinary, then I start worrying and make an appointment (or would).

And no you are not being a worry wart!!! We always want answers when something is off. Your doing the right thing.

Did they do an echo of the heart? If the steroids are not seeming to work I'm wondering if they have done an ultrasound on the heart?

I have an asthma cat who is in inhaled steroids. She was on a low dose of pred but the inhaled flovent works so much better.

Check out the webpage fritz the brave. All info is there.

If you can call the vet and ask them about this. There's a big group on yahoo groups called feline asthma.

The introduction is a bunch of questions that they ask to help you and your vet figure out what else that can be done to solve this.

My honeybee only had minor coughing in the middle of the night and fast breathing. She often was out of breathe after five minutes of play. Those two things were what tipped me off our first night together. She was very young and it was odd that she was getting tired.

We did several tests. The usual:FIV, Fel, snap test for exposure to lyme disease using the dog snap test just for the heck of it. Lung worm test. Several other parasite tests heartworm I believe the one that says she has been exposed. That's a whole other complicated thing. But nope she didn't have any of it.

Asthma is diagnosed via xrays and symptoms.

I hope you can find out what is going on. Also ask vet before doing over the counter allergy meds just incase of medication interaction.

The xrays to my untrained eyes look like asthma. They look similar to my cats.

Inhaled corticosteroids can also treat inflammation of nasal polyps if that's what it is. Its a air form of prednisone and goes directly to the tissues affected. Check out fritzthebrave website.

Judeez, I don’t think you’re a worry wart at all either.  The one thing I regret about trying to figure out my cat’s breathing issue is not pushing harder during the second exam when I felt it was getting worse.  I also can’t agree more with getting video of your cat having trouble breathing.  Since my cat would only do it while purring, and sounded entirely normal otherwise, it was hard for vets to really see what was wrong.  The first few times it was sort of brushed off as something that didn’t really require any treatment.  I was given a link by someone else about cat asthma and other respiratory issues.  It's a bit dense but it might be helpful: http://http://www.felineasthma.org/links/gunn-moore.htm

While I don’t have an answer yet for Butters issue, I do have an update.  We went in for the referral at UGA on the 26^th.  They redid the x-rays since their equipment can show better detail.  They also repeated a couple other lab tests.  They kept him overnight so they could do a CT scan the next day.  The official result of that is pending but they also performed a rhinoscopy.  They found a ton of inflammation in his nose and took several biopsies.  She said his nose was so inflamed they had a hard time getting the scope (which is the size of angel hair pasta) around the area.  She said his symptoms present abnormally (they happen strictly when he purrs).  They think his purring constricts his already swollen nose to the point where he has a hard time breathing.

Since we aren’t sure about the cause of the inflammation, we’re holding back on doing anything.  At first they mentioned using steroids but one of the potential causes would need to be treated with something that contraindicate with what they would give.  For now he’s on buprenorphine (opiate) to keep him comfortable after having the rhinoscopy and biopsies done.

Here’s a short summary of what he had done:

• CBC: no significant abnormalities
• Serum biochemistry: no significant abnormalities
• Thoracic radiographs: normal
• CT: pending
• Rhinoscopy: moderate to severe rhinitis present in the rostral aspect of both nostrils
• Histopathology: biopsies of nasal turbinates pending

Here's a summary of notes they had from his stay:

• Clinical exam was normal; 1-2 lbs overweight
• Mucous membranes were pink and moist with a refill time of <2 seconds
• Eyes, ears and oral cavity were normal; thoracic aucultation was normal, with no crackles, wheezes or murmur heard
• Throat palpatation was normal, and cough could not be elicited
• Abdominal palpation was within normal limits; no peripheral lymphadenopathy was noted
• Discontinued prednistab and theophylline
• Will not know the cause of rhinitis until we get the biopsy results back
• Do not recommend any specific rhinitis treatment

For what it’s worth, here are the more detailed x-rays:

you can use flovent to keep the inflammation down. Even though its for asthma=its an inhaled steroid that will not affect the body like oral pred. You can try a couple of antihistimines or inhaled flovent which is the same thing as Flonase.

U can join the feline asthma group on yahoo groups and we can help you with getting the meds and vet to be on your side.

Inhaled Steroids help reduce inflammation-goes in through the nostrils then into the throat into the lungs.

for more information fritzthebrave.com is about feline asthma BUT the aerokat that is used to administer the medication is how we give "puffs". I really think this would be one way to attack the inflammation-now you need to figure out what is making him have allergy type symptoms IF the tests come back inconclusive.

One thing I noticed=when I use perfumes or other smelly chemicals it makes us wheeze. try backing off on perfume, hairsprays, fabric softners, scented litter, anything that plugs in and deodorizes the air-discontinue. Those things irritate the nasal passages as usually they are lower to the ground pluggd in which is where kitty is probably hanging out.

you can also try an air purifier=I bought one at Sears=whirlpool whisper and it really helps=I have forced hot air and it really pulls the dust out. also if you have a wood stove this too will help pull the ash and stuff out of the air-these are all things that I found helped my cats nasal congestion as she has both nasal goob and asthma-the trick is to make the air cleaner without chemicals.

if you clean with strong smelling things try to back off and use vinegar/baking soda instead.

ITs a lot of info to take in at once but just chip away a bit at a time.

Can you ask about benedryll? It will make him/her drowsy but maybe it would give some relief at night.

keep us posted!