My 16 year old tabby started making slight wheezing sounds about 4 months ago. He is otherwise healthy. His eating/drinking and physical activity had not changed so I just kept an eye on it. The wheezing would get better for a while then return and he would sneeze every now and then. There has never been any discharge from his nose or eyes during this whole time. when he sneezed, it was clear. After about a 1 1/2 months of this, I decided to just get him checked out by my vet. His lungs were clear, and the vet thought it was probably some type of upper respiratory thing and gave him an antibiotic shot to make sure it did not go any farther. I took him home and he continued with the occasional wheezing and sneezing but still his eating/drinking and physical behavior had not changed. I waited for a few more weeks and it was not going away and was more noticeable. I called the vet and she said upper respiratory issues can last for months and is harder to diagnose if there is no discharge that can be tested, and he never has produced any discharge.
After a few more weeks of it not getting better, I called the vet and she had me pick up some antibiotic tablets although I only got about six of the 10 tablets into him over the course of the 10 days as the ones that he did not get it was because I had a really hard time getting it down or he spit it up orchewed and spit it up or something like that. I watch him for a few more weeks and he got a little better but then after a week or so it started coming back again so I brought my cat back into the Vet and she decided to try a steroid shot and some new liquid antibiotics. I noticed the next day he sounded even worse his nose breathing was very noisy and you can tell he was having a hard time struggling I wouldn't say suffering but struggling to do nose breathing however no mouth breathing. I brought my cat back into the vet the next day as she wanted to do X-rays just to rule out anything in the X-ray showed his lungs were clear his body cavity organs seem fine, she did her best to do a head x-ray to check the nasal cavity for any growth obstructions things of that type but as you know it's hard to keep a cat still so it may have been a little on an angle or skewed so she sent it off to a radiologist, and the radiologist really said that it could be a nasal inflammation it could be some kind of pus in the nasal cavity or it could be some kind of growth but it's too hard to tell on that x-rays and would need a CT scan to properly diagnose. I went back home and kept giving him his daily antibiotics and his breathing is very bothersome and he tries to sleep but his own nose breathing wakes him up so I've been using a vaporizer in the room where he lays or if he moved to another room I'll put it there and I got him in a closed bathroom last night and again today and sat with the Steam and the vaporizer for a good 20 minutes to help alleviate which it seems like it helps until he leaves the bathroom and then he's back to that breathing. Last night he had a hard time sleeping because of the breathing but by the time I woke up this morning, I was surprised to see that his breathing although I could still hear it wasn't that real loud kind of Stuffy congested breathing but I also noticed he had not eaten anything. So I put some food in my hand and he ate it like he was really hungry and gave him some water and he drank it but I noticed shortly after that his congestion came back and he started with the very heavy congested breathing again. So I'm just reaching out to see if anyone else has experienced this I'm trying to find something that can alleviate his symptoms I'm obviously keeping in touch with my vet but I don't think it's a good idea to have to put a 16 year old cat under anesthesia which would be required for a proper CT scan, so just looking for some help thank you for anyone who has experience in this I really appreciate it. By the way, my vet was kind of Leary to put him on benadryl because it could have constipation side effects and would make him extremely tired. I know how I feel when I take Benadryl it wipes me out for 2 days.
After a few more weeks of it not getting better, I called the vet and she had me pick up some antibiotic tablets although I only got about six of the 10 tablets into him over the course of the 10 days as the ones that he did not get it was because I had a really hard time getting it down or he spit it up orchewed and spit it up or something like that. I watch him for a few more weeks and he got a little better but then after a week or so it started coming back again so I brought my cat back into the Vet and she decided to try a steroid shot and some new liquid antibiotics. I noticed the next day he sounded even worse his nose breathing was very noisy and you can tell he was having a hard time struggling I wouldn't say suffering but struggling to do nose breathing however no mouth breathing. I brought my cat back into the vet the next day as she wanted to do X-rays just to rule out anything in the X-ray showed his lungs were clear his body cavity organs seem fine, she did her best to do a head x-ray to check the nasal cavity for any growth obstructions things of that type but as you know it's hard to keep a cat still so it may have been a little on an angle or skewed so she sent it off to a radiologist, and the radiologist really said that it could be a nasal inflammation it could be some kind of pus in the nasal cavity or it could be some kind of growth but it's too hard to tell on that x-rays and would need a CT scan to properly diagnose. I went back home and kept giving him his daily antibiotics and his breathing is very bothersome and he tries to sleep but his own nose breathing wakes him up so I've been using a vaporizer in the room where he lays or if he moved to another room I'll put it there and I got him in a closed bathroom last night and again today and sat with the Steam and the vaporizer for a good 20 minutes to help alleviate which it seems like it helps until he leaves the bathroom and then he's back to that breathing. Last night he had a hard time sleeping because of the breathing but by the time I woke up this morning, I was surprised to see that his breathing although I could still hear it wasn't that real loud kind of Stuffy congested breathing but I also noticed he had not eaten anything. So I put some food in my hand and he ate it like he was really hungry and gave him some water and he drank it but I noticed shortly after that his congestion came back and he started with the very heavy congested breathing again. So I'm just reaching out to see if anyone else has experienced this I'm trying to find something that can alleviate his symptoms I'm obviously keeping in touch with my vet but I don't think it's a good idea to have to put a 16 year old cat under anesthesia which would be required for a proper CT scan, so just looking for some help thank you for anyone who has experience in this I really appreciate it. By the way, my vet was kind of Leary to put him on benadryl because it could have constipation side effects and would make him extremely tired. I know how I feel when I take Benadryl it wipes me out for 2 days.
