Young cat occasionally wheezing/coughing

A few weeks ago Moscato started having these short coughing (wheezing?) fits. She'll crouch low to the ground and start to cough, but not quite hack and I've never seen her throw anything up. Sometimes the cough sounds dry, sometimes a little phlegmy, but it almost always sounds a little squeaky which is why I'm not sure if she's wheezing or not.

The fits don't seem to be brought on by anything in particular. Sometimes days will go by and I won't hear her do it, other times she'll have a couple fits within the same day. Other than the short fits, her behavior seems completely normal. She still has the same activity level/appetite as before.

I'll probably be bringing her into the vet in the coming days, but in the mean time I'm curious to hear your thoughts on what the issue might be. 

Is this sounding different than when she coughs up a hair ball??

I've actually never seen/heard her cough up a hair ball, to be honest! Since hairballs haven't been an issue in the past (I'm pretty sure she's never, ever had one; she's 11 months old), I'm not really sure what might sound 'normal' or not. 

Well she needs some time to build one up in her belly!! I would get a vet to check her out to assure it's not asthma or a heart problem. Until you get her to one you may want to buy some hair ball treatment. It's a sticky gel so you may want to give it to her in a place with not a lot of carpet.

There could be quite a few possibilities. It would be good to have a visit to the vet since it could be so many different things.
What type of cat litter are you using? If it is dusty, that could be contributing to it. If you are using corn litter, cats can have reactions to that too. Do you use clay or natural litter? Does the litter have a scent? Unscented is best as it doesn't irritate their lungs as much. Do you have a hood on the litter box? If so, remove it. It can trap the dust that is locked up and your cat can be breathing it in.
What do you feed? Raw is best, grain and carageenen free canned is next. Kibble is not good for cats, but that's a whole other discussion. If your cat is having "hair balls", try changing to a raw or canned food diet. I can tell you that after I stopped feeding kibble, their "hair balls" diminished.
There could be done very serious medical reasons for the cough too. They range from asthma, heart issues, and cancer.

My young cat, Gizmo, who is now 3 years old had this same problem.  I causally mentioned it to a new vet during a visit about a year ago and she immediately grew concerned.  They did some chest x-rays and decided that she most likely had asthma and put her on a daily dose of steroids with the dosage growing less and less as she improved.  It got to the point of me only give her a dose roughly once a month.  About a week ago she started not eating and having difficulty breathing.  I took her to my vet and then ended up at an animal hospital.  End result is she is positive for Feline Leukemia which most likely led to her catching Lymphoma and Chylothorax causing fluid surrounding her lungs.  This is why she was having difficulty breathing.  The fluid had to be drained and she is now back to her old self.  Not sure what we are going to do treatment wise as the Lymphoma is terminal but the vets are unsure if this is a link with what was previously thought of as her having asthma.  I got her when she was about a year old and apparently my vet has only been testing my other cat for FeLV this entire time.  Now I know this is on me as well for not paying close enough attention, but I assumed the vets are performing the appropriate tests/vaccines that are expected on my annual visits.  Had my cat been getting tested for FeLV annually and possibly vaccinated as recommended she may not have ended up in this eventually fatal state.  No one ever offered me to have my second cat, Shadow, vaccinated for FeLV at any vet visit(now taken care of), but she will need retesting every few months to make sure she doesn't catch this too.  I know this may have nothing to do with what is going on with your cat but you might want to double check that your cat is up to date on all of the tests.

Does it look like this? If so i's probably asthma. Definitely take her to the vet though as it could be any number of things.

Coughing could be the result of many things. My Coco coughs often , more in winter with the dry air and we know it's asthma. I would not panic but a vet check is in order just to rule out anything more serious.

Thank you all so very much for your responses! 

The vet examined Moscato yesterday and when she listened to her lungs, she said they definitely sounded a little inflamed. One very expensive X-ray later and we saw that the veins inside her lungs looked inflamed, so my girl's going to be on medication for the next few weeks. The vet's going to check in with me occasionally to see how she's doing and then we'll determine if she needs to be on long-term medication. Everything else checked out fine, though: no lungworms, nice strong healthy heartbeat, and a clear esophagus.

Although I don't know for certain, I have a strong feeling the asthma was brought on by the type of litter we were using. My roommate purchased a couple of jugs of Tidy Cats (scented, I believe) when it went on sale and it seems like Moscato's coughing started occurring around that time. We've used Petco's brand So Phresh unscented as well as scented in the past and never had any issues, so yesterday I cleaned out the litterbox completely and put in So Phresh unscented to test things out. I feel like it could have been something in the Tidy Cats that she was allergic to, and I'm hoping that switching back to our old litter will prevent any further symptoms.

She's had three doses of her medication since the vet visit and litter change and I haven't seen or heard her coughing since. Fingers crossed that she's on the mend! 

kgropp16 said:

Thank you all so very much for your responses! :heart3:

The vet examined Moscato yesterday and when she listened to her lungs, she said they definitely sounded a little inflamed. One very expensive X-ray later and we saw that the veins inside her lungs looked inflamed, so my girl's going to be on medication for the next few weeks. The vet's going to check in with me occasionally to see how she's doing and then we'll determine if she needs to be on long-term medication. Everything else checked out fine, though: no lungworms, nice strong healthy heartbeat, and a clear esophagus.

Although I don't know for certain, I have a strong feeling the asthma was brought on by the type of litter we were using. My roommate purchased a couple of jugs of Tidy Cats (scented, I believe) when it went on sale and it seems like Moscato's coughing started occurring around that time. We've used Petco's brand So Phresh unscented as well as scented in the past and never had any issues, so yesterday I cleaned out the litterbox completely and put in So Phresh unscented to test things out. I feel like it could have been something in the Tidy Cats that she was allergic to, and I'm hoping that switching back to our old litter will prevent any further symptoms.

She's had three doses of her medication since the vet visit and litter change and I haven't seen or heard her coughing since. Fingers crossed that she's on the mend! 

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Litter definitely can irritate cats and humans lungs!! If she likes clay, I highly recommend Dr. Elsey's Kitten Attract. It isn't just for kittens, I think they should change the name. It is unscented and has the least amount of dust in a clay litter of all that I've tried, and I've tried everything.
The Cat Genie is truly one of the cleanest litter "boxes" that I've ever tried. My cats wee a bit unsure of them. I also then took in a cat who has mobility issues and she couldn't get in and out of them.
The Tidy Cat Breeze is a good system did those with lung issues. The negatives of the Cat Genie and the Breeze system is that they don't clump. If your cat is having urinary issues, you probably won't catch it at first because you can't see how much volume of urine that is being put out like you can in a ursine clump.
I really like Smartcat. This is a clumping litter made out of grass. No scent, no clay, no dust, and hard clumps. The question for me became, what will me cats consistently use.
I hope the meds and litter change hekp her get better!!