Cat with asthma

My cat Bob was diagnosed with asthma this morning. Luckily he hasn't had a life-threatening attack yet. The vet put him on Prednisone. Has anyone else had any experience with this? I'm just greatful we found it now.

Dexter had one asthma attack when he was young. I think that it was caused by a very dusty cheap litter I used at the time. He did not require meds.

There are several threads about asthma in the Health forum. Use the search tool & see if you can get some info that way. I'm sure that you will receive some excellent feedback in your thread too.
Let us know how Bob is doing on his meds.

My Linx has asthma. He is on inhaled preds (which are much better for him) and has been symptom free since. Please check out fritzthebrave.com it has everything you might need to know. Hugs to you and Bob, best of luck!

Thanks for posting a link to the very informative asthma site.

Originally Posted by Bob'sMom

My cat Bob was diagnosed with asthma this morning. Luckily he hasn't had a life-threatening attack yet. The vet put him on Prednisone. Has anyone else had any experience with this? I'm just greatful we found it now.

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I do...my Ophelia was diagnosed with asthma several years ago. In my research on this, I found a site I consider wonderful - click here Ophelia was initially treated with brethine. When that lost effectiveness we switched to an inhaler (using a nifty device called an aerokat ) She is now on every other day prednisolone, a smallish dose, and this is maintaining things pretty well, though she still has occasional mild attacks. She def. reacts to change of seasons, with spring being the worst for her. If my dh's allergies are up, she's having attacks..something bothers them both!

Penelope has asthma and takes inhaled medication twice a day. Since she's been taking the medication she's had no asthma attacks!

Here are a few other sites you can look at on feline asthma
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/feline_asthma.html
http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/health/asthma.html
http://www.felineasthma.org/

Also, there are a few Yahoo Groups devoted specifically to feline asthma.

Generally speaking, the inhaled meds are better for your cats than the tablets (though some cats need to take the latter or both), so you should talk to your vet about that.

Originally Posted by mykittyislacey

My sister has asthma..and I don't know if it's the same as humans but it seems that Caffeine really helps her airways to open up. Ask your vet if giving him some red bull would help. Just a suggestion

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Caffeine and cats don't mix. Please do not give your cat coffee or red bull or... a certain dose can be fatal. click here and then scroll to where it lists Caffeine

My boyfriend's mother has a kitty with asthma. She's had it for years and Cleo is now about 16 years old. So asthma is very treatable.

My kitty Rocky has it due to his lung damage from herpes. He had a wicked bad attack a few months ago and was hospitalized. He has had prednisone pills in the past which did help prevent attacks. It seems he gets bad during change of seasons. I didn't like to keep him on it b/c it made his skin dry (kitty dandruff) and it has some side effects such as being prone to diabetes later on. The vet said she doesn't like to give out inhalants too often. The plan right now is that when he starts to show symptons (coughing) that I will bring him in for a shot of prednisone. That has seemed to do the trick lately. We have done pretty well for almost a month, but it wouldn't shock me if he started to cough next week.

Wow! I never thought about whether or not cats could get asthma...I have a grandaughter with it.....but did`nt know animals could have it too.

The vet did mention an inhaler as a possibility, but being that Bob was a semi-feral cat that does not like to be groomed I passed on that idea. It does give me time to try to prepare him in case he does have to go on an inhaler. Right now he's a little lethargic, but his attacks have gotten a lot better over the weekend - shorter and not as deep. I thank everyone for their help and links.