Asthma

I have seen very little about asthma on the forums, but apparently 1 cat in 100 suffers from it. Now vet Haris thinks Wellington may have it. He has been wheezing and dry coughing ever since I got him and has been on three different antibiotics over the last two months. When I got back from my trip I decided to take him in and get a second Xray done. The first one, back in January, showed something, but HAris was not sure what. Now Haris could see a thickening of the brachial tree in the lungs, which is a classic symptom. To be sure, he is sending the pix to a colleague in Florida to ask a second opinion, and meanwhile he has put Wellington on Prednisone, a corticosteroid drug that is the first choice of many vets for asthma. I have been looking it up and although it is commonly used, long term it can cause diabetes. Many vets now prefer inhalers, not of course available here! I guess that if he improves under this treatment, then I can sort out something else if necessary once we all move to France in the summer. Poor little thing - he does not get very serious attacks, but makes noises between snorts and wheezes, and every couple of days has a dry coughing fit for 20-30 seconds. It seems worse at night. I do hope I have not taken him off the streets only for him to have a life-long medical dependency. He is fine otherwise, eats, plays, sleeps and is now the biggest of my five cats, weighing over 12 pounds at around 10 months of age. That is the other thing - will the steroids make him even bigger than he is? Anyone with any experience of asthma in cats please share any comments/tips you might have.

hi jenny

i dont know much about asthma,but i was just wonderin' if wellington had asthma when he was an outside kitty?if not he might be sensitive to house dust,you could try a dust extractor or leave a window slightly open and see if that helps,especially if he is worse at night.
as house dust builds up at night when windows and doors are closed and air doesnt circulate much.
or dry air caused by central heating could be affecting his chest try a humidiffier in his room where he sleeps.

{{{{ for you and wellington}}}}

ps a cup of water on the radiator works just as good as a humidiffier

I wonder about Bakker sometimes if he has it too. He has these spells of dry coughing sometimes not at all or sometimes only once a day-but there are day that there could be more. I try to notice what he was doing before these occur. Was he running around playing, eating???
I brought this up earlier this month when he was at the vet but they didn't seem concerned. I wonder too if it has to do with burning firewood/low humidity??
My cat reference book says asthma attacks may be triggered by exposure to inhaled allergins such as tobacco smoke,kitty litter dust, sprays and carpet deodorizers. Does he look like he is straining to breathe when one of these attacks occur??? The book also states its best controlled by prednisone.
Perhaps when you move they symptoms might disappear as the house will be built with newer materials??
Good luck...

Jenny, I'm sorry to hear that Wellington may have asthma!

I saw this site on Feline Asthma posted a while back and bookmarked it as it was very informative!

I hope it will help you and Wellington!

Thanks - yes, I found that link and it was very helpful.

One of my RB cats Gaby had asthma her whole life. She lived to be 15yrs old. She was on predisone and brethine for years. You do need to careful and watch out for diabetes. She never developed diabetes but the vet always tested her for that.

All the things you would do for a human with asthma helps with cats also. Hepa filters no smoke exposure no heavy fragrances changing air filters on your heating and a/c units. etc. My Gaby was very sensitive to pesticides. I had to get the exterminator for the bldg not to spray near my apt.

As far as weight is concerned, Gaby was always very small, she intially gained some weight on steroids and then evened out to her normal weight of between 6-7lbs.

Good luck.


Cynthia

Is there an update on Wellington.

Thanks for the tips. I have already got rid of all my air fresheners! I will have to be extra careful on cat litter cleaning to keep odours down. I don't use pesticides. I wish I could get a dust free litter here, but that will have to wait till France. I do not smoke and have never allowed smoking in the house so that is no problem. We live on a hill where the air is fairly fresh, and that will be even better in France. He has only been on the prednisone for two days so it is early yet. I have not heard yet from the vet re the second opinion - I guess that will take at least a few more days. I will update when I have more to say. Meanwhile thanks again - it is strange, but I have had over 30 cats and kittens in my care, for long or short periods, and in the last four years I have had more problems and learnt about more conditions, than I ever knew about over the previous 40 years! I don't know if Bosnian cats are just more unhealthy than others or what.

Hi Jenny,

I am sorry, I am just getting to this. I see you've been to the site that is my favorite (the fritzthebrave site), and thought I'd share Ophelia's story. She was diagnosed years ago, initially treated with brethine which worked well for her initially, then we move to inhaled meds, using a wonderful mask by aerokat (http://www.aerokat.com/ and when this no longer seemed to work well for her, we did go to Prednisolone (which I am more comfortable giving than prednisone). We have her on an every other day dose, and her asthma does seem to be seasonal, def. worse in the spring - exactly when my husband has the most trouble with his seasonal allergies...