Cat Asthma?

[amarshall0919]

My fiancé and I’s 4 year old cat, Midnight, has always breathed loud. When he sleeps, you can hear him breathe pretty loudly. Even though he does breathe loud through his nose sometimes, he’s never had any other problems with his breathing. He’s very healthy, and loves to play.
However, about 3 weeks ago we brought a new kitten into my fiancé’s apartment. It was a little rough start between the two, but now they love playing with each other. They will sleep next to each other, groom each other, and walk next to each other. Our kitten does like to play rough sometimes though. She will bite on his tail, and jump on his back. This sometimes results in him meowing very loudly, and hitting her away. After this happens, we separate them for awhile, and then they’re back fine.

I’m saying all this because for the past four days, Midnight has had some problems. This video is the closest thing I can find to what he sounds like. The only difference is that his noise is consecutive. There are no pauses for him, he just continues to make the noise over and over until he has finished. The first day he only did it once, and we thought that maybe he had a problem causing hair ball that didn’t want to come up. He hardly ever throws up hair balls anyway. His whole life, he has probably only thrown up hairballs a handful of times. The next day he done the sound at least twice. The third day again. Now yesterday, it was worse. It seemed like every few hours, he was doing it. I rub on him, and it helps him. He quits shortly after I start, and then starts purring and breathing fine. I looked up some causes, and it says that stress can cause cats to have more asthma attacks. I know that Smoothie, the kitten, could be irritating him, but she is locked up away from him for most of the day. It also says that cat asthma can start because of an allergy they have, but my fiancé has lived in this apartment for 4 months now, and there has been no problem. I make sure to always clean.

Early this morning I came out of my fiancé’s room, and Midnight was retching like that YouTube video. Smoothie was in the room with us, so there is no way he was aggravated by her. I ran over to him, started petting him, and he quit. He got up, and followed me to the bathroom. He is eating, drinking, and using the bathroom fine. He is still playing. I do feel like he doesn’t feel the best though.

I came on here to ask for your all’s opinion’s. Does this sound like cat asthma, or something else? Should we try a hairball cat food anyways? We will not be able to get him into the vet for a few weeks, and that is what worries me. If you guys do believe it sounds like asthma, is there anything I can do to help him at home? Any home remedies? Should I keep him and Smoothie apart for awhile even though they like seeing each other? I am very worried about him since this behavior is brand new, and I have read several horror stories about cats with asthma. Like I said in the beginning, he has never ever had this problem before. His last visit to the vet was in July, and they said he was perfectly healthy.

 

[di and bob]

The kitten is still very new to his world, enough to cause a lot of stress and bring on an asthma attack, if that is indeed what it is and very well could be. First, the next time you bring him in for a checkup, have an x-ray performed (CT scans are expensive) and make sure it is not his heart, which can be a cause for coughing too. An enlarged heart can be managed for a long time with meds, so don't think it is a death sentence if he has one. It would also show any abnormalities in his lungs. If it's hairballs, great, give him some hair ball remedy, it wouldn't hurt anyway. My cat's had distemper when they were young and developed lung problems. I got a actual human inhaler prescription from the vet, and administer it by placing him in a carrier, puffing the inhaler in the doorway and covering the whole thing with a light blanket. You can also get nebulizer treatments, putting the 'mask' inside with him and again covering it all with a thin blanket. It only takes about ten minutes. They don't like it at first but get used to it, some cats even eventually let you hold the mask in front of their face. You know, it might even be JUST stress that is bringing on the coughing, so as soon as they become a family unit, and they will in time, everything will be OK. all cats go through this when another cat is introduced, having stress to one degree or another. Eventually your kitten will bring him comfort and playtime, in time.

 

[stephanietx]

That's an asthma attack. You need to get the kitty to the vet for listen of her lungs and a chest x-ray to make sure she doesn't have anything more severe going on. We deal with this in my house with 2 of my kitties, especially when the weather changes. For them, the treatment is a prednisolone shot that lasts about 6 months.

 

[di and bob]

Those steroid shots really work for my kitty too!