Hey everyone,
So I may just be a worry wort, but I've been recently upset over my kitten, Ares, breathing. Sometimes he breaths just fine - around 35-38 breaths a second (I looked up online that the average cat breaths 20-40 times a minute.) Other times he gets up to around 60 even when he's just sitting down. Even when asleep sometimes he starts to breath around 50ish breaths a minute, while other times he'll go down to about 25 in deep sleep. I've also noticed that when he is breathing quickly when laying down, he tends to sigh every few minutes - not sure if that's important.
Things that have been done - including already going to the vet:
* He's been on lung worm medication, so the vet doesn't think that's the cause (on top of it being so rare for a 6 month old indoor cat.) My last vet gave me 2 weeks of lung worm medication when he couldn't come up with a reason why my cat wasn't getting better from antibiotics (I went to another vet, the guy just hadn't given him the right one. He needed something stronger for his URI - which has now been cleared up for 2 months.)
* He has been tested twice for parasites and the tests came back negative.
* The vet listened to his heart and lungs and said everything sounded fine. No strange breathing and a normal rate of breathing for being in a vets office.
* I had X-rays done of him during his URI fiasco. His lungs obviously looked a little enlarged then, due to the infection, but the new vet who looked at the older x-rays said his heart looks just fine. So in the heart department, not too worried. She says he may have heart worm, but if he did she has no idea where he could have gotten it from. So testing him for heart worm may be next on our list of things to do.
* Vet says he is a healthy weight of 6.4 pounds at 6 months old. Healthy coat, eyes, skin - gums a good pink color so I'm assuming that means he's getting good oxygen flow.
At this point, I may just want to play it by ear. Other then the rapid random breathing every now and then, he seems fine. Eats well, sleeps through the night but also has boundless energy during the day, and has a normal amount of bathroom visits for a cat on wet/raw diet (several pees a day an normally 1-2 poops depending on how much he ate.). Am I over reacting? Should I just give it some more time and see if any other symptoms come up? All I really have left to test for is heart worm, and for a test that expensive I don't really want to take a random shot in the dark - especially since he doesn't have any of the symptoms.
Does any one have any suggestions on what It might be? What I can ask the vet to check for when I do go for my next visit? Thanks. (and sorry for the crazy long post!!!)
I am having trouble uploading videos of my cat, so I found on on youtube who is breathing about the same as Ares does. I also uploaded his X-rays for anyone who wanted to have a look.
So I may just be a worry wort, but I've been recently upset over my kitten, Ares, breathing. Sometimes he breaths just fine - around 35-38 breaths a second (I looked up online that the average cat breaths 20-40 times a minute.) Other times he gets up to around 60 even when he's just sitting down. Even when asleep sometimes he starts to breath around 50ish breaths a minute, while other times he'll go down to about 25 in deep sleep. I've also noticed that when he is breathing quickly when laying down, he tends to sigh every few minutes - not sure if that's important.
Things that have been done - including already going to the vet:
* He's been on lung worm medication, so the vet doesn't think that's the cause (on top of it being so rare for a 6 month old indoor cat.) My last vet gave me 2 weeks of lung worm medication when he couldn't come up with a reason why my cat wasn't getting better from antibiotics (I went to another vet, the guy just hadn't given him the right one. He needed something stronger for his URI - which has now been cleared up for 2 months.)
* He has been tested twice for parasites and the tests came back negative.
* The vet listened to his heart and lungs and said everything sounded fine. No strange breathing and a normal rate of breathing for being in a vets office.
* I had X-rays done of him during his URI fiasco. His lungs obviously looked a little enlarged then, due to the infection, but the new vet who looked at the older x-rays said his heart looks just fine. So in the heart department, not too worried. She says he may have heart worm, but if he did she has no idea where he could have gotten it from. So testing him for heart worm may be next on our list of things to do.
* Vet says he is a healthy weight of 6.4 pounds at 6 months old. Healthy coat, eyes, skin - gums a good pink color so I'm assuming that means he's getting good oxygen flow.
At this point, I may just want to play it by ear. Other then the rapid random breathing every now and then, he seems fine. Eats well, sleeps through the night but also has boundless energy during the day, and has a normal amount of bathroom visits for a cat on wet/raw diet (several pees a day an normally 1-2 poops depending on how much he ate.). Am I over reacting? Should I just give it some more time and see if any other symptoms come up? All I really have left to test for is heart worm, and for a test that expensive I don't really want to take a random shot in the dark - especially since he doesn't have any of the symptoms.
Does any one have any suggestions on what It might be? What I can ask the vet to check for when I do go for my next visit? Thanks. (and sorry for the crazy long post!!!)
I am having trouble uploading videos of my cat, so I found on on youtube who is breathing about the same as Ares does. I also uploaded his X-rays for anyone who wanted to have a look.