Lingering cough and sneezing in a cat, advice please

[les26]

Hi all,

Several weeks ago I posted how I was trying NOT to take Sylvester to the vet when he had a lot of clear mucus and was sneezing a lot, but I did talk to them about it and they said try L-Lysine and I also gave him some Transfer Factor Plus (colostrum) but stopped as that seemed to upset his stomach. He is much better but we notice he still at times has a lingering cough, he squats down a bit and will cough, almost like he is trying to throw up a hairball but doesn't, then he will sometimes lick his lips and move his neck forward a bit, but nothing comes out. I have noticed that this happened twice when he ran, once up the steps to greet me and once running from the litter box to see me, he stopped and had a bit of a short coughing spell. I talked to a woman at work who has many cats and she said it either could be lingering from a few weeks ago when he was sick and/or it might be something that he has like chronic asthma or something. He seems fine other than that, sneezes once in awhile but is eating and playing and drinking, and again if he needs to be seen by a vet I will take him but if not I don't want to stress him out, he's only been to them twice in his life, and they usually want to load them up with all kinds of shots and I don't like that, so any advice would be appreciated!

Oh, I also called his previous "owners" who had him inside then put him outside then took him in again and out over and over, but she said that she never saw him like this.

Thank you in advance!

 

[fodder]

Could very well be asthma. Sounds like it from your description and also that it happens when he runs. Does it look anything like this? 
You would have to ask your vet to be sure but if it is asthma it is very manageable. One of my cats has had it since she was very young.
Your vet could give him a steroid shot and if it goes away you will know its that. In the long run it is better for them to use an inhaler though which he probably wont like at first but they soon get used to it.

Asthma does not cause sneezing and mucus though. If the L lysine helped it is probably that he has FHV.

 

[les26]

Yes, he does act similar to the cat in the video! He just started doing this like I said the last 10 days or so, hadn't done it before he got that FHV a few weeks ago. I scrolled down and read through the comments and someone mentioned a product called "Lung Gold" which is a natural product, I might look into that. I do not like to have the vets give them any kind of shots unless it is absolutely needed, I guess I still have in my mind when a vet gave Sebastian a second shot of Convenia about 5 days after he had already had one, I could've spit bullets I was so mad she did that without talking to me first, and inside I harbor this fear that that hastened his demise.

Thank you for the information, I will check into all these things!