Sneeze/Wheeze/WHAT?!

[nekoha]

Originally Posted by otto

Often hairballs can cause a lot of problems, and the fact that they don't come up is why.

Hair does not always form a big finger shaped tube inside the cat.

They can form as flat mats that cling to the walls of the stomach and intestines. This can cause serious illness. They can create huge amounts of gas in the cat's stomach and intestines too, causing projectile vomiting every time the cat tries to eat or drink.

In fact that kind of convulsive hacking, with no hair ball coming up, could very well mean there is a thin mat of the stuff lining his throat or esophagus, causing constant irritation, and thus the coughing.

Sorry to edit the quote!
I think this may be what the vet tried to explain to me today (the language barrier is not pleasant when you are worried about your cats!). Pounce does let me massage her stomach, and she is eating, drinking, and using the litter box very well. I think that the vet was saying that it may be the latter - a thin mat of stuff lining her throat, combined with her eating too fast. Either way, I am to give her 3 cm of Petromalt each day for a week, furminate her regularly, and keep an eye out.
It was so funny - the vet obviously was being cautious around Pounce (she had her ears laid back, was NOT happy) and he couldn't give her the first dose of Petromalt! He was demonstrating all the different ways to do it, and seemed really worried that none worked!

I told him it was no problem. Got home, got a cm of Petromalt on my finger, popped it into Pounce's mouth - down the hatch it went, no problems!!

One more dose before I am off to bed.

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by mrblanche

Pounce is coughing, wheezing, hacking, crouched down, neck stretched out, and possibly weaving her head back and forth? Does that sound about right?

Just to point something out. Some of Blann's coughing fits are like this (though not so much weaving back and forth), yet his sisters just coughed. Even when it's from the same thing, in different cats coughing fits can look very different.


Whenever Sherman or Sho, or past cats, have a hairball they lick their lips. This happens whenever a cat is trying to vomit anything up due to saliva pooling in the mouth (happens with humans, too) and is really the only consistent symptom of the episodes I have ever seen.

Nekoha: Just in case, I suggest you ask the vet about doing an x-ray at the next visit. It may cost a bit but it's so simple to do that it's surprising that x-rays aren't one of the first things done whenever a cat has been coughing a lot. At the very least it can rule out a lot of things very quickly.
If there is an underlying heart or lung problem, you do not want to waste time not treating it.

 

[nekoha]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Nekoha: Just in case, I suggest you ask the vet about doing an x-ray at the next visit. It may cost a bit but it's so simple to do that it's surprising that x-rays aren't one of the first things done whenever a cat has been coughing a lot. At the very least it can rule out a lot of things very quickly.
If there is an underlying heart or lung problem, you do not want to waste time not treating it.

We are going to go ahead and get the full clinical exam for our cats - it includes full blood testing, chest x-ray, stool and urine testing, and a chemical test. We will have to wait until next month as we have no money until then, but after that we will hopefully have Peace of Mind for the holidays!

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by Nekoha

We are going to go ahead and get the full clinical exam for our cats - it includes full blood testing, chest x-ray, stool and urine testing, and a chemical test. We will have to wait until next month as we have no money until then, but after that we will hopefully have Peace of Mind for the holidays!

Is there anyway you can do Pounce first and get the x-ray done soon? I know that with mine if I had chose to wait a month it could have resulted in death.

 

[nekoha]

Well... I think we are about 100% certain that she is aspirating food!

Tonight we got home later than usual and all the dry food was gone.

So I fed both kitties their wet food immediately. Pounce DOVE onto her food and started scarfing. Before I could even touch her to slow her down as I have been doing, she starting choking and coughing again.

It was EXACTLY like what she was doing Friday. As soon as I touched her, slowed her down and moved her a little back from the food to let her know that she could take her time - no competition - she was fine.
I will continue the Petamalt just in case for a few days, then stop. If she has more symptoms (I sincerely hope not!) I will take her to the vet or ER. But I really do think she is "simply" aspirating food. I am going to make sure that I get home at the same time every night from now on and stay beside her to make her eat slowly!!

 

[brooklet425]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Is there anyway you can do Pounce first and get the x-ray done soon? I know that with mine if I had chose to wait a month it could have resulted in death.

Ditto this. I have one that was recently diagnosed with asthma and while I know the coughing fits can mean different things for different cats, what your Pounce is doing sounds just like what my Moe was doing. An X-ray was the first thing the vet did and the asthma showed up right away. I can't read an x-ray, but the vet took one look at it, said she saw definite signs of asthma and sent it off to a radiologist who said the same thing. When she listened to his lungs though in the normal part of the exam, they sounded fine. She had to do a little more investigating and some tests to determine that it was definitely asthma, but my point is that she saw something that looked asthma related om the x-ray right away, but heard nothing from listening to his lungs. Moe started off having the occasional coughing fit, and I wasn't too concerned at first, but I was shocked at how quickly the occasional coughing fit turned into a twice daily coughing fit. It was scary because we were also concerned that he might have had a heart problem too, and the vet didnt want to start him on any type of treatment plan until his heart had been checked by a cardiologist, so there were a few days when I knew what was wrong with him, but I had to just watch him cough, without being able to do anything for him. It was horrible

.

But anyway, my point is, definitely get that x-ray done. It might not be asthma. But if it is, it needs to be treated ASAP. Moe's on an inhaler now and aside from 2 very minor coughing fits, he's been doing really well.

Also, my vet told me that asthma often develops in cats between the ages of 1 and 2. Of course that can vary for every single cat, but Moe was about 1 1/2 when he first started coughing, so if your cat is young, maybe thats why its only started to be noticeable now. Just a thought.

However, I really hope that she's just aspirating food

. Though not to scare you, but I thought that Moe might have been doing the same thing, but it just seemed like he was having problems breathing while he was eating because its apparently good for asthmatic cats to eat from elevated food bowls.

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by Brooklet425

Though not to scare you, but I thought that Moe might have been doing the same thing, but it just seemed like he was having problems breathing while he was eating because its apparently good for asthmatic cats to eat from elevated food bowls.

Blann would do the same thing. He was coughing so much that he'd start to cough while eating - and I can only imagine that his throat was a bit raw from all the coughing, too. It finally got the the point that if he was coughing before it was meal time or felt like he was going to cough during eating (he'd start to swallow more, you could tell he was getting the need to cough sensation) that he would walk away from his food. He eventually, and rapidly, lost weight from doing this.

An x-ray will show any inflammation in the lungs, whether it be from a chronic condition or an infection. Fluid in lungs will also show up. It will also show if the heart is enlarged at all.

Better to deal with any of this in a regular vet visit where you're not as stressed, and it cost less, than at the ER.