What's Wrong With Pebbles? Very In-depth Description Of Her Symptoms. Help!

[LeonieLunatic]

I posted a similar thread before but I didn't go into full detail and didn't get a lot of responses. I really hope someone can help us. My husband are in a very tough financial situation and can't afford to get her tested for a lot of illnesses she might not even have. We need a general idea of what to test for so we won't (literally) become homeless.

Here's her detailed list of symptoms (some of which might be unrelated to her issue but I'm trying not to miss anything):

• Reverse Sneezing. Her most prominent symptom. She has "attacks" multiple times a day. From what I've gathered from her foster mom (who we adopted her when she was ~5 years old) she's always had this problem. She rarely EVER sneezes normally. The only time I've seen her not-backwards sneeze was when she was sick with a URI.
• Congestion. She sounds very congested BUT! there is no or very little discharge coming from her nose.
• Trouble breathing during exercise. She seems to have trouble catching her breath when she plays.
• Her nose is unusually small and her eyes are unusually big. This is something my sister-in-law (Vet tech) noted.
• Her hind legs are longer than her front legs. Her hind legs are also cross legged.
• Coughing. This is a new development that started about two months ago. We initially mistook it for attempts of vomiting or gagging up a hairball, but it still hasn't gone away. It doesn't happen nearly as often as the reverse sneezing, though.
• She snores, sometimes loudly.
• She's prone to URI's.
• I've never seen her cough or backwards sneeze outside. She's an inside cat, but because of her breathing issues, I decided to take her outside every now and again on a leash (with a harness). We usually don't go far and just sit in the grass for while, but I think it's worth mentioning that she doesn't sneeze our cough outside.
• Her right ear seems to bother her. She frequently cleans it, aggressively so.
• When she was sick with the URI, the vet noted that she had a lot of tartar and tooth wear for he age.

She DOES NOT:

• Throw up. I've only ever seen her throw up when we introduced a new food brand. When the vomiting didn't subside, we switched to a different brand and she hasn't thrown up since.
• Have trouble with hairballs. We feed our cats hairball control food and I've never seen her gag up a hairball, not in our home nor in her old foster home. I've cleaned up a hairball before, but it was gagged up when I wasn't home so I can't say which one of our two cats it came from.
• Have discharge coming from her eyes or nose.
• Sneeze normally.
• Have diharrea.
• Have trouble urinating.
• Lose weight at an alarming rate.
• Experience lack of appetite/anorexia. She loves food and treats and will even perform little tricks (shaking hands, standing up) for treats.

Illnesses/Disorders that have been suggested, but I don't think she has them (and why I think that):

• Asthma. Asthma only affects the lungs, so she shouldn't have problems with her nose. Reverse sneezing also isn't common symptom in asthma.
• Chronic Sinusitis. This was the initial diagnosis when we adopted her, but Sinusitis shouldn't be affecting her lungs (her chronic cough). She also doesn't exhibit lack of appetite or nasal discharge.
• Chronic Snuffler. Reverse sneezing isn't a common symptom in Snufflers. It also shouldn't be affecting her lungs. She also doesn't sneeze normally or have discharge coming from her nose or eyes.

Conditions that I stumbled upon that seem to fit (keep in mind that Pebbles and Cinnamon are my first cats so I could be completely wrong here):

• Nasal Polyps. Mainly because of the constant ear scratching/cleaning, but it also covers reverse sneezing, coughing and congestion, depending on where the polyp(s) are located.
• Ciliary Dyskinesia. A rare genetic disorder in which the small hairs in the lungs, airway and/or nasal passages function abnormally. It seems to cover ALL of her symptoms. It's usually found in dogs and is even rarer in cats. The chances of her having this are slim because of its rarity, but I find it scary how well it fits her symptoms. It's also fatal because (according to my research) it can only be treated with long term antibiotics which she'll eventually build up a tolerance to. It usually ends in pneumonia which can't be treated due to the tolerance for antibiotics and therefore, will end deadly.

I really hope someone more experienced than I am can give me some input. I know this was a long post but I hope it helps us get to the bottom of this.

 

[LeonieLunatic]

I FORGOT TO MENTION:

She usually does not mouth-breath. I can happen when she plays, but even then it's not a constant thing.

 

[catlover73]

I do not have experience with chronic sinusitis in cats but I have had issues with it myself. I did have issues with coughing when my I was experiencing heavy nasal drainage. I am not sure if this is possible with a cat though. My 12 year old kitty Starbuck caught a URI a few years ago from one of my other cats and her main symptom was coughing. She was barely sneezing and was not expelling any snot when she did. She also did not have goopy eyes. She was coughing so bad when I called to make the vet appointment that the receptionist actually had a vet pick up the phone to listen to her coughing. I was waiting for someone to get home with the car and it takes hours out here to get a cab without reservations locally during rush hours. Uber was not really an option out here yet. The vet advised me to do a steam treatment for her immediately. I ran the shower with hot water and steamed up my bathroom. I sat in the bathroom with her for 20 minutes. Her coughing did decrease drastically. I have never heard her cough like that again. You could call and ask your vet if it would be safe to try a steam treatment for her. I am not a vet so please check with yours. Starbuck also had severe ear mites when she was a baby. She behaved very similar to what you are seeing with your cat's right ear. Also my Casey had a pretty nasty URI when he was a kitten and it took a week for him to show any symptoms at all. Then he suddenly started sneezing and had red goopy eyes. He never had a cough. URI's can manifest differently in different cats.

 

[Timmer]

Allergies? Maybe it's something in your home. Do you use air fresheners or diffusers? Your cleaning supplies?
I'm not a vet. There's a video on You Tube from Dr. Karen Becker talking about reverse sneezing on dogs. Have you watched it?
I wonder if a round of Prednisone would take the inflammation down in the respiratory area and help. Again, I'm not a vet. Could take the cat to a vet clinic for an evaluation? Does not mean you have to have a full battery of tests done.
I did have a kitty that got a sinus infection once and she just needed a round of antibiotics. Simple and she never got it again.
The ear and UTI are not related obviously but it seems like the cat needs a good check up and medical care.

 

[LeonieLunatic]

Allergies? Maybe it's something in your home. Do you use air fresheners or diffusers? Your cleaning supplies?
I'm not a vet. There's a video on You Tube from Dr. Karen Becker talking about reverse sneezing on dogs. Have you watched it?
I wonder if a round of Prednisone would take the inflammation down in the respiratory area and help. Again, I'm not a vet. Could take the cat to a vet clinic for an evaluation? Does not mean you have to have a full battery of tests done.
I did have a kitty that got a sinus infection once and she just needed a round of antibiotics. Simple and she never got it again.
The ear and UTI are not related obviously but it seems like the cat needs a good check up and medical care.

It's chronic. She's had breathing issues all her life. Her foster mom took her for a check up before we adopted her (about 6 months ago) and the vet diagnosed her with Sinusitis. She gave her an injection that was supposed to relieve her symptoms, but it really didn't do anything. During this check up she was also checked for fleas, worms and mites and got her ears cleaned. We initially thought the vet had gone a little too deep on her right ear or something to that effect, which caused it to be irritated, but half a year later, it still seems to bother her.
I don't think it's Allergies because she's had most of her symptoms in her foster home as well, unless she's allergic to dust. Because dust is just kind of everywhere, haha.

 

[Vazimmy]

Just letting everyone know about my cat who suddenly had chronic reverse and regular sneezing fits after getting some sort of gastric virus. It has been months of daily extended attacks. Thousands and thousands of dollars later they biopsied his nose and found an infection that was best treated with Orbax. 5 days on it and his symptoms have almost completely gone- this is after MANY courses of other antibiotics, and vets who said it was just chronic rhinitis and nothing would help. I’m grateful to finally seem to have helped him! I hope this helps someone else whose cat has chronic reverse sneezing.

 

[Timmer]

I'm so glad things worked out. Hopefully this post will help someone in the future. That's another thing that is so good about this site. I'm sorry you had to spend all that money though. Wonder why no one could have figured it out sooner? Oh well. It's great news! I'm sure your cat is relieved someone figured it out, too!

 

[Vazimmy]

I live in a very expensive area, but it also started to be clear that most vets are just guessing at the problem. 2 did not even recognize a reverse sneeze when I showed video. They kept insisting that it was either asthma (that I’d have to treat with nebulizers daily) or rhinitis (that isn’t curable and I’d just have to try to reduce symptoms). He ended up going to a specialty internist who did CT/rhinoscopy to finally get an answer. And of course the medication was only $30 after all this!! I hope our struggle helps someone else.