Cough Or Hairball?

My female 9 y/o semi-overweight calico cat (Lola) has had persistent coughing/gagging fits for the past year or so. I took her to the vet 2 times, x-rays came out fine. They said she MAY have weight-induced asthma and recommended a daily inhaler and special diet but didn't see her cough firsthand.

I've linked a video of her coughing on Dropbox: Dropbox - IMG_9925.3gp - Simplify your life

Could this be gagging up a hairball?

I'm trying to get her more active to lose weight. Wondering if that will help.

Thank you!
Abby

Coughing up a hairball is usually productive. I can’t see this being that if hair never comes out of his effort. If she seems otherwise okay, I’d focus on the weight loss. Reduce or eliminate dry food. Put her on an eating schedule. Ask the vet for a calories target or how fast she should lose weight. You don’t want her to lose weight too fast. That can be really hard on her liver. As for extra activity, besides additional play, walk her around the house a few times with the food plate in hand before setting it down for her. Pick up some bonito fish flakes and hide those throughout her environment to encourage the hunt. If she can navigate cat trees and counters or allowable furniture surfaces, put flakes here too to encourage extra activity. Flakes don’t contribute much to calories but they can add up I suppose. If you have a kitchen scale, weigh out the serving size for the flakes. It’s pretty big. Do it anyway so you have a rough idea how much you can put out for how many extra calories. I believe the answer is something like a whole lot for only a few extra calories. But check that yourself. You don’t want her treat budget wiping out the extra exercise it’s giving her.

This is so helpful. Thank you for your quick response & tips and tricks for cat weight loss

If dry food is part of her daily diet, throw each piece so she has to run for it. Make a game out of it and by the time she has eaten all of her allocated amount she will have had a good workout.

That sounds and looks like an asthma cough. I have 2 asthmatic kitties and see it especially when the weather changes, but stress can bring it on as well. Sometimes there is no trigger, it just happens. Humidity aggravates it as well.

You might find a lot of good advise and help on the Fritz the Brave site. Feline Asthma with Fritz the Brave - your comprehensive resource since 2001

stephanietx said:

That sounds and looks like an asthma cough. I have 2 asthmatic kitties and see it especially when the weather changes, but stress can bring it on as well. Sometimes there is no trigger, it just happens. Humidity aggravates it as well.

You might find a lot of good advise and help on the Fritz the Brave site. Feline Asthma with Fritz the Brave - your comprehensive resource since 2001

Click to expand...

Yikes - yes, it does seem to happen more frequently when the weather changes.... and when my other cat tries to "play" and ends up jumping on top of her. It makes sense that stress would cause the cough.

Ugh... I feel like a terrible cat mom!

Don't beat yourself up about it. What I have found helps one of my kitties is a prednisolone shot. My other asthma kitty does not tolerate the shot well. You might talk to your vet and see if the shot would be an option for you.

stephanietx said:

That sounds and looks like an asthma cough. I have 2 asthmatic kitties and see it especially when the weather changes, but stress can bring it on as well. Sometimes there is no trigger, it just happens. Humidity aggravates it as well.

You might find a lot of good advise and help on the Fritz the Brave site. Feline Asthma with Fritz the Brave - your comprehensive resource since 2001

Click to expand...

This sounds like allergy to me. Potentially (but not limited to) dust mite allergy. I have dust mite allergy myself and suspicion for mild case of allergic asthma. Humidity increases the number of dust mites, making symptoms worse.