Cat Gagging/coughing Randomly??

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Hi, my cat has been doing some weird lately, I'm not 100% sure how long because I was gone until a few days ago and the whole family was on vacation... but basically she looks like she's gagging, almost like she has a hairball but she also makes a wheeze kinda sound, she'll do it once or twice and then is completely find. At first I thought it was just a hairball that she was struggling with so I figured she'd be fine but she's been doing it more frequently, and now what's really making me worry is she just had a weird fit that looked like she was coughing or sneezing and she was shaking while it happened....besides this everything else is fine, she's eating, pooping, drinking, nothing about her poop looks off... I definitely am going to take her to the vet but I wont be able to get there until Monday unless it's an emergency, so any insight or ideas on what's wrong would be appreciated. :sniffle:
 

Maria Bayote

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It could be Upper Respiratory Infection, but she really has to be brought to the vet on Monday to be sure.
 

Richard2121

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How old is she? That’s my first question to eliminate a few possibilities. However if the vet recommends treatment of any kind I would advise to do a Respiratory PCR panel to determine what type of infection may be present so I can be treated properly. I had the same issue for months and it turned chronic and ended up being a VERY specific infection that could only be treated using one type of antibiotic and for 4-6 weeks not just 14 days like the typical antibiotic course.
 

1 bruce 1

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I'd definitely call the vet tomorrow. It could just be an infection or it could be a bad hair ball, or it could be asthma. All things are treatable and she should be just fine once everyone knows what her problems are.
They might want to do x-rays to see if they see inflammation in her air ways or if they detect a hair ball trying to make an appearance. If they do, please OK this because it's going to help the vet a lot to decide what's going on and how to go about it.
As long as she's eating, drinking, peeing and pooping she should be fine until then, but if it gets worse or she's breathing with her mouth open or drooling or just acting off, please call the emergency vet ASAP because that could be a very bad life threatening thing.
There are a lot of threads here on URI (upper respiratory infections) and asthma with a lot of good information, if you just hit the search bar and type them in, you'll get some more information :wave3:
 

stephanietx

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My first thought was possible asthma. I have 2 kitties with asthma and it sounds a lot like what they do when they are having an asthma attack. Thankfully, neither of them are severe enough to require a nebulizer. Please let us know what the vet thinks is going on.
 

terestrife

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Any updates? what did the vet say? a hairball usually doesnt take that long. they'll have a fit and its hacked up.
 

Lisannez

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Have you moved recently? Our girls were Los Angeles cats until about a year ago and now we live in Washington, DC where the allergies to pollen are horrible for the humans, and apparently cats. Our tuxie had all the symptoms above plus a swollen eye. Vet said definitely allergies. They come and go.
 
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