Any Recommendations For The Best Diet For An Asthmatic Cat?

[pippapurring]

Hi everyone!

My adorable baby girl Tony:

has asthma It's a mild case of asthma (so far, she's 3.5 years old) and she doesn't yet require drugs. She does have coughing fits that seem to peak twice a year, the changing of the seasons really get to her.

I know that asthma in cats is usually caused by an allergen and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to help her diet-wise. I've experimented with a bunch of commercial pet foods before, including 80% meat content foods that are grain free. So far nothing has made a difference.

Just curious if anyone here has an asthmatic cat and has had success with a specific diet in the past! I'm open to anything. I do have two other cats but they aren't picky. I currently feed a combination of wet and dry food.

 

[duckpond]

Tony is a cute girl I have never had a cat with asthma, so i cant really answer your question on that. I do have a husband with Asthma, and i know when we first got cats i used the standard clay litter. It bothered my husbands asthma, so i went on the quest for a dust free litter. I finally found Dr. Elsey's respiratory relief silica crystals, and pioneer pets smart cat grass litter. I now use these two, and nothing else, it has helped my husband a lot, as neither one has any dust that i can tell. It also helped my cats with their occasional hacking or sneezing they would do with the clay litter. Might be something to think about, trying different litter, if yours is dusty?

 

[lisahe]

I've looked into asthma a bit because we have a cat who's suspected of it though not diagnosed. She had a few relatively mild/minor coughing spells in her first months with us but stopped after we switched to Dr. Elsey's Respiratory Relief clay litter. It works great for us humans, too, who used to sneeze from Fresh Step. Dr. Elsey's is pretty low dust.

As for foods, it seems the general suggestions I've seen have been for low-inflammation foods. (I haven't done much reading on this in some time but that's my overall memory.) Of course it can be very hard to know what foods cause sensitivities and allergies in cats but we feed only wet foods, no grains, no carrageenan, no peas, potatoes, or other carby vegetables. It's a very high-protein diet. Of course I have no idea if that contributes to Ireland not having much problem with coughing now! One other thing I've noticed: she occasionally seems to inhale cough on her own fur when she's grooming and that can look a lot like her initial coughing fits. I mention that because Tony looks very fluffy!

Good luck!

 

[kirathecat]

Hi, your cat is super cute! I see she’s helping you do your laundry

I have an asthmatic cat and his asthma is pretty bad (several coughing episodes a day was his worst and it was not season related) untill we got him on inhaler I was able to manage his cough with all raw homemade diet of chicken, turkey and lamb. Any introduction of commercial food (wet, dry, treats regardless of brand) would cause his cough to come back within a week or two of using any amount of store bought pet food. He did go without so much as a hack for weeks while on strict diet of homemade raw and no meds. Now he’s on steroids and I had to forgo the raw diet for now. I’m not a vet so I’m just speculating here, but it looks like your cat’s asthma is triggered by some pollen or such so I’m not sure if changing her diet would have any significant impact. However, you might want to eliminate foods containing carrageenan since it has been linked to inflammation. And I also read that sometimes cats with mild asthma get prescribed bronchodilators to manage those occasional episodes. Or ask your vet if she needs to be on steroids during her flare ups as well. What might also help is to keep windows closed as much as possible during and use air purifier with HEPA filter - that’s what recommended for humans with seasonal allergies anyways.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Hi!
We have an asthmatic too, and has had a few episodes requiring hospitalization.
I'm all about using anti-inflammation foods, raw being the best choice for most but unfortunately our little guy has really severe IBD to go along with everything else, and raw is a no go for him.
We've had good luck feeding cooked foods along with a variety of canned foods. This cat likes home made food but I'm not as confident formulating a cooked diet as I am raw, so he'll get occasional meals of leftover meat (no spices) and vegetables, pumpkin or squashes, etc. He does seem to strongly prefer poultry to beef or any beef-like foods (venison, elk, etc.) so we stick with chicken, turkey, and duck when available.
He can tolerate raw tripe and he can tolerate a bit of poultry hearts as well.
For canned foods, we stick with poultry and rotate brands and varieties. Fancy Feast is at the top of the "favorites" ladder, though we do reserve this mostly for periods of poor appetite.
Foods we DO avoid are any dairy and most beef (except for the occasional tripe), dairy he likes but it seems to cause him more inflammation, something an asthmatic with IBD doesn't need
We also add fish oil daily. I've heard it can be really good for any and all inflammatory problems. (Just check labels, some companies add a lot of random stuff to fish oil that you might not wish to offer!)

We also refuse unnecessary vaccines for him. We've never ran into problems with this, but wouldn't hesitate to go elsewhere if we did.

Even if his asthma is environmental in nature, I feel there's no harm done in feeding a diet that is low-inflammatory!
We have a HEPA filter, as well as a humidifier in the room he hangs out most in. These two things have helped a lot! Dry air seems to trigger coughing spells with him, so the humidifier works.
Also beware of wood burning stoves or fireplaces. It also goes without saying that absolutely no one should smoke in the house.
Also examine cleaning routines and products. Keep a look out for good, allergy friendly detergents (I'd ditch dryer sheets and fabric softeners when washing anything he might lay on or around). Depending on your flooring, choose floor cleaning supplies wisely and avoid anything scented (even lightly scented) to mop laminate style floors and avoid using any powders used to freshen carpets. Dust often, but use something cat friendly (ours does really good if we dust and clean with a 10:1 dilution of water/Murphy's Soap or white vinegar. We don't use things like swiffers, etc, but just a plain, cotton dust mop with a spritz of either that mixture or just plain water.
Also, look at the litter situation. What's annoying is that a lot of litters ARE low dust but that varies batch to batch. Forget anything scented, and if you have a covered box, take the cover off and leave it off. (We had covered boxes for a long, long time, and before we even knew this cat had asthma he was going to the bathroom right next to the box. We figured it was his IBD, but now I honestly feel as though he was being "choked out" in his bathroom!)
Hope this helps a little!

 

[pippapurring]

Thank you so much everyone for your thoughtful replies!! I really appreciate it.

I'll definitely be looking into the Dr. Elsey's brand of cat litter that's been recommended, I've never heard of it and it's worth a shot. The diet recommendations have been great too and I'm going to experiment over the next few months to see if anything sticks. I think an air filter wouldn't hurt either. We don't smoke but I think her allergy is primarily environmental, something like dust or pollen.

After getting xrays done our vet has said the side effects of asthma meds (especially steroids) would be worse than her current level of asthma (mild coughing fits a few times a week at most) so I'm doing everything I can to make sure her asthma stays at the level it's at now so we can keep her off meds for as long as possible.

If anyone else has thoughts they'd like to share I'm all ears!!

 

[lalagimp]

I know the first thing we did to lessen Stewart's asthma symptoms was getting him to lose 4 lbs.
We have albuterol and flovent inhalers, but he rarely seems to need them. He just got moved off kibble Dec 2016, and moved off clay litter February 2017. He eats rabbit and turkey home made raw with snacks. He's 6 now, and his asthma is next to nothing compared with when he was 1.5 years old. I was thinking we were going to have some issues moving from the climate in Phoenix to the climate in D.C., but nothing's really changed.
This winter, my other cat, seems to be doing fantastic with her asthma. She should have started another course of prednisolone by now. She's on Dr Elsey's kibble, canned Nature's Variety, and then whatever we're reviewing for Chewy that month. January was Weruva Cats in the Kitchen.

 

[lisahe]

Dr. Elsey's kitty litter is about the most expensive there is, pippapurring , but it's really been worth it for us. (This is the one we use.) They used to have online coupons for a rebate for the full purchase price of a box but I didn't see that immediately. If you buy at a store, don't forget to use the $1 off coupon on the side of the box! They sell it at our local Petco and Petsmart.

@1bruce1 is right about variations in dust with most litters but at least Dr. Elsey's hasn't ever been excessively dusty in the three years or so that we've been using it. 1bruce1 is also right about dusting regularly: our cat loves to snarfle up dust under the furniture and then sneeze and cough. I do try to remember to clean under there but am not much of a housekeeper!

Another thing I've seen consistently mentioned about asthma is that stress is a big factor: our cat who used to cough is also our nervous cat so I'm sure there's a connection.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Dr. Elsey's kitty litter is about the most expensive there is, pippapurring , but it's really been worth it for us. (This is the one we use.) They used to have online coupons for a rebate for the full purchase price of a box but I didn't see that immediately. If you buy at a store, don't forget to use the $1 off coupon on the side of the box! They sell it at our local Petco and Petsmart.

@1bruce1 is right about variations in dust with most litters but at least Dr. Elsey's hasn't ever been excessively dusty in the three years or so that we've been using it. 1bruce1 is also right about dusting regularly: our cat loves to snarfle up dust under the furniture and then sneeze and cough. I do try to remember to clean under there but am not much of a housekeeper!

Another thing I've seen consistently mentioned about asthma is that stress is a big factor: our cat who used to cough is also our nervous cat so I'm sure there's a connection.

Our boy had an acute attack during a remodeling project. We had him safely locked out of the area in a clean room, but we assume enough paint fumes and dust particles made their way in under the door over the course of a few days to cause this, not to mention being locked in a room that he didn't want to be in! Ours isn't a stress-y type, but the combination of factors seemed to play a role Our vet mirrored what you said and said stress is a big factor, and even things we wouldn't consider stressful can be stressful to them.
From now on, whenever we do any kind of project at all we will plan ahead and board him somewhere, far away from the dust!!

Edit: Another idea is to bring out their travel carrier, set it up somewhere, and make it inviting and cozy and leave it there. They'll probably ignore it for quite awhile, but feed them in it occasionally (door open) and let them come and go. There's nothing worse than having a cat struggling to breathe and having to shove them into a carrier when they are pretty unfamiliar with it.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Also, a plug for Dr. Elsey's litter...we've never used the little mentioned, but we've used the cat attract training litter to re-train a cat that suffered from terrible recurrent UTI's and took to peeing elsewhere, and that stuff WORKS! Aside from the rare and brief marking incident (she's a brat...lol), she uses the box to actually relieve herself.

 

[lisahe]

@1bruce1, that attack during the remodeling project sounds scary. You're right that sometimes it just doesn't take much. Probably the combination of fumes, dust, stress, and who knows what all (since, as you say, it's hard to know what's stressful for a cat) else accumulated. I even shut our cats in a room with me when there's a lot of noise in the house for some reason: they just tend to get twitchy and then Ireland races around. She's been a nervous cat since we adopted her (the cats were in a too-many-cats situation and very underfed so who knows what happened to them as kittens) and has mellowed out quite a bit but she still has her moments.

And our vet would be so happy to hear what you say about carriers: she even suggests training cats to get in their carriers at the command "Kennel up!" She's trained hers to do it but I admit that we're slackers. We do leave their carriers in a spare room, though, and the cats sometimes nap in them. That does seem to help some when we need to load them up and take them to the vet.

 

[duckpond]

Dr. Elsey's has a respiratory relief litter in clay formula and also one in the silica gel formula. so you may want to give both a try and see which you and your cats like best i normally order my litter from chewy, i order from amazon some too, but with this litter Chewy is normally a bit cheaper.

 

[lisahe]

Dr. Elsey's has a respiratory relief litter in clay formula and also one in the silica gel formula. so you may want to give both a try and see which you and your cats like best i normally order my litter from chewy, i order from amazon some too, but with this litter Chewy is normally a bit cheaper.

I usually buy at local stores but Chewy sometimes has great sales on Dr. Elsey's litters!

 

[duckpond]

I usually buy at local stores but Chewy sometimes has great sales on Dr. Elsey's litters!

I wish we had a local store where i could buy it! Small town, the closest i could get it is a 2 hour drive, so online it usually is for me