Cat purposely pressing down on his throat

[witchfur]

Since this seems to be the only place on the internet talking about this weird behavior, I thought I'd add my cat to the choir. Covin (like witches, rhymes with oven) also does this. About once per day she will put the bottom of her chin on a corner of something that she is sitting on, usually the ubiquitous Ikea shelves. She holds her chin there, probably compressing her esophagus as said earlier until she gags and spits up some... bile? mucus?

She has been doing this for at least 8 years if not longer with seemingly no detriment. It is worth noting that she does have a persistent sneezing issue and there is some evidence for feline herpes. She had a scope run through her sinuses and they didn't find anything wrong. Looking forward to a vet chiming in with a theory!

-Covin's Dad

 

[Nazari]

Hey everyone,

So, my cat has been doing this for a few months now, but he had stopped and now he's doing it again and I wanted to see if anyone else had had their feline companion do this.

My cat goes and finds the edge of something (right now he's using the lowest rung of my clothes dryer, but he's used the edge of the chair and the edge of a plastic box before) and puts his neck over it and then presses his whole body weight down on it, therefore constricting his esophagus. He then swallows repeatedly and gags a bit and either throws up/regurgitates or just gags but nothing comes up. If something comes up, he promptly eats it again (which is why it's so hard to catch him in the act -- there's never any evidence!).

He sounds to be like he's a bit stuffed up (I can hear the air wheezing as he breathes through his nose), and he runs out of breath very easily while playing and starts panting. But other than that, everything is normal. Not wheezing while he pants (except through the nose), and no panting unless he's playing, and his activity levels, appetite, and bowel movements are all normal. I just get a bit worried/freaked out by the seemingly self-induced gagging/vomiting thing he keeps doing. Though, it may be he does it to try and prevent himself from throwing up?

Much obliged!

Hello any update on this why cats do this my cat keep choking himself the same way, you know why they do that ?

 

[abyeb]

Hi Nazari , the original poster of this thread hasn’t been on the site since 2014, so it’s unlikely, unfortunately, that they’ll be able to provide an update.

How long has your cat been doing this behavior? Are there any other symptoms (coughing, choking, etc.)? In any case, I think he should be checked over by a vet to figure out what’s going on.

 

[Carriejane]

Hi, my recently deceased cat did this for a while. We had her for 9 years & she randomly passed away in her sleep. As a pet owner, keep looking for answers that this isn’t an indication of a shorter lifespan. Lord knows I wish we knew what got our Tabitha, but we couldn’t afford it. Keep an eye on this behavior. I had no idea it was so rare.

 

[fionasmom]

I am sorry for the loss of your cat.

 

[booksmellgood]

My cat does this too, she's a 3 year old domestic shorthair. I came across this thread when i was searching to see if something was wrong so it's comforting to know there are others out there. She'll lean her throat/chin over our dining room chairs or the end of the table until she makes herself gag. 95% of the time nothing comes out, 5% it's mucus and she cleans it up. I asked our vet about this and she said it might be that she is trying to make herself throw up since I haven't ever seen her have a hairball, but that was her only explanation. Maybe it's just a strange thing some cats do. Fingers crossed for us all!

 

[fionasmom]

Welcome to The Cat Site and thank you for your reply. I had a cat years ago who went out on a tieout and lead. She would purposely lean forward so that her throat was against the collar (old style cat harnesses then) and gag. We never got to the bottom of it either.

 

[babowman17]

My cat does this too! She is an almost two y/o domestic medium hair and she is a big girl. I had to start taking away the fabric cubbies because she’d hang her head in the corner and choke herself. She does the same in a soft fabric basket — I’m not worried about esophageal / throat damage from this item. However, she recently found out she can achieve the same result from hanging her head over my metal bedroom trash can. She’ll choke & I’ll wake up, get out of bed to make sure she’s OK. As soon as she stops choking, she puts her head right back in position to basically self-induce choking again. Now, whenever I’m not home / asleep, the cubbies, trash cans & anything else with an ‘appealing edge’ are put away.

I have noticed she gets hiccups, unlike her sister (I have two female cats). I just think she’s silly and may like choking herself, considering she does it repeatedly? I can’t really take her to the vet because they only fat shame her (she is a little overweight, but she’s also just a massive cat. Longer than a 2x3 ft rug if lying down). Basically, I monitor her breathing, dental health, bowel movements, eating habits, etc., and I think she just likes to self-induce gagging. So, here’s another one haha. Cats are weird.

 

[fionasmom]

In the case of Zoe, my cat from years ago, I did take her to the vet to rule out anything that might cause her to want to do that. It might be a good idea to see the vet once about this, just in case she is doing it to try to relieve some discomfort in her throat or digestive tract. With Zoe, they found nothing and she eventually stopped doing it. I have had overweight cats; Fiona herself was quite heavy at one point in her youth and I still have blackmail pics someplace of her huge shaved tummy after she had bladder stones removed. You are still entitled to decent medical care, heavy or not.

 

[MaroMaro]

wow, I know its been soo long since the original question. My cat has been doing this for a couple of years now, she leans on any type of surface; the garbage bin, her cat tree edges, anything and just puts all her weight on her throat, she then proceeds to gag but then she's acting completely normal after. I spoke to her old vet a couple of years back and they just told me it was behavioral at this point but its soooo strange. I haven't mentioned it to any vet in a while, i think it may be time to bring it up again.

 

[ConCaten]

I'm glad I found this thread since it seems to be the only one online talking about this type of behavior. My cat, who is around 7-9 years old (not sure since he was a shelter cat) has been doing this for 3-4 years now. He will use the edge of boxes, trash cans, totes and literally hang his body weight with only his neck resting on the edge until he gags and coughs. He has always had a bit of issues with sneezing and allergies, and has had a minor respiratory infection in the past, but he's done this behavior even when he is totally healthy.

I do find it interesting how many people say their cats have had sneezing and other upper respiratory symptoms, makes me wonder if there is some virus or allergy that causes an itchy throat that the cats are trying to relieve.

Here is one theory I've always had and I know it's weird but here me out: if you've ever heard of auto-erotic asphyxiation, you will know that depriving one's brain of oxygen briefly causes a dopamine response. I always joke when my cat does this that he is performing such a practice, but thinking deeper I do wonder if there is some truth. Maybe not the erotic part, but I do suspect it might be a rare behavioral practice that cats do when they are bored as it causes a sort of high in a way. I noticed that my cat started doing this when he went to live with my sister for a few months while I was traveling, and she would be gone for long periods of time and him left by himself. I now notice he does this when he is behaving bored or restless. I wonder if it is a behavioral thing they do to essentially entertain themselves or create some kind of dopamine rush. Cats are predatory animals at heart and a predator brain needs a certain amount of stimulation in order to create the practice required for hunting and adrenaline intense situations. That is why predator animals like cats and wolves play rough when they're young as it makes their brains acclimate to the large amounts of adrenaline they require when hunting....just one theory.

 

[Alldara]

What do you mean by "a tie back in the throat"? I am wondering if maybe he didn't swallow a piece of string from his toy...? There's a strong toy in cat tree, which he's already destroy, but the string was still there and he played with it occasionally, and I noticed last night that half the string was gone. Though, he bought me a piece of string this morning that looked like it was the missing string... And his bowel movements are normal. (I am so glad no one judges statements like that on this forum).

I was actually going to ask if he'd had a scope in his throat/nose. I've heard of cats having blades of grass or string stuck for long periods of time and the vet couldn't see them until the scope.

I think they have to be under for that?

 

[fionasmom]

C ConCaten in the story that I related earlier, the vet did bring up auto-erotic asphyxiation as we never found anything wrong with Zoe and nothing ever came of it....no allergies, throat masses, nothing. The vet was serious and did do an exam, so it was not mentioned as a joke. When Zoe did this the first few times, it presented as a mild seizure which was a huge worry to me, but she never exhibited any other seizure symptoms or behaviors.

In general, any cat who seems to have a place in their body which might be troublesome probably needs to go to the vet for a screening.

 

[lbatt]

So glad I found this thread!
My cat has been periodically doing this same behavior for almost a year now. He does it on the metal rungs of my bed frame under my bed while I'm sleeping. It started around the time he was having some asthma/URI symptoms. After medicine, the symptoms resolved so I'm thinking more along the lines of URI.
When he hangs his head over the metal bar, he only coughs and never gags. The coughing looks very similar to an asthma attack which is why the vet thougnt asthma at first. He's very verbal, so afterwards he's raspy when he tries to meow.
I'm thinking he may have picked up the habit when he had mucus build up with his URI. And the behavior is also likely maintained by me quickly jumping out of bed each time and moving him away from hurting himself and putting him in the bed with me for cuddles instead.
My vet hadn't heard of this behavior either and all exams came back with no health issues to worry about. Just weird cat things I guess