Hairball Versus Asthma

[Meliss]

My female Siamese cat is 11 months old. She does a coughing/hacking routine every couple of days and sometimes a few times a day and then not at all for a few weeks. She never produces a hairball.

See video link:

Does that look like a hairball or something I should be concerned about? I am a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to my pets so wanted a few opinions from here first. Thanks!

 

[LTS3]

If you can, email the link to the video to your vet and get an opinion. The vet may want to see your cat anyways and the video is gives him or her a good heads up.

It wouldn't hurt to give a hairball remedy. A gel or treat type is fine. The hairball dry foods have pretty poor quality ingredients.

 

[Meliss]

I have been giving her hairball stuff. Will take her to the vet and show them video if this doesn't look like a standard hairball. Just wanted to get opinions since it seems like a lot of people on here have cats with asthma.

 

[Meliss]

Also, I just took her the vet 2 weeks ago for something else I was being over worried about and mentioned what she was doing. They just told me to bring her in if it starts up again.

 

[ReallySleepy]

Hacking/Coughing, but no hairballs

There seems to be no good explanation for all cases.

 

[Chiswick]

Looks like more of a upper nasal issue likes she is clearing her nose. Plus your cat is short haired so I don't think it would be tend to be bothered by hairballs.
My longer haired Maine Coon mix has hairball issues and she starts retching before one of those comes up and has spasms that you can clearly see when she is trying to get it up.

 

[Meliss]

Thanks. Taking her to the vet tomorrow.

 

[Charlene Giles]

My Bengal boy does this!!! Seriously!! Thought my cat was the only one. I have never brought it up to the vet. Let me know what you are able to find out

 

[Saturnine2587]

My little boy did this coughing thing and lost his voice... apparently his is connected to feline herpes so we gave him lysine paste like we did when he had infected eyes caused by the virus and it went away

 

[Saturnine2587]

She may also have a foreign body such as sewing needles or even dental floss trapped and occasionally causing discomfort. Did he vet look way down her throat? Apparently the can do and endoscopy with mild sedative to make sure

 

[Meliss]

The vet said that it looks like a hairball and I'm going to start giving Sydney the hairball med more often. She said it could be from asthma but would need to do X-rays and bloodwork and even if it is asthma we wouldn't treat it right now because she doesn't have it bad enough at this point to warrent prednisone. So I didn't spend the money...but if it keeps happening and becomes more frequent that will be the next step.

 

[Meliss]

Hmmm... i just read the post about possibly having something stuck in her throat... she does actually love to eat dental floss or atleast try to. The vet did not say anything about a possibility like that.

 

[carebearbaby1]

If it was something in her throat she'd be doing it all the time. Plus probably pawing at her mouth and drooling. It looks kind of like what my cat who had asthma would do, but 11 months is pretty young for asthma symptoms. If she's not doing it frequently I'd go with what your vet says. Short haired cats can have hairballs just as much as longer haired ones.

 

[lalagimp]

If my cat does this several times a week or several times a day, she goes on a short course of prednisolone. That's active inflammation. My other cat may have maybe 1 attack per week, so he just uses his albuterol inhaler. If he starts having multiple attacks per week he will get the steroid inhaler. Cat #1 will not use the inhalers.
Because we use the steroids so infrequently, we only do blood once per year. I give cat #1 the steroids every day for 1 week, and then 1 pill every other day for a week and she's usually good for 2 months after that.
Cat #1 and cat #2 have both had xrays to confirm.

 

[Meliss]

How old were they when they were diagnosed?

 

[lalagimp]

1 and 9 or 10. Because the older one had just late on set, we have done heartworm tests and put her on revolution for a few months as an antiparasitic. She gets her senior wellness exams and vet says her heart sounds good. We just have flare ups every 2-3 months where she gets worse and worse until i give her the meds.
When cat #2 was diagnosed, he was 16 1/2 lbs and coughing several times per week. We had him lose a few pounds and now it's just random. I'll even come towards him with the inhaler device and he says nah he's really quite fine, and starts stiffling his coughing. we don't need to do that now, do we, lady?

 

[Meliss]

Haha that's funny. Well I'm still hoping it's hairball. Giving hairball remedy and going to her food when they finish this batch. Then if it still continues will do the X-rays and bloodwork. I just lost my 10+ old Siamese right before Christmas to trouble breathing that got worse and worse. Finally ended up at the er and did a chest X-ray that showed advanced lung disease. Tried asthma treatments because the vet thought that may be an alternate explanation to cancer but it did not help and by the next day we had to put her to sleep. Now I'm scared to not do X-rays for everything that comes up basically but trying to trust vets advice...which I've learned is not always right.

 

[Meliss]

I thought I would post an update. The hairball medicine did not seem to help at all... she has still been hacking every couple of days and then Thursday night she had an attack where she basically sounded like she was choking on fluid or something. Very scary and then she was fine. Took her to my regular vet today and he listened to her chest and said he didn't think that X-rays were necessary because he would hear asthma through the stethoscope first. I did the X-rays anyways and he said it showed a pattern that could be argued to be asthma. Gave her a steroid shot and now will wait to see if it fixes the problem and go from there. Fingers crossed!!

 

[Meliss]

Also this vet did not think it looked like hairball hack like the other vet did. Possibly hair stuck in throat but not hairball.

 

[lavishsqualor]

What happened?