HELP! Cat gasping / coughing / gagging?

[lisahe]

I actually messaged her foster mother last night to ask if this has ever happened before. She fostered Kila for about a year between when she was born and when she was adopted out the first time, and then again for a short time when her first adopter gave her up late last year. She said Kila experienced something similar to this once before, when she moved homes the first time, and that it was cleared up with Clavamox and Lysine. Possibly a herpes flare-up? She also thought it might be food related (apparently Kila's been eating pretty low-grade food her whole life) though I'm not sure about that. She really likes the grain free turkey food we give her and her appetite and litterbox habits have been great.

You're so fortunate to be able to contact the foster mother and receive good information like this. There's a lot here to sort through -- all those puzzle pieces you mentioned that can take time to work through. Herpes flare-ups are possible. (We're pretty sure we saw those in our previous cat: she sometimes had a day or two or three with weepy eyes and some sneezing.) And food (even just one seemingly small ingredient) really can do weird things to cats even if they're eating well and using the litterbox without any problems. Do you happen to know/remember what she was eating before she started to have symptoms? Also, I know this is an old topic, but what kind of kitty litter was the foster mother using? (I sometimes think about "reset" as a good starting point for certain things even if those parameters and products aren't perfect.)

Or maybe it's allergy related and the asthma is only part of the full picture?

I wouldn't be surprised since they often go together. Here's a page on allergic asthma in humans. And a search of "allergic asthma in cats" brings up a lot of results (though some repeat), including the beginning of a (paywalled) article that says some cats don't respond to the usual treatments. Which makes me wonder about the steroid itself and what She's a witch mentioned about dosage. (FWIW, I think allergic asthma is likely what Ireland has; I seem to recall that the vet mentioned that possibility, too. We may never know for sure, but given her habits of sniffing at the floors, I think dust and/or pollen is likely at least part of her problem and of course all that stuff floats around and accumulates together.)

I hope the vet is helpful tomorrow!

 

[lisahe]

frazzfox , I was just wondering how Kila is doing. I hope all is well!

 

[frazzfox]

frazzfox , I was just wondering how Kila is doing. I hope all is well!

Hello! Kila is doing very well. In fact these past few days have been the first opportunity I've had since this all started to exhale a little.

Kila hasn't had another coughing attack since last Saturday. She finished her five day course of Prednisolone and is now on an every-other day dosage for a few weeks. Technically the prescription is for over a month, but I intend to get her onto the inhaler before then. Her breathing is much, much more steady and calm -- basically normal, as far as I can tell. She's finally playing again and can play just fine for extended periods without huffing, wheezing, or getting too winded. In fact, she's been much more playful and energetic and has been 'asking' us for playtime a few times a day by pawing at the container we keep her toys in!

As far as her congestion goes, her sneezing has finally tapered off and she barely does it now. Nose discharge is also much reduced. Her purr doesn't sound congested or rattly anymore and it's much louder. And she's gotten more talkative, trilling when we talk to her and pet her, and especially chatty around mealtimes when she decides she needs to be fed right now! She still eats well and uses the litterbox like clockwork.

When I called the vet's office earlier this week I was informed that the vet we've been in close contact with will be out of the office for the rest of the week. They offered to put me through to a different vet and I thought about it but I really trust the one we've been working with for a few weeks now, and I'd want him to be the one to prescribe her inhaler dosage and hear her status update. So we'll be getting that prescription a little later than I would have liked but I don't think it'll be a huge problem. I left a message and he'll return it as soon as he gets in next week.

The only real thing of note is that she does have a little bit of inflammation and redness still on her third eyelids in both eyes. She's not squinting, weeping, oozing, or any other symptoms that indicate she's in pain or having issues seeing, so I think she'll be fine until I can hear back from the vet.

Thanks to everyone who's been checking in and offering support! Here's a picture of the girl herself, unaware anything was ever wrong:

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh baby!! This is wonderful to read!!

 

[She's a witch]

Awesome! I guess it took longer for steroids to work in her case then?
Just note that it takes around 2 weeks for inhaled steroids to start working, so I’d make sure to overlap both prendisolone (even tapered dose) and fluticasone for at least that long, otherwise she may start to have symptoms again.

 

[frazzfox]

She's a witch Yes I guess so! She seems absolutely fine now. And thank you for the tip! I'll order the inhaler as soon as I get the prescription next week and make sure the timing lines up properly to keep the symptoms at bay.

 

[lisahe]

I'm so glad to hear that Kila's doing so much better, that's great news! I think it's good you're waiting for the same vet that you trust -- that's so important.

She's such a cute cat!

 

[frazzfox]

Welp... I think I ended up jinxing myself yesterday when I wrote that post. Not 30 minutes later my partner messaged me to let me know Kila had TWO coughing attacks that afternoon — what the heck!

Today she’s curled up next to me on the bed, looking a bit run down and sounding congested and rattly again. I’m really at a loss. I suppose we’ll see what the vet says in a few days. Maybe the prednisolone isn’t working that well after all — maybe too small a dose? It almost seems like she’s more likely to cough on the days she gets the pred (she had it yesterday morning and then both the mornings she coughed last weekend). I’ll continue to update.

 

[Furballsmom]

It almost seems like she’s more likely to cough on the days she gets the pred

Maybe mention this to the vet, that's three times.

 

[lisahe]

Welp... I think I ended up jinxing myself yesterday when I wrote that post. Not 30 minutes later my partner messaged me to let me know Kila had TWO coughing attacks that afternoon — what the heck!

Today she’s curled up next to me on the bed, looking a bit run down and sounding congested and rattly again. I’m really at a loss. I suppose we’ll see what the vet says in a few days. Maybe the prednisolone isn’t working that well after all — maybe too small a dose? It almost seems like she’s more likely to cough on the days she gets the pred (she had it yesterday morning and then both the mornings she coughed last weekend). I’ll continue to update.

Oh, no! I am so sorry to hear this. It does seem that the overall trend is toward the better, though, doesn't it? (I mean in terms of all the symptoms, though particularly the coughing.) I, too, wonder about dosage and if perhaps she's one of those cats for whom pred is not particularly effective. And very strange that she seems most likely to cough on pred days. I'm glad your vet will be back soon!

 

[frazzfox]

Oh, no! I am so sorry to hear this. It does seem that the overall trend is toward the better, though, doesn't it? (I mean in terms of all the symptoms, though particularly the coughing.) I, too, wonder about dosage and if perhaps she's one of those cats for whom pred is not particularly effective. And very strange that she seems most likely to cough on pred days. I'm glad your vet will be back soon!

Yes I'm trying not to let it bother me too much. Still will definitely be letting the vet know everything. But cautious optimism here -- luckily all of her other symptoms are much, much better. Eyes, sneezing, etc. She even seemed to shake off this little episode faster than she had previously. Now she's lounging in the sun, breathing's fine. That stretch from Saturday to yesterday was tied with the longest time she'd gone without coughing since it started: 5 days. Hoping for 6+ next time!

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[lisahe]

Yes I'm trying not to let it bother me too much. Still will definitely be letting the vet know everything. But cautious optimism here -- luckily all of her other symptoms are much, much better. Eyes, sneezing, etc. She even seemed to shake off this little episode faster than she had previously. Now she's lounging in the sun, breathing's fine. That stretch from Saturday to yesterday was tied with the longest time she'd gone without coughing since it started: 5 days. Hoping for 6+ next time!

That is, indeed, a lot of good news! Here's to cautious optimism. Fingers crossed (again! ) that she'll make it 6+ days without coughing this time. It's so awful to count the days like that and wonder when you'll get past whatever your previous record was. (We were doing that when Edwina was barfing last year. I'm so glad we finally cracked that one!)

 

[frazzfox]

Speaking of barfing — woke up about 30 mins ago to what I thought was Kila having another coughing episode, until she puked all over the bed. Watery, light brown puke with what looked like a small piece of clear plastic (?) in it as well as a mushy mass of... something. Possibly undigested food or maybe mushy hair? I couldn’t figure it out. Consistency of the rest of the puke was a little like skim or 1% milk. It smelled like... well, like puke. It’s been 7 hours since we last fed her.

Poor thing. I was just petting her but the purring seemed to be making her gasp/wheeze so I stopped. Her purr’s been congested and rattly since yesterday. She jumped up to the top of her cat tree and fell asleep, but now I’m wide awake.

 

[Albus&minnie]

Speaking of barfing — woke up about 30 mins ago to what I thought was Kila having another coughing episode, until she puked all over the bed. Watery, light brown puke with what looked like a small piece of clear plastic (?) in it as well as a mushy mass of... something. Possibly undigested food or maybe mushy hair? I couldn’t figure it out. Consistency of the rest of the puke was a little like skim or 1% milk. It smelled like... well, like puke. It’s been 7 hours since we last fed her.

Poor thing. I was just petting her but the purring seemed to be making her gasp/wheeze so I stopped. Her purr’s been congested and rattly since yesterday. She jumped up to the top of her cat tree and fell asleep, but now I’m wide awake.

Poor kittie!

 

[lisahe]

Speaking of barfing — woke up about 30 mins ago to what I thought was Kila having another coughing episode, until she puked all over the bed. Watery, light brown puke with what looked like a small piece of clear plastic (?) in it as well as a mushy mass of... something. Possibly undigested food or maybe mushy hair? I couldn’t figure it out. Consistency of the rest of the puke was a little like skim or 1% milk. It smelled like... well, like puke. It’s been 7 hours since we last fed her.

Poor thing. I was just petting her but the purring seemed to be making her gasp/wheeze so I stopped. Her purr’s been congested and rattly since yesterday. She jumped up to the top of her cat tree and fell asleep, but now I’m wide awake.

Yikes, it's always awful to be woken up by a cat barfing on the bed. Were her bowls empty after the last feeding so you know she'd last eaten seven hours before? Edwina barfs up liquid and bile sometimes if she's hungry or is contemplating hunger; she's very food oriented and gets nervous about her next meal. We feed the cats five times a day and I have to give Edwina a snack early in the morning, before breakfast, either manually or with an autofeeder. This is not uncommon.

That said, the vomiting when we were counting the days was almost certainly (I'm not sure one can ever be absolutely certain about cat barf) caused by green lipped mussel in her food. She usually barfed from that about three to four hours after meals, though sometimes longer, this wasn't every day but somewhat regularly. It was also liquidy, sometimes with indeterminate stuff in it. It took a few months of food diary and ingredient analysis to figure out it was the mussels as well as agar-agar (that went first because it was obviously a problem for Ireland, too -- that cat almost never barfs!) that were causing the problem.

All that said, in your case, the plastic-like thing may be the answer to Kila's barf. Barfs can be very hard to sort out but I think you already keep a cat log, right? That's what helped me figure out the pattern for Edwina. (Much to the vet's surprise after she wanted to chalk it up to reduced motility and consider meducation for that!!) Sometimes it's just dumb luck to figure things out, as with the potato in certain foods that was making E both gassy and barfy: somehow I noticed a pattern there really quickly.

I hope you're all doing okay today!

 

[frazzfox]

Yes, we actually fed her a little late last night. Usually we feed at 6:30 but we ended up getting home late and fed around 8 instead. I always make sure she's eaten before removing her bowl so she ate her normal amount last night. Seemed fine just before bed though she was tearing around the house with the zoomies pretty aggressively just before we laid down.

This is the first time she's puked since we've had her and this morning she seems... fine. Better than yesterday, even. I fed her a small portion in the morning mixed with water to hydrate her and she scarfed it down and immediately demanded more. Made her wait an hour then gave her the rest, and she ate that. I don't think the vomit's related to the rest of this, it was just a shock in the middle of the night to wake up to a splash on the comforter.

She just coughed again though. Could the prednisolone somehow be making the coughing worse? She's had coughing fits three days in a row now (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) which is the most frequently she's had them. Ironically right after one of the longest streaks she hasn't coughed in a row.

 

[lisahe]

I don't know much about prednisolone's side effects but (facepalm here) had forgotten about the pred when thinking of possible barf scenarios. The AeroKat device company has a page about steroids and lists vomiting as a side effect. Side Effects Of Systemic Steroids In Cats

If she continues to barf up liquidy stuff during the night even after going off the pred, you could consider feeding a small bedtime snack.

That is very strange on the coughing. Are you already tapering the dosage? No matter what the answer, though, I am so glad your vet will be back soon!

 

[frazzfox]

Yeah we're already tapering. She's on 1/2 a 5mg pill every other day.

 

[frazzfox]

Well, the vet won't be back in the office until tomorrow, so we've been watching and waiting. I'm very nervous that the pred isn't helping much. Worried that it could mean this is something other than asthma -- heart issues, etc. She was pretty lethargic/sleepy the whole weekend, didn't seem herself. Not sure if that might be a pred side effect? On the bright side she hasn't had many incidents of fast, labored breathing.

I wanted to attach two of the videos we've taken of her cough more recently. The first video is from this past Friday and the other one is from about two weeks ago. As you can see this sounds different than the first time she coughed. It's a pretty unique sound. I've been trying to look up Youtube videos of cats coughing to match it but not much luck so far. I have shown my vet these videos.

Her longest attack has been about a minute, maybe 90 seconds. These recent ones have been around 30 seconds or less. She's only done it twice in one day one time, as far as I'm aware. Most days there's someone at home with her for about 90 percent of the day.