Is This Noise Asthma Or Allergies?

Furballsmom

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Hi!
To me, you're right, although I'm not a vet but it sounds like a combination of asthma and at the end, something like dustiness that irritated your cat's nose where it sneezed.

Do you use air freshener sprays, strongly scented cleaners, scented candles, air freshening diffusers, strongly scented dryer sheets or laundry soap, or body perfumes? If so, can you eliminate these things, for a month or so, and see if it makes any difference in your cat's breathing?

Is the litter you're using dusty and/or scented? Can you find a non-scented litter that isn't dusty?

Is your cat getting dry food? Does it have chicken in the ingredient list - often a cat can have a food sensitivity to that.

If you're only feeding dry food, can you transition to canned food?
 
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tutuchen

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This video is very close to what is happening,

 
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tutuchen

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The above video is NOT a video of my cat, but simply a vid that I found online on youtube that comes very close to what is happening with my cat. Every time it haappens I'm not had a cmamera ready to record so thus I use someone elses video othat is very similiar to mine in order to demonstrate what is going on...

After my post it seems like she was doing better and even seemed to completely stop the symptoms for a few days, but in the last two days it has come back and so I'm trying to do more research to see if it is possible 1) allegry 2) asthma 3) couching up a hairball 4) lung problem 5) some throat desease etc etec etc

Not sure at this point... But based on this* video below, -- that someone else posted of their cat -- which is the same species of our cat the russian blue, it doesn't sound like it is asthma and sounds more like something else? (compare to the soundcloud clip above)

 
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tutuchen

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I am primarily feeding dry food, and its main ingredient is chicken. Maybe I'll switch to canned food and also to nonchicken dry food for a while...

I recently changed litter to an 'arm and hammer' brand and it might be more 'fine' and thus more dust, so I'll check into that.

Sometimes I let the cat into the car garage to play, recently it has been raining and there has been more dust collected on the floor of the garage via the wheels of the cars tracks so maybe that might be an issue... she likes to hide under the car sometimes and I think it is possible she gets some of the fine dust dirt on her and then she licks her coat/fur a lot too...

Thanks for the tips!

If it gets worse I will take to a vet. Luckily we have a few that are open 24/7 around here.
 
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tutuchen

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After coming back from vet, advised to do hairball remediation via Laxatone and was given a shot of Convenia
Apparently according to the FDA, Convenia is only meant to treat for skin issues and this shot was given improperly or at least not for labeled use.

Lots of cats have died from after getting the injection and I'm doing a treatment of ""
Every four hours feed a teaspoon of wet food with the prescribed amount of Bene-Bac (purchase thru some vets, Online or Amazon) for your animals body weight for the first (2) weeks. Reduce to twice daily - every 12 hours for the next 4 months.""
 
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tutuchen

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What is wrong with my cat?

See video:




-----
TL;DR
Long story short, I took Tutu (our 1.5 year old female Russian blue cat) to a very close nearby local vet (due to Tutu hating longer distance car travel etc) on October 2nd of this month, the vet gave her a shot of Convenia Injection (Long Acting Antibiotic) and her symptoms started to subside on October 4th and then she seemed symptom free. Recently in the past several days her symptoms reappeared in full force and might be getting even worse than before.

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LONG VERSION:

Video of Tutu in the act of having symptoms : Second Video of Tutu in the act of having symptoms : Third Video of Tutu in the act of having more bad symptoms :
audio clip 1: audio clip 2:
The entire discussion with the vet was voice recorded and uploaded here:

Recently, starting around Wednesday Oct 17th we noticed Tutu's symptoms returning, and she is making the same noises, symptom and sounds as before. I would like to get a different/second opinion, due to the fact that the Arlington vet seemed less than helpful and based upon my retroactive research after the fact, the vet gave Tutu a dangerous drug (Convenia) and injected her in an off-label method (Convenia is not suitable for treating URI, only skin related issues) and the vet did this without first informing me or asking for consent.

Suffice it to say, I played some of the audio and video for the vet during our visit on Oct 2nd and she was unable to successfully determine or diagnose the root of the issue. She didn't feel that x-rays were necessary and also elected not to perform any bloodwork or any other tests. Her only advise was to purchase a hairball remedy (this later proven not to be the issue at all) and her only action was to inject the cat with Convenia.

At this point I'm not sure if there is something like fliud in Tutu's lungs, or if perhaps she is still suffering from a stubborn case of URI, or maybe it is some form of asthma attack...

Because the vet shot Tutu with an injection of Convenia ( Convenia- long term antibiotic: Is it worth the risk? ) to treat in an off-label way the possible URI, I started giving Tutu BeneBac Plus by mixing it into Purina Fancy Feast Broths which contains a lot of fluids in the pouches. Based upon my own research, I started giving her cat-forms of L-Lysine to assist with what appears to be an upper respiratory infection of some sort. This was also grounded up powder and mixed with her urina Fancy Feast Broths.

This past week and a half it has been constantly raining so she was never let outside nor outdoors, so this couldn't have been re-triggered by any form of allegy or outdoors exposure or external activity etc.

Things I have tried since noticing her symptoms reappearing in full force starting on Oct 17th is that I have tried steamy showers, by placing Tutu in the bathroom while I'm taking a hot shower, and also already just today I got a vaporizer for steaming and humidificiation.

At this point I'm worried could this actually be:

1) untreated Asthma
2) Cat FIP
3) more serious case of URI
4) unknown allergies
5) fluid in lungs or other foreign obstruction or obstacles

The entire discussion with the vet was voice recorded and uploaded here:
 

animallover07

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I'm not a professional but I honestly do not think it's asthma as it doesn't look or sound anything like the video with the cat with asthma. Also your cat is not breathing hard or mouth breathing.

In addition, I have had 2 cats with URI and I can tell you that by now your cat would most likely have crazy eye and nose gunk coming out if that were the case. Like yellow/green snotty eye boogers that just cakes to their face and makes it hard for them to open their eyes. So I think that can be ruled out. (Hoping that calms you a little to know.)

I do have a cat who has allergies and sneezes throughout the day. Not a ton, but you know, here and there, sometimes a few times in a row. The vet suggested I can try over the counter allergy meds for him if it got super bad but honestly, he's never been bad with it, just an occasional sneeze here and there so I never thought medicine was appropriate for it. But maybe this is something you can ask your vet about?

Also I do want to throw out there that all medicines have potential horrible side effects, even medicines given to humans. My female cat has had a wicked bad UTI that she has been seen 3 times for back to back and just can't seem to kick it. They have also given her Convenia a few times to try to hack it. Convenia, though initally for skin related issues, seems as though it also is used as kind of a general antibiotic in certain cases. Like with my cat and her UTI. (I have seen all the vets in the building and they all have agreed that it was an appropriate thing to do so I don't think they are wrong about the medicine.) So I don't think your vet was inappropriately dosing your pet with something. I also hope that calms your nerves. I think your vet probably administered it to make sure any possibility of your cat getting sick was nipped in the bud because sometimes diagnosing the real problem requires ruling out other possibilities that it could be. I think looking up any medicines online are bound to freak you out and I understand you want to know exactly what is going on and in your cat. Also, the websites you find online are most of the time written by people who have researched the same things you have and have posted their worries and doubts but are not educated like a vet is to further know how the drug can really help your pet in more situations than just the inital one. So it does scare you into thinking, "OMG, they must have no clue what they are thinking!" But I do think this is a situation where the vet knows that this can help with one of the possible problems from her being super educated in the details in the medical part but she failed to explain to you the details of the method so it just sounds like they are giving your cat any old thing they can find in the back, which I'm sure is not the case. If you have flat out asked them how this is supposed to help her symptoms and they still failed to explain it to you then maybe you should try to find a more receptive vet even if it is a little longer of a drive. My vet will always take the time to answer any questions I have and I think that's a super important thing to have in a vet.

Based on reading up on the symptoms of FIP, I don't think that is the case either as your cat would have displayed more of the symptoms by now as it's been a month since your first entry.

Like I said, I'm not a professional but I do think when something is wrong with the babies we tend to think the worst thing possible. This could be a simple case of seasonal allergies (my vet informed me it is horrible this time of year). I would definitely get a second vet opinion if you feel the first vet was really just not as responsive to your needs as a pet owner and discuss if you think that is what it is and what to do from here. Be sure to tell them everything the previous vet has done and gave your pet too though because I personally wouldn't want any medicines mixed in my cats system that should not be if they choose to go a different route with meds because that could be dangerous.

I hope some of this may have ruled some scary things out for you and/or calmed your nerves about what might be happening.
 
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animallover07

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Edit: Meant to say 'doing' not 'thinking'. Haha.

Also, allergies can effect your cat at any time even if they are strictly indoors. All my cats are strictly indoors and my one cat still does experience the allergy sneezes. So it could very well be something super simple like that.
 
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