Need asthma help

[BeccaCat]

Hi I’ll try to be brief. My Tessa has terrible asthma. Also has feline herpes. She uses fluticasone inhaler as well as albuterol when needed. We live exactly where that wildfire smoke was awful last week (like our air quality was off the chart over 500). Kept Doors closed, AC running, air filters going, and the poor baby still struggled, vomited, and passed out. We gave her albuterol and she recovered, but needed quite a bit of albuterol to get through it. Has since been to vet (got steroid shot which they try to avoid giving her too much). Still using inhalers. Air quality here is better but still not great. I’m looking to support her any way I can.

Any suggestions for litter? Currently use Tidy Cats Free Clear but still seems dusty. Tried Dr Elsey respiratory that was dusty and hard on her paws

she’s picky but any suggestions for supportive wet foods?

Any asthma humans out there? Do lungs take some time to recover after something like this?
Thank you for any and all suggestions!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I am unaware of ANY clumping litters that are not a little bit dusty, even though they all seem to say 99% dust free. You could try the paper litters, or wood litters and see how she does.

Also, you said you ran the air filters constantly, but do you have air PURIFIERS? I would get some if you don't have them. We run ours constantly and don't even have asthma, but do have allergies. They ramp up when they detect dust or allergens in the air (or odors)

I'm also not aware of any specific foods that would help. As far as how long it might take to recover after this event, you might need to ask her Vet. Poor baby. Sounds like it was a very close call for her

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. The litter is difficult. I use unscented 99.9% dust free tidy cats. Do you have air purifiers going? The kind with hepa filters are good. Covering anything that can let the bad air in like the bottoms of doors etc. humidifiers might help. It is hard I know. You might want to do oral steroids in the meantime. I have a terbutaline rescue injection as well as the albuterol for an attack if needed.

 

[BeccaCat]

Thank you for replying They are purifiers, I just double checked.
I may have to try a paper litter, good idea.
Thank you again!

 

[BeccaCat]

Hi. The litter is difficult. I use unscented 99.9% dust free tidy cats. Do you have air purifiers going? The kind with hepa filters are good. Covering anything that can let the bad air in like the bottoms of doors etc. humidifiers might help. It is hard I know. You might want to do oral steroids in the meantime. I have a terbutaline rescue injection as well as the albuterol for an attack if needed.

Never thought about covering bottom of doors, good idea! I’ll check with her vet about the terbutaline. Thank you for your suggestions.
We rescued these poor abandoned girls, and had no idea they were so ill. I’m so thankful she took to her inhaler. It helps her so much. That wildfire smoke was insane and really did a number on all of us, even generally healthy people like myself.

 

[Twylasmom]

I use unscented scoopable grass seed litter - the SoPresh brand from Petco. It is essentially dust free. The only disadvantages are that it is rather expensive and it tracks a lot (it is very lightweight).

 

[Kflowers]

On the page below are already made draft stoppers for doors. We use them in the winter. If you don't like these you can make your own with heavy cloth, we filled ours with litter, which would probably be all right if you double the cloth in the tube you make. Weight keeps them by the door. see below

During the sort of thing you just went through, you can also wet down your curtains or use wet sheets instead over your windows. You can wet and roll towels and put them on the sill against the bottom of the window and across where the top of the window meets the bottom half.

Amazon.com : draft stops for doors

 

[reba]

I'm late to the party here, but I'll offer my experience. AFter I got the diagnosis, I got rid of all the rugs in the house, bought two heavy duty air purifiers and switched to crystal litter. HIs attacks decreased to almost none and he never had to go on an inhaler.

The problem of course is cost and the crystal litter I like the best isn't scoopable. But I guess it balances out with the cost of no meds. Anyway I just stopped in to see if I could find some alternatives to the litter I'm using and your post came up in my search. Hope you kitty is doing better and take care.