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Old January 13th, 2008, 10:46 PM
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Question cat chest/lung congestion causes??

No feral tales this time...I'm asking on behalf of our cat Sally, a 9ish year old female calico who came into our lives about 8 years ago as a 'country dumped' cat. She's been pretty healthy since we got rid of her ear mites and had her spayed back in '99, although she has never really been a "meow-er" and has always had a very loud purr and snore.

In the past few days, Sally's normal level of purring and snoring has been added to...by what I can only describe as what sounds like 'congestion'. She is breathing/eating etc. fine, but has started to cough with a really heavy sound. No 'phlegm' or anything, but she sounds like a person with a chest cold or some such thing.

I'm planning on making a vet app't (hopefully for Tues. or Wed.), but in the meantime I'm just wondering if anyone has dealt with a similar sort of 'dense cough' in a cat (or perhaps a dog)? Sally is a strictly indoor cat, as are all our cats, and hasn't been exposed to anything new/toxic/tranmissable that I can think of .

If Sally's symptoms sound familiar to anyone, I'd really appreciate any sort of feedback/comments while I await a vet appointment. Thanks...

p.s. we adopted 2 special needs cat brothers quite a few years ago who developed 'cat kennel cough' while at a humane society, and Sally's problem does not seem to be too much like that.
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Old January 14th, 2008, 07:24 AM
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Asthma is always a possibility. Here's a good site for info: http://www.fritzthebrave.com/
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Old January 14th, 2008, 12:20 PM
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My cat developed something similar to that - and asthma is unlikely only because it doesn't usually develop in older cats - but she could have bronchitis.

Jake developed a bad outbreak of FHV when we brought in our new kitten. He had fluid in his heart and lungs and a case of bronchitis - it caused him to cough - mostly when he was purring, and his breathing was a little laboured.

Any chance she could have been stressed out by something recently? FHV can show up at any time, but usually it appears in times of stress.

We had him on Clavamox, some heart and diuretic pills (because he was slightly misdiagnosed), and L-Lysine. He is now med free and cough free (although his voice is still raspy from the cold).

Hope that helps and hopefully it's nothing serious!
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Last edited by phoozles; January 14th, 2008 at 12:22 PM. Reason: wanted to ask a question
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Old January 14th, 2008, 09:44 PM
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Thanks, sugarcatmom and phoozles, for taking the time to give me some ideas. As it turned out, Sally and I were able to get an app't mid-aft with our supernice (and good!) vet.

After a thorough exam, Dr. Geoff gave me a few options and no-pressure recommendations; he knows our animal/$ situation (bit tight), but that I will 'pony up ' when necessary.

Sooo, he did one x-ray of Sally's head/torso (forget the proper anatomical term, but it did show that her 'breathing tract' was somewhat narrow/inflamed between the back of the throat and the lungs...hope I got that right?).

We settled on giving Sally a long-acting steroid shot, as well as a 3 week-ish long-acting antibiotic injection (very new to Canada, apparently, but used for quite a while in England).

Even in the few hours since Sally has been home, she seems to be breathing a bit easier, and she has been more herself i.e. not as sleepy and apathetic-despite a bit of a grueling afternoon.

I'm really hoping that the treatment today continues to work !
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Old January 14th, 2008, 09:54 PM
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Sounds a little like Badger's Wheezy http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=47977 perhaps a similar condition?
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Old January 15th, 2008, 01:07 AM
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...thanks for the link, growler; checked it out. Hopefully Wheezy and Sally will both end up breathing a little easier .
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Old January 15th, 2008, 01:30 AM
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I have no advice but just wanted to send some good wishes for Sally.
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Old January 15th, 2008, 12:48 PM
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Glad she's already showing improvement!
Hopefully this will all clear up soon!
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Old January 16th, 2008, 01:08 AM
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Thumbs up

Thanks everyone, for your help and thoughts . It's now about 32ish hours since Sally had her 2 injections, and she really is back to her old [only slightly loud] self. I'm soooo relieved that her slight respiratory-type distress was able to be alleviated so quickly.

If she continues to do well, I'll just have to check back with the vet to see if she will need any more of these long-term shots; I suspect he will advise me to monitor her closely and play it by ear. ... , and thx again.
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Old January 16th, 2008, 01:14 AM
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YAY so glad Sally is doing so much better

for continued Sally good breathing success
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Old January 24th, 2008, 12:37 AM
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Thumbs up

...Sally thanks everyone for their suggestions and good wishes; she'd has asked (well, okay, demanded!) that I let 'y'all' know that she is still feeling much better. Enclosed-also at her, er, request -is a shot from her modelling portfolio...
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Old January 24th, 2008, 12:40 AM
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awww purrrty Sally So glad she's still feeling good hopefully she will not need any more treatments
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Old January 24th, 2008, 08:10 AM
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Glad to hear she is feeling better! She is very pretty .
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Old January 24th, 2008, 12:17 PM
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That's a good lookin' kitty right there! Glad she's on the mend!
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Old October 2nd, 2016, 01:26 AM
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My cat Pooh recently developed symptoms similar to Sally. At first, after I had been away for a week I thought his loud purr was because he was glad to see me. But over the next few days it became louder and motory sounding and he seemed to want to sleep more than usual. He even started to purr loudly with his mouth slightly open which alarmed me. His breathing returns to normal as long as I don't pet him. Over the last 2 weeks there has been a lot of stress (for me as well as Pooh) as I had all my vents in the house cleaned (3 hours of noise and quarantine for the cat) and then about a week later had 2 days of men in and out of house installing windows... and then I was away for a week. So the poor thing has probably been frightened to death as he is not used to any commotion. I have been home with him for a week now and he seems more like himself but still has a loud raspy purr which I do not like to hear. Tomorrow I will take him to the vet and hope he will not be traumatized by the experience! I am trying to keep him calm. I hope it's not nothing serious. Does anyone know if excess stress might set off something like this? Thankx! PS- I'm so glad Sally is doing much better!
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Old October 2nd, 2016, 10:41 AM
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This thread is 8 yo and Sally was 9ish when it was posted so Sally has to be by now . That good you're bring your kitty to the vet , try to not to worry too much your cat might pick on this and go hide when it time to go the vet. My daughter and her family have to hunt down their cat when it time to go to vet. Why do pets have to be so smart!
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Old October 2nd, 2016, 12:14 PM
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Welcome, Robin and Pooh!

Pooh could well be having a flare-up of FHV, which (from what I've heard and read) about 80% of cats have been exposed to. FHV-infected cats very often develop upper respiratory problems under stress...and it sounds like Pooh has been having a very stressful time of it, poor guy!

We just got adopted by a stray kitty that had upper respiratory issues. We started him on L-lysine and it seems to be helping. A therapeutic dose for a full-grown cat is supposed to be 500 mg a day, but JD (who is small and not quite a year old, as far as we can tell) had a bit of trouble with that amount so we reduced him to half that. L-lysine doesn't work for every cat, though, and I've even seen some articles and studies indicating that, long term, L-lysine can be detrimental to a cat's health--so use it cautiously.

We know it seems to help JD because we had to take him off it for a few days when he was at the higher dose and his symptoms (sneezing, coughing, runny eyes and nose) got worse.

Some people have had good luck feeding raw or wet food diets to their FHV cats. We're switching JD over to canned food now, and maybe will try raw down the line. The extra moisture in his diet not only seems to help with his respiratory symptoms, but it's good for his kidneys, too!

JD was extremely stressed when he found us--I think he was dumped in the woods --and his symptoms were quite bad for a while. He's much better now that he has a safe place to live and regular meals.

Let us know what the vet suggests--and I hope Pooh is feeling better soon!
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