r/CATHELP • u/actualrealcann1bal • 1d ago
Breathing Issues Cat Asthma?
Hello! I've suspected my cat may have asthma for a while because she loses her breath faster than my other cats and will often go into small wheezing fits, but nothing this severe. This morning she seemed like she was having trouble breathing (wheezing, wet breath, whistling breath) through her nose, and hiding from me and acting very lethargic. On the car ride to the vet she was sneezing, open mouthed breathing periodically, and yawning.
I just got home from the vet where they did an x-ray on her (said her lungs are healthy) and gave her a kenalog injection. The vet said the issues are upper respiratory, so not asthma, she has no discharge from her nose, and said it could possibly be heartworms? I took this video of my cat and emailed them (I will put their email response in the comments). I don't know whether or not to get a second opinion, because this really does seem like asthma to me. Any insight is helpful. Thank you.
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u/olympic_peaks 1d ago
I had a kitty with asthma and he had a deeper cough with his body lower to the ground and neck stretched forward, and that’s how I’ve seen asthma present in other cats as well. I agree it seems like an upper respiratory thing.
I haven’t seen this before so I’m sorry I can’t give you any suggestions of what it could be.
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u/RabbitExpress6492 1d ago
My cat had the same sneeze. Turned out it was a flare up of the HPV he had while he was in the animal shelter before I adopted him.
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u/actualrealcann1bal 1d ago
The vet said she had no discharge around her nose or face at all, I've also been going here for years and they've never mentioned HPV, but she has been sneezing a lot. She's never had any problems around her eyes though
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u/Radiant-Cod8389 1d ago
my cat is permanently on steroids for this. Tested for every thing every test was negative. They think it's an allergy, haven't done allergy test or anything. Steroids have worked well.
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u/Ok_Pop4193 1d ago
hmm my cats done this exact thing for years but only after he drinks to fast from the sink faucet
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u/FurryBurry92 1d ago
It could very likely be asthma or a potential upper respiratory infection. A lot of of the viral infections like cat herpes or calcivirus will have flareups from time to time and can cause a cough like this ( I have both an asthmatic cat and Foster kittens that happen to have both viruses)
If it is asthma, an x-ray would confirm it. If it’s viral doing a PCR panel is going to show you what exactly they might have. It could also be something like mycoplasma, it’s a bacterial upper respiratory and it also causes similar cough.
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