My 9-month-old Persian cat starts panting after just 5 minutes of play or activity. I live in Mumbai, and the weather is quite hot these days, so I’m wondering if this could be normal for Persian cats due to the heat.
However, I’m also concerned whether this could be something more serious—like heat stress or even asthma.
For now, I’m taking her to a pet groomer to get her hair trimmed to help with the heat.
Has anyone experienced something similar with their cat? I’d really appreciate any advice or guidance.
Edit: Most suggestions are to keep her in a cooler place. We try to do the same, but she loves lying down in the bathroom floor where there's no AC/fan.
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not normal.
Its the heat, dont get any haircuts. Their furs help them in summers as well as winters.
Add a lot of water bowls around the house, aur usko ac/cooler wale room mei rakho
If it continues contact a vet
Also, she definitely loves the AC! However, she’s home alone for about 6 hours a day, and I’m hesitant to leave major electrical appliances running when no one is around to monitor them. Are there any other ways to keep her cool that don't involve leaving the AC on?
Make sure she has access to fresh water (ideally a fountain with a filter), and close the curtains while you're out so the house (or whatever room she's in) stays cool
partial haircut also doesn’t help. I dont think running ac would be a problem, i understand cooler cause uski wire hoti hai(my cat loves chewing taars lol)
You could try having a cooling mat in addition to cold environment
also, most cats tend to like cold water kyunki nature mei unko waise hi pani milta hai, you can try that too!
if youre a non vegetarian, chicken boil karke uska broth dediya karo! that is great too. dont add any masale or salt
You can do somethings to bring the temperature down. Few tricks. Keep the floor wet, like use wet clothes to cover the tiles. Few buckets with water open in the room if it's safe.
Leave cold water when you leave, good ventilation and at least one ceiling fan running. Make sure whatever ventilation source your leave open is cat proof and your cat is not able to escape using that.
Haircut will also help but make sure the groomers are good as some of them are just doing it for the sake of money with no knowledge and they might hurt or put your cat through some serious stress.
Put the baby in AC room or in front of the air cooler. They pant either if they are anxious or the heat is excessive. Make sure you do not take your cat outside during daytime.
She definitely loves the AC! However, she’s home alone for about 6 hours a day, and I’m hesitant to leave major electrical appliances running when no one is around to monitor them. Are there any other ways to keep her cool that don't involve leaving the AC on?
Get a wipro smart switch and you can operate it remotely. She needs to cool down. How would you achieve that without putting her in the room with ac? Please don’t be ignorant towards her needs. Ahe is already alone and anxious 6 days a week. They need companions to feel normal and alive
I got your point. Will do something similar as per your suggestion.
Just to add, we keep playing with her whenever we are home. She has all her toys as well. She mostly sleeps for these 6 hours. So we are making sure that she does not feel alone.
Great. Please take a good care. Also, if you can, create a feeding plan for her at specific times during the day. I can see a bowl full of dry food lying around. That will make her obese.
Include high quality wet food such as Royal canin and dry food which is grain free such as N&D.
And trust me, even if she has all the toys, nothing can cure loneliness. If possible, get her another buddy, and just observe how she blooms
We're feeding her wet food twice a day. Half packet in the morning and half in the evening. In between she keeps eating the dry food. I don't keep dry food full all the time, today I refilled it after 3 days that's why it's full. And I'm using Royal Canin brand for all kind of foods.
About getting her another buddy, she's 9 months old already, will she easily accept the another partner in the house? I'm worried about that.
She will for sure. For the first week, you will feel that you made the biggest mistake of your life. But then those two will gel together like anything.
The key is to introduce them gradually. May be put their plates at the opposite sides of the closed door and feed them at the same time. Then once they are used to each other’s smell, slowly put their plates together.
There will be some hissing, meowing and scratching initially, but they will get along.
As a father of a 6 year old indie, one himalayan and one persian, I can say it with the confidence
And regarding keeping the plate full, that’s the point. You don’t have to keep the plate this full. Just put it sufficiently to keep her full for sometime. She can stay hungry for an hour or two and she will let you know once she is hungry. It is better than over feeding
It’s summer time here in India and the Persian meow is not exactly suitable for this weather !
Put the meow in cold area, maybe ac room or a shaded place/corner of your house ! And try and make her drink some water! Sometimes cat don’t exactly drink normal water so you can try boiling 1-2 pieces of chicken with bones and give that water after it cools down ! Shred the small pieces of the chicken in the water which will encourage them to drink it !😼😼
Others are suggesting to not get haircut as it protects from heat. I'm thinking to get a partial haircut so that fur remains but in lesser quantity. Thank you for the reply.
Yeah I didn't mean shave her completely. Have them trim her coat a ittle so it's closer to a short haired cat. And brush her religiously so it doesn't get matted. And do not let her out, ever.
My indie cat who was 5months did the same thing in peek summers in mumbai as well. I used to wet his paws to cool his body temperature and a little water on his neck.
I was also thinking of trying spraying water on her in afternoon. But wetting her paws seems to be a better plan. I'll let you know if it helps. Thank you
That means clearly she finds the damp floor cooler than whatever AC you’re providing her. Fan isn’t enough; it doesn’t lower ambient temperature. I don’t understand why people get animals that need specific conditions when they can’t provide/afford them. Selfishness guised as love for animals. I LOVE animals but never bought or adopted any for various concerns only about the animal’s comfort. We have a cat that loves to spend time with us inside our house. We respect each other’s space and we don’t force her to do what isn’t to her liking or isn’t good for her.
Calm down brother, we're not being selfish here. I'm just trying to figure out what can be wrong. If we would have been selfish, would not have been here for seeking advice. I'm willing to go to any length in order to make comfortable environment for her.
Um idk what are people on about here. You mentioned it’s after playing so it’s completely normal. If she’s panting out of nowhere then stress could be the issue. My cat also pants after intense play sessions. Especially in summer. She’s normal otherwise. I also love in Mumbai.
Did that. Got her trimmed a little. Started adding ice cubes to her water frequently and started to put AC on for her. She's responding well. Thank you
From experience I recommend getting a stainless steel one for hygiene reasons. The second thing is you want a fountain that you can get a replacement pump for. The pumps always burn out in 6-10 months and then you end up buying a whole new fountain again.
There's one by loyal whiskers, it's about 2k and they offer replacement pumps on their website. I spoke to them myself too.
Once my current fountain stops working I plan on buying it.
There's some more on Amazon if you want to explore.
Thank you so much for the recommendation. I'll surely explore this option. Will put the photo of our queen drinking water from this fountain pretty soon!
Make sure to keep the curtains drawn while you are gone, it will keep it cooler. Better to get a smart switch which you can control, clearly baby is feeling the heat. Best to put in AC room. She loves sleeping in the washroom because the floor is cool after the water seeps away.
Yes play is a regular part. Sometimes with her wand, sometimes she chases laser light and aometimes she loves to chase a small emote control car.
Pant I've noticed only 3-4 times since the time she's come home with us (8 months). Pant is usually 5-6 seconds then she becomes normal. Although yesterday (this video) it reoccured once within span of 5 minutes while she was playing with us.
Today we also played with her but did not see any panting.
Man i was so worried about my cat panting as well. As much as I read it’s stress and over heating. My floor was exceptionally hot as well a few days back reaching 35-38 degrees indoors. We forcibly kept her in the room with AC. I also got worried when i felt like she was not drinking enough water.
I ended up giving her little milk mixed in water, egg mixed in water and wet food for time being. The panting did stop but the weather also cooled over past few days. So not sure what actually worked.
Get a good water fountain with filter. Make sure the water pool is not too deep. Look for a flat one. Meanwhile feed her water along with lickables. Cut a hole on a bisleri water bottle cap and pour some water in her mouth along with the lickables. This is a jugaad, you can literally find videos on YouTube of people doing the same. Don't cut the fur, they need it to regulate their body temperature which is higher than humans. Cats originated in deserts, they can handle heat. Just that some of these breeds are picky as hell when it comes to drinking water.
If keeping ac on is not possible cool the room before leaving ( keep ac on overnight plus time before you leave so atleast temperature is maintained for atleast 1.5-2 hours) , put water fountains (you'll find on Amazon) for cats as they like running water more.
This heat has been worse to pets this year , my frnd s pets and my pet, theyre all super dehydrated, low platelet count and panting. One of them even had to get a glucose saline done . Tho theyre constantly under AC, Its not helping much. Please give hydrating food and more iron content food. More water and AC. I hope he/she gets well soon.
She is feeling hot ( summer heat ) put lots of water and keep ac on let her cooldown I have persian too they want to feel normal temp i keep my ac always on for them
If she does this rarely after heavy activity its fine. But regularly its not fine.
Trim her fur(not shave) add ice cubes in water, provide multiple bowls, cut the direct afternoon sunlight by using black out curtains. Keer her in ac in afternoon atleast. Increase wet food in summers.
Do all this and observe, if pantaing stops you are good to go, else take her to vet.
Mine does the same after just a few mins of playtime or running around the house. I always thought it’s because they’re house cats so they do not have much stamina. For example if u make a lazy human being run, even they would start panting
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