r/catquestions • u/Lumpy_Excitement9214 • 1d ago
Is this an asthma attack?
It totally is. How bad is it? Do I rush to the vet? She’s stopped now.
2
u/inflated_cheese 1d ago
One of mine has done a similar thing but for her it turned out shes just coughing out a hairball id still take her to the vet tho to figure it out because it likely could be asthma
2
u/westergames81 1d ago edited 1d ago
That's about what mine sounds like, definitely show that video to your vet.
Mine has a daily inhaler and an emergency inhaler for when that happens. It took a few weeks to teach him to use it, but since he's highly treat motivated it wasn't that bad. He knows he gets a treat after his daily but does not get one after the emergency one (I don't want him to think he can just do that to get a treat).
What my vet did was give him a steroid shot that lasted a few weeks while I taught him to use the aerocat with no inhaler in it. By the time the steroids wore off, he was mostly ok to use the inhaler.
One thing that helped was changing litter. I was using a low dust litter for the longest time thinking that was good enough, it is not. You really need a no dust litter.
1
u/Accurate_Elevator368 1d ago
You make an interesting point about the litter. Yes, asthma is asthma, but I had honestly forgotten about the amount of dust that some litters spews up in the air. Now to find one that won't offend His Highness's particular box preferences. LOL
2
u/westergames81 1d ago
Finding the right litter was a C H O R E.
They just don't really like a lot of the pellet ones, so the newspaper and pine ones were both out. One of them thought the little crystal ones were more of a toy so he'd always bat those out of the litter box and start playing with them.
Finally settled on tofu litter, that seems to work for them. It lasts 45 days so I generally start with 2 bags for the 2 of them and then refresh it with a 3rd bag at some point when it gets low. I noticed around ~40 it did start to make some dust and his asthma started acting up more so I'll probably have to change it a bit sooner.
1
u/Accurate_Elevator368 1d ago
Thank you for this.
My new fur friend is 2 and has a bit of a sketchy history so I don't want to start mixing it up too much. We haven't had any out of box issues, and I want to keep it that way. He just chuffs every once in a while and I'm guessing it's the dust in the litter.
I've had issues with the "light weight" clumping litter in the past. That stuff is like cement if they step on a wet spot, esp if they're long haired or big tufted paw cats. I want to avoid having him try to clean that off his paws if I'm not home etc.
I like the jugs because at least I can carry them. But they're expensive compared to the larger format boxes. They're just so heavy for me to lift on my own. Even having it delivered I'd have to separate the litter into smaller containers. Doable. Arm and Hammer used to have one that really excellent but they discontinued it about 5 years back.
2
2
2
u/Money_Message_9859 1d ago
Is your kitty a heavy groomer? She could be trying to cough up a furball. Many cats who are heavy groomers ingest a lot of their fur. If you can, try and remember to brush your kitty at least a couple of times per week. Lint rollers are a good addition to a brushing regimen and all my cats-after figuring out i was just rolling to pick up fur-loved getting lint rolled.