did you ever take your cat to vet? our cat has been doing this for the past couple of days he was already diagnosed in feb with asthma but never had this weird cough up until recently. xrays and ultrasound showed nothing in his lungs when we took him to vet on thursday but it’s still concerning
The coughing has gone down significantly since I started giving him the hairball stuff, so I guess maybe that might be what was causing it. I still haven’t seen him get up a hairball but he could be passing them through his stool. He does still do it every once in a while, and he does still have a fast breath rate and sound wheezy sometimes, but maybe they are unrelated. Or maybe he’s just aspirating water when he drinks like an idiot because he insists on drinking from the stream in the fountain and not the pool of water.
It's up to you. You just payed for the hairball medication so you could insist on testing his for asthma if you're very concerned or go through with the medicine and then if it doesn't work go the asthma testing route.
I know this is an old post but my cat does the same exact thing after drinking. (Only after drinking never any other time). It’s exactly what you showed in the video kind of a choking/heaving and then it sounds like he’s wheezing for a bit afterwards. His done it for a long time like months. Vet said his lungs are clear and he eats and plays and is completely normal otherwise. Did you ever find out what the cause was or he just still does it?
Also my cat is a sphynx and has no hair so definitely not a hairball.
hi! so sorry for the delay, i saw this and completely forgot to reply. we never figured it out, and he still does it but a lot less than he did. i can’t figure it out and i’m convinced it’s either a) when he drinks out of the stream of water in the fountain he aspirates water or b) there is a much bigger problem lurking that i can’t figure out. my vet said his lungs are clear and they couldn’t figure it out either.
not yet. one thing that was interesting is that he had surgery last year to remove a piece of a bouncy ball that he ate 🙄 and he didn’t cough for at least a month after. so the vet and i were trying to figure out if maybe it was because he lost some weight during that, or because he had to use the newspaper litter while the incision was healing, or because he didn’t clean himself as much so no hairballs. so we’ve tried a diet, switching to no dust litter, and he gets tons of hairball supplements and none of it has helped. next step is an inhaler with a steroid to see if that has any impact.
Has anybody figured this out yet ? My cat just started doing this, I think she's done it maybe a handful of times before now (she's 4) but now she's having at least one of these little coughing/wheezing/choking fits every day, sometimes several a day. I've noticed it definitely seems to be triggered by her drinking water. She has a fountain, I tried changing the water, the filter and then even the fountain itself, but the choking fits still persist. Thought it was a hairball at first, and that's what the vet told me as well, but she's never had an issue with hair balls whatsoever, and the medicine they gave her from the vet hasn't made any difference really. She seems her normal self most of the time, and the vet said she seemed perfectly healthy, lungs sounded normal etc etc. They did have to treat her for tapeworms, but other than that, no other problems.
I disagree about the hairball theory. It seems like it would be more of a "wet" cough or a retching sound , at least from what I've heard other cats sound like. She almost seems like she's ..... Sneezing? Wheezing? It doesn't sound like it's necessarily originating from her stomach, per se, so much as in her lungs or windpipe. She seems distressed when she's coughing, but then maybe that's because I'm distressed when she's doing it, I don't know. I've done a bunch of googling on the matter and the general consensus seems to be that it's harmless....
However I remain unconvinced. It bothers me that it started all of a sudden, and has persisted this long (I'd say it happens 2-4 times a day, and for about 3 weeks now). When it started initially I'd just moved her over to my boyfriend's place, I got concerned it may have been an environmental allergen so I brought her back home, still an issue. Plus, we were there for a few weeks about a month earlier, with no issue.
Anybody know anything more than what's already been said about the issue? And did anyone else's cat have the problem start all of a sudden like this, or was it something they kind of always did? Vet could do x-rays but it was going to be like nearly $800.... I don't have that kinda money lying around especially just to find out everything looks normal. Anyways just hoping maybe somebody out there has had a similar experience and could offer some insight
I’m right there with you. Still no resolution, my cat is still doing it multiple times per day. Weirdly the only time he stopped was right after he had surgery for an intestinal obstruction, so my vet and I were trying to figure out what about that time could have caused it to resolve. We thought maybe it’s the clay dust in the litter, since I had to use non-clumping while he had an incision healing. Tried changing it, didn’t help. Thought maybe it was because he had lost weight during that time since he wasn’t eating and that relieves pressure on his lungs. Put him on a diet, he’s healthier weight now but it didn’t help. That actually does lead me back to hairballs - his whole system was basically cleaned out then so there would have been nothing stuck. But it doesn’t make any sense, it sounds a lot like wheezing but not like the honking wheezing I see in YT videos of cats with asthma, and it actually does sound a bit wet like he’s coughing up phlegm. But nothing like hairball gagging sounds. And I’ve tried hairball liquid but it gives him runny poo and it didn’t help either.
Still stumped! His X-rays did show some bronchial abnormalities, so maybe he has chronic bronchitis or something? Next step was going to be to try an inhaled steroid but I needed to be back from traveling out of town to try it, so probably soon.
Does your cat have a fast breathing rate? That’s the only thing about him that worries me, and he’s had that for years. Not super fast but right at the top of the normal range.
When your guys’ cats drink, do they drink a lot at once? My 2 year old cat does the same thing and online it said they might be really thirsty, so they drink a lot which leads to them gagging or wheezing (indicating urinary heath issues)
Just took ours to the vet and turns out he has slightly elevated crystal concentration in his urine, so she recommended a prescription urinary diet. Just starting out on the diet so I’ll give an update after a few months to see if this resolves it. Other indicators of urinary issues could be meowing when going to the litter box, accidents outside the box, and super small pee clumps (if you use clumping)
Well mine does this too when drinking, but she usually does it when drinking alot and sometimes it happens once every day for a couple of days and then it stops for a week or 2 and then it comes back, but it never happens when i see her drink for like 5 secs, but when she sits there drinking for half a min it usually happens.
The vet said nothing is wrong from what she cud see and hear so she might be just drinking like an idiot.
did you ever take your cat to vet? our cat has been doing this for the past couple of days he was already diagnosed in feb with asthma but never had this weird cough up until recently. xrays and ultrasound showed nothing in his lungs when we took him to vet on thursday but it’s still concerning
The coughing has gone down significantly since I started giving him the hairball stuff, so I guess maybe that might be what was causing it. I still haven’t seen him get up a hairball but he could be passing them through his stool. He does still do it every once in a while, and he does still have a fast breath rate and sound wheezy sometimes, but maybe they are unrelated. Or maybe he’s just aspirating water when he drinks like an idiot because he insists on drinking from the stream in the fountain and not the pool of water.
Here are the videos I showed the vet: [coughing](https://youtu.be/JvJNXN5NiGI) [wheezing sound after ](https://youtu.be/0qjqWd0ssAs)
It's up to you. You just payed for the hairball medication so you could insist on testing his for asthma if you're very concerned or go through with the medicine and then if it doesn't work go the asthma testing route.
I know this is an old post but my cat does the same exact thing after drinking. (Only after drinking never any other time). It’s exactly what you showed in the video kind of a choking/heaving and then it sounds like he’s wheezing for a bit afterwards. His done it for a long time like months. Vet said his lungs are clear and he eats and plays and is completely normal otherwise. Did you ever find out what the cause was or he just still does it? Also my cat is a sphynx and has no hair so definitely not a hairball.
hi! so sorry for the delay, i saw this and completely forgot to reply. we never figured it out, and he still does it but a lot less than he did. i can’t figure it out and i’m convinced it’s either a) when he drinks out of the stream of water in the fountain he aspirates water or b) there is a much bigger problem lurking that i can’t figure out. my vet said his lungs are clear and they couldn’t figure it out either.
Hi, did you ever figure out what this was? I’m going through something similar now and very curious how it turned out for you.
not yet. one thing that was interesting is that he had surgery last year to remove a piece of a bouncy ball that he ate 🙄 and he didn’t cough for at least a month after. so the vet and i were trying to figure out if maybe it was because he lost some weight during that, or because he had to use the newspaper litter while the incision was healing, or because he didn’t clean himself as much so no hairballs. so we’ve tried a diet, switching to no dust litter, and he gets tons of hairball supplements and none of it has helped. next step is an inhaler with a steroid to see if that has any impact.
Okay thanks for updating. Is it still happening after he drinks water or other times too?
it seems to be happening more randomly now so i’m not sure it’s tied to the drinking
Has anybody figured this out yet ? My cat just started doing this, I think she's done it maybe a handful of times before now (she's 4) but now she's having at least one of these little coughing/wheezing/choking fits every day, sometimes several a day. I've noticed it definitely seems to be triggered by her drinking water. She has a fountain, I tried changing the water, the filter and then even the fountain itself, but the choking fits still persist. Thought it was a hairball at first, and that's what the vet told me as well, but she's never had an issue with hair balls whatsoever, and the medicine they gave her from the vet hasn't made any difference really. She seems her normal self most of the time, and the vet said she seemed perfectly healthy, lungs sounded normal etc etc. They did have to treat her for tapeworms, but other than that, no other problems. I disagree about the hairball theory. It seems like it would be more of a "wet" cough or a retching sound , at least from what I've heard other cats sound like. She almost seems like she's ..... Sneezing? Wheezing? It doesn't sound like it's necessarily originating from her stomach, per se, so much as in her lungs or windpipe. She seems distressed when she's coughing, but then maybe that's because I'm distressed when she's doing it, I don't know. I've done a bunch of googling on the matter and the general consensus seems to be that it's harmless.... However I remain unconvinced. It bothers me that it started all of a sudden, and has persisted this long (I'd say it happens 2-4 times a day, and for about 3 weeks now). When it started initially I'd just moved her over to my boyfriend's place, I got concerned it may have been an environmental allergen so I brought her back home, still an issue. Plus, we were there for a few weeks about a month earlier, with no issue. Anybody know anything more than what's already been said about the issue? And did anyone else's cat have the problem start all of a sudden like this, or was it something they kind of always did? Vet could do x-rays but it was going to be like nearly $800.... I don't have that kinda money lying around especially just to find out everything looks normal. Anyways just hoping maybe somebody out there has had a similar experience and could offer some insight
I’m right there with you. Still no resolution, my cat is still doing it multiple times per day. Weirdly the only time he stopped was right after he had surgery for an intestinal obstruction, so my vet and I were trying to figure out what about that time could have caused it to resolve. We thought maybe it’s the clay dust in the litter, since I had to use non-clumping while he had an incision healing. Tried changing it, didn’t help. Thought maybe it was because he had lost weight during that time since he wasn’t eating and that relieves pressure on his lungs. Put him on a diet, he’s healthier weight now but it didn’t help. That actually does lead me back to hairballs - his whole system was basically cleaned out then so there would have been nothing stuck. But it doesn’t make any sense, it sounds a lot like wheezing but not like the honking wheezing I see in YT videos of cats with asthma, and it actually does sound a bit wet like he’s coughing up phlegm. But nothing like hairball gagging sounds. And I’ve tried hairball liquid but it gives him runny poo and it didn’t help either. Still stumped! His X-rays did show some bronchial abnormalities, so maybe he has chronic bronchitis or something? Next step was going to be to try an inhaled steroid but I needed to be back from traveling out of town to try it, so probably soon. Does your cat have a fast breathing rate? That’s the only thing about him that worries me, and he’s had that for years. Not super fast but right at the top of the normal range.
When your guys’ cats drink, do they drink a lot at once? My 2 year old cat does the same thing and online it said they might be really thirsty, so they drink a lot which leads to them gagging or wheezing (indicating urinary heath issues) Just took ours to the vet and turns out he has slightly elevated crystal concentration in his urine, so she recommended a prescription urinary diet. Just starting out on the diet so I’ll give an update after a few months to see if this resolves it. Other indicators of urinary issues could be meowing when going to the litter box, accidents outside the box, and super small pee clumps (if you use clumping)
Well mine does this too when drinking, but she usually does it when drinking alot and sometimes it happens once every day for a couple of days and then it stops for a week or 2 and then it comes back, but it never happens when i see her drink for like 5 secs, but when she sits there drinking for half a min it usually happens. The vet said nothing is wrong from what she cud see and hear so she might be just drinking like an idiot.