| Title: | Meower Power is Valuing Differences |
| Notice: | FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY |
| Moderator: | MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO |
| Created: | Sun Feb 09 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Jan 11 1994 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 5089 |
| Total number of notes: | 60366 |
Night before last, just as I was going to bed, I heard the sound
of a kitty coughing with what I hoped was just a hairball. (It
was already 1 a.m. and the thought of having to pull out all the
cleaning stuff for anything more than that was less than appealing.)
I got up to see who it was and if there was anything that I could
do. It was Melody and she stopped coughing as I came downstairs.
Now, Melody (and Missy, too) breathes "funny" at times and has done
so all her life. It sounds like a kid with a cold and the vet,
who never gets to hear it 'cause she never does it when we are there,
suspects that she has either slight allergies or asthma (sp?).
Anyway, I went to give Mel a little butter to lubricate her throat
and noticed that she was breathing REALLY funny--louder than usual,
more raspy and kind of rattling. Of course, I freaked out!
She ate the butter though and then went over and ate some dried
food. I called the Animal Emergency Hospital and they couldn't
tell anything without seeing her.
So, there I was trying to decide whether she simply had some hair
stuck in her throat or was going to get really sick and .....
(Have you ever noticed how much more panicky you get in the middle
of the night?) She had been acting totally normal all evening
right up until I went to bed and I kept asking myself--can something
like a respiratory infection come on in half an hour?
I went up to consult with Bruce who had fallen sound asleep and
wouldn't wake up. While doing so, Melody came to the door and
started bugging me to come down and feed her some "good stuff".
So, I went down and opened a can of wet food which all 3 kitties
immediately polished off.
Since her appetite wasn't affected and she wasn't acting strangely
I decided to wait a couple of hours before packing her off to the
vet. Got up at 3:00 and she was fine. And, she has been fine
(just her normal breathing sounds) ever since.
So, this long note is leading me up to a question.
Has anyone ever had a kitty with a hairball in it's throat that
made it breathe funny? We're taking the dog to the vet on Sat.
so I will run it by her but was interested in what you guys all
thought.
Barbara
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2403.1 | Wheezy Kitty | SWAT::COCHRANE | Solid gold question mark twenty feet tall | Wed Apr 26 1989 13:19 | 9 |
Niniane "readjusts" her hairballs regularly. I thought she was
dying the first time I heard her. Coughing and coughing with
her little pink tongue sticking out between her teeth. Regular
applications of Laxatone have solved the problem. I have a "wheezy
kitty", Dream, who does breathe rather loudly from time to time.
However, I have been repeatedly assured by my vet that she is
healthy.
Mary-Michael
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| 2403.2 | MILPND::FRANCINE | shes got the jack | Wed Apr 26 1989 13:49 | 8 | |
I give my kittys butter one a week (a fingerfull) which pretty much
avoids the problem..
Makes for a shiny coat also!
F.
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| 2403.3 | We use Laxatone | WITNES::HANNULA | Well, you see, I have this cat....... | Wed Apr 26 1989 14:30 | 3 |
Is butter OK for the kitties? For some reason I thought not.
-Nancy
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| 2403.4 | MILPND::FRANCINE | shes got the jack | Wed Apr 26 1989 14:47 | 11 | |
I don't know.. medically speaking..
its kind of a family tradition I guess, I grew up with mum giving
butter/margarine to our cats when they were coughing.. now I give
them some to avoid the problem totally..
I always thought the fat and milk would be good for them??
F.
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| 2403.5 | 3-way the hacker | TPVAX1::ROBBINS | Wed Apr 26 1989 16:12 | 27 | |
Barbara,
Our 3-way has been doing the same thing you described.
The only difference is I can't recall her being very loud with her
breathing -the hacking is very loud. She also has that wheeze that
you can hear every once in awhile. 3-way will not let the hairballs
come out at all. She may have been punished by her previous owner
I'm not sure. So we were having this hacking session about 3 times
a day that would last sometimes for 5 minutes and longer. It sounds
terrible and looks painful and god knows I've thought what if she
doesn't stop or ruptures something from all this intense coughing.
I was certain she had asthma or an allergy or something.
I didn't think that hairballs could cause it to this extent. Off
to the vets we went and were told it is due to her retention of
hairballs. They gave us the Laxatone (which she HATES) and its
cleared it up quite a bit.
If your worried the best thing to do is bring her to the
vet. It may be something else and it only cost us $19 to fix the
problem. I had visions of a blockage that would require surgery
which would require mucho money. But instead I got peace of mind.
kim
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| 2403.6 | Hairball Remedy | CGVAX2::JOHNSON_S | Wed Apr 26 1989 16:14 | 10 | |
I give my Kitty hairball remedy once a week and he thinks it's the
greatest thing in the world. Althought I'll have to try butter
sometime.
Did the Kitty ever cough up anything the other night? Sometimes
I give Kitty the hariball stuff as he's coughing (or right when
he stops) and he never throws up anything. I just figure it must
come out the other end after that.
Sonia
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| 2403.7 | She's fine now. | MEMIT::MISSELHORN | Thu Apr 27 1989 12:53 | 32 | |
No, Melody never did cough up anything the other night.
She just sounded like something was caught in her throat--kind
of rattling--like a child with an extremely bad cold.
I do have laxatone around which I give the kitties occasionally--
should probably make it a once a week habit since they all wash
each other as well as themselves. Sometimes they like it, sometimes
they don't. Actually, I think they like the flavor but hate the
gooiness. When they won't take it from my finger, I put it on their
foot which they definitely hate. It's funny watching them trying
to shake it off before they finally give in and clean it off.
The reason I gave Mel butter the other night is that laxatone is
supposed to make the hair pass rectally and I figured that, if Mel
has hair caught in her throat, the butter would lubricate her
throat enough to make it go one way or the other. (My mom always
gave our family cats butter, too, and Muffy lived to be almost 20
so that little amount must have been ok.)
Anyway, Melody is fine--when I got up the next morning she was totally
back to normal and hasn't had a repeat incident.
Now I have a new "medical" question which I will enter under separate
note, later when I get back from a meeting.
Honestly, the worrying you go through! I keep thinking, "what if
I ever have kids?" and then figure that at least kids can talk to
tell you what they are feeling.
Thanks, everyone, for your replies.
Barbara
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| 2403.8 | Could be allergy | SPGBAS::MCNAMARA | Thu Apr 27 1989 16:12 | 2 | |
Check back to note 2354 re: allergies and asthma.
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