Shortness of breath in a cat - physiological and pathological causes

Respiratory diseases in cats are widespread. The incidence of viral or parasitic etiologies is higher in young cats and outdoor animals. Cats that have free access to the outdoors are at risk of injury or bites. This may be the cause, for example, of pyothorax. The incidence increases in older cats.

The main groups of respiratory diseases in cats include the following:

• Infectious: rhinitis, tracheobronchitis and pneumonia of viral, bacterial, protozoal (for example, toxoplasmosis), or fungal etiology;
• Parasitic: as a result of direct effects of parasites on the organs of the respiratory system or secondary immune responses to migrating larvae or dead parasites;
• Inflammatory: chronic bronchial diseases, allergic bronchitis, inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and interstitial lung disease;
• Congenital or acquired: brachycephalic syndrome (in Persian cats), tracheal stenosis, ciliary dysfunction, pleural diseases, diaphragmatic hernia;
• Tumor: primary tumors of the nose, larynx, trachea and lungs; metastatic disease;
• Cardiovascular: Cardiomyopathy/heart failure with pulmonary edema, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism;
• Injuries associated with obstruction of the airway or damage to the lung parenchyma as a result of inhalation of irritants (cigarette smoke, fire smoke) or aspiration of foreign objects (grass, food, gastric juice).

Respiratory process of a cat

A cat's breathing directly depends on its physical and psychological state. A healthy cat does not wheeze, breathes evenly, calmly, and inaudibly. If problems arise, she is unable to draw air into her lungs and her sighs become intermittent, as if coming from the “stomach.” There are a number of factors that influence the frequency of the process, in which there is no point in worrying too much:

• Stress due to rage, fear, joyful excitement - the frequency increases for a short time.
• Often a kitten wheezes when breathing if it has swallowed its own fur.

Also, do not forget why a kitten wheezes when breathing when he falls asleep soundly. This indicates complete relaxation. At the same time, his pulse and heart beats many times faster than that of an adult.

Shortness of breath is caused physiologically

The physiological type of shortness of breath in cats develops as a result of natural life processes and there is no need for specialized treatment to eliminate it. Shortness of breath that occurs due to stress factors or unfavorable conditions disappears on its own, and the cat’s breathing returns to normal.

The main reasons for the development of physiological dyspnea in domestic cats are:

1. Stress and psycho-emotional stress. Shortness of breath develops against the background of the secretion of excessive amounts of the hormone, adrenaline, into the systemic bloodstream. This hormone provokes increased work of the myocardium. Against this background, the need for oxygen sharply increases and to compensate for its lack, the animal breathes heavily and frequently, opening its mouth.
2. Stress of the body of the physical type . During active games, fast running and jumping, the heart muscle contracts faster and the necessary oxygen is wasted faster. To make up for the deficiency, the animal begins to breathe more often than when it is at rest. A similar reaction of the body is observed when the body overheats.
3. Chest injuries . If an animal has broken ribs as a result of a mechanical injury, it experiences pain, in turn provoking a stressful state. Against the backdrop of pain, the cat begins to breathe quickly and shallowly, opening its mouth. In such cases, you should not hesitate and it is important to contact a veterinary clinic for qualified help.

Physiologically caused shortness of breath has a number of characteristic symptoms. Each owner should know what symptoms are characteristic of physiological shortness of breath, in order to subsequently promptly distinguish it from pathological one. So, signs of physiological shortness of breath are:

1. Polydipsia (increased thirst) - the cat drinks a lot of water after active physical activity, jumping and running, after playing, and also breathes heavily;
2. Anxiety - the cat may show obvious anxiety, the pupils are dilated, and breathing is labored (a clear sign of stress, perhaps the animal was running away from an angry enemy);
3. Lethargy and lethargy - when overheated in direct sunlight, the cat tries to find a cool place and seems lethargic, breathing quite often and shallowly.

Symptoms

A life-threatening sign is intermittent inhalation and exhalation with coughing.

• Cat wheezing - manifested by noises, whistling due to narrowing of the airways. They arise both due to the accumulation of excess fluid - hydrothorax, and a large amount of air - pneumothorax. With obstruction, gurgling sounds may be observed in whistling and wheezing.
• Coughing is a protective reaction due to which the respiratory canals are cleared of foreign objects, pus, mucus, fluid and other irritants. May occur due to a cold or have other dangerous causes.
• When breathing, the cat not only wheezes, but also has hoarseness - a very dangerous symptom. The voice may deepen due to the growth of a malignant neoplasm, and a cough with blood clots in the mucus may additionally appear, and the cat wheezes when breathing.

Causes

Why does a cat wheeze or cough when breathing? There are many factors that cause problems, and a caring owner needs to study them.

• The inflammatory process can be localized in several lobes of the lung tissue and lead to lobar disease - fibrotic pathology.
• Calcivirosis - the symptoms and nature of development are similar to the symptoms of human influenza.
• Rhinotracheitis – the second name for “feline herpes”, is transmitted through contact.
• Laryngospasm is involuntary muscle contractions in the larynx due to an allergic reaction to a food, plant, or chemical.
• Tumors in the bronchi.
• Injury to the larynx with a sharp object.
• Feline bronchial asthma.

In a cat, wheezing when breathing can be accompanied by cyanosis - the mucous membrane becomes bluish due to a lack of oxygen in the tissues. The animal presses itself to the floor, clenches its paws, and stretches its neck.

Other causes of severe wheezing and hoarseness in a cat may include:

• hernia in the diaphragmatic zone;
• diseases of the cardiovascular system;
• swelling in the lungs due to kidney failure.

The cat wheezes when he breathes in the presence of helminthic infestations, which is a common problem for four-legged animals.

What does rapid breathing mean?

Rapid breathing (tachypnea) in a cat is a serious and life-threatening condition for the animal that occurs due to dysfunction of the respiratory system or a decrease in oxygen in the body. There are different types of breathing disorders that can affect animals, but we will focus on the rapid version.

In the process of calculating your cat’s inhalations and exhalations, breathing can be considered rapid if it exceeds the generally accepted rate of 15 to 30 per minute. A hot, stressed or active cat may develop rapid breathing, but this should return to normal after a few minutes. If its frequency does not subside or becomes higher, this may indicate a serious illness, and the pet should be shown to a veterinarian as soon as possible.

First aid

If the animal suddenly stops breathing, it is necessary to perform chest compressions and artificial respiration. Place the pet so that the neck is an even continuation of the spine.

1. Clean the mouth from excess mucus, saliva and foreign objects and close it.
2. The palms form a tube to inhale air into the cat’s nose; the frequency of inhalations should depend on the size of the animal. Up to 20 breaths should be taken within one minute. If the kitten is small, then the frequency must be reduced, otherwise there is a high risk of damage to the pet’s lungs due to the large volume of air.
3. If rhythm is completely lost, you need to do an indirect massage. Place the palm of one hand over your chest so that your thumb moves away from the rest. Rhythmically clench and unclench your fingers 5 times - exhale into your pet’s nose. In this case, you should check your pulse every 2 minutes.

What signs should you pay attention to first?

In some cases, difficulty breathing is not dangerous, while in others it is a sign of serious illness. To understand what exactly happened to the animal, you need to pay attention to other signs:

• Body temperature. If it is elevated by more than 0.5°C, and this temperature persists for a day or more, you need to call a veterinarian. This almost certainly indicates a developing infection.

• Of course, not everyone has a stethoscope, but you can simply put your ear to the animal’s chest and listen well. If you hear wheezing, gurgling and bubbling, you need to take your pet to the veterinarian! All this indicates severe pathologies of the heart and/or lungs.

• Lethargy, lack of appetite and apathy are also “good” reasons for a visit to the veterinarian. Such signs indicate anything but the excellent health of the animal.

• In the presence of a strong pain reaction that occurs even with mild palpation of the abdomen or chest. It is a symptom of injury and severe inflammatory reactions.

• Of course, the animal is urgently taken to the clinic if it has visible wounds, ruptures, bites, etc.

• If heavy and gradually weakening breathing is combined with pale mucous membranes, you should immediately call a specialist at home. These signs indicate internal bleeding, so it is better to entrust the transportation of your pet to the clinic to professionals.

Treatment

To keep your cat healthy, you need to periodically take him to the doctor. Only a specialist can determine why a cat wheezes when he breathes. It is also important to carry out all types of vaccinations, monitor hygiene, and add vitamins to the diet.

The veterinarian identifies the causes of wheezing in a cat when breathing and knows how to treat inflammatory, viral, and bacterial infections.

• Helminths are removed by a course of treatment with special means. Antiparasitic drugs are toxic and cause serious damage to the animal's liver, kidneys and other organs, including death. For this reason, dosage and supervision by a veterinarian are important, especially if the kitten is wheezing or coughing.
• A cough can be triggered by a common allergic reaction, either to a food product or to a chemical or plant. Bronchial asthma occurs and is eliminated with the help of drug therapy, antioxidants, vitamins and a special inhaler.
• The cat wheezes - problems in the cardiovascular system occur mainly in overweight and old cats. An examination by a veterinarian, examination using electrocardiography and x-rays are required. Appropriate treatment and dietary type of food are prescribed.

It is strictly not recommended to self-medicate; an animal’s body is as fragile as a human’s. This is the same family member whose life should be in the hands of an experienced specialist.

Lethargy in a cat

Does your cat walk around looking lethargic and sad?

It may simply be a decadent mood that will improve on its own. But you should be careful: sometimes the reasons for an animal’s lethargy lie in serious health problems.

A trivial reason may be apathy in the heat, when the air temperature outside the window and in the room is above +30 degrees. The cat could be tired or have a hearty meal. And there are simply phlegmatic cats, which almost always look too calm and sleepy. Often, cats behave very calmly and even sluggishly after estrus, or more precisely, after mating, if the result of a successful mating with a cat is pregnancy. In addition, medications prescribed by a veterinarian (for example, antihistamines or sedatives) can cause some lethargy.

Serious reasons why a cat is lethargic

However, it happens that a cat is lethargic due to illness:

• Stress
  . If the cat has become lethargic, it may be due to a mental disorder, which can occur in pets for various reasons, for example, when moving to a new home, changing owners, having a new pet in the house, or suddenly switching to new food. The main signs of stress in cats include lethargy (although in some cases the pet may look very agitated), refusal to eat or literally gorging, constant licking of fur (even to the point of bald spots), bad behavior (the cat marks and shits outside the tray, screams loudly, gnaws flowers, destroys furniture, etc.). As a rule, stress goes away on its own if you regularly communicate and play with the cat, but in some cases it is necessary to take sedatives;
• Poisoning.
  If the cat has become lethargic, trembles, breathes loudly and heavily, refuses to eat, has vomiting and/or diarrhea, saliva runs heavily, the mucous membranes have turned red or blue, the temperature has risen or dropped (normal temperature in adult cats is from 37.5 up to 39 degrees, for kittens - from 39 to 39.5 degrees), there is a suspicion that the animal has been seriously poisoned by something. What can cause poisoning in pets? Anything: rotten fish, houseplant juice, washing powder, rodent poison and much more;
• Jumps in blood pressure
  (very difficult to diagnose!). There is a possibility that the cat is lethargic all the time if she has low or high blood pressure, which normally ranges from 105/65 to 135/95 mmHg. Signs of high blood pressure include apathy, red eyes, dilated pupils, blurred vision (this can be calculated by observing an animal that will bump into walls or furniture when walking), noises during breathing, swelling of the extremities, vomiting, nosebleeds, high pulse (more than 180 beats per minute). Low blood pressure can be recognized by constant drowsiness, loss of appetite due to nausea, decreased heart rate (below 80 beats per minute), and loss of consciousness. If your pet has such symptoms, you need to quickly go to the veterinarian;
• Endocrine disorders.
  In some situations, a cat is lethargic due to diabetes mellitus or Cushing's syndrome. Plus, don’t forget about hormonal imbalance, which often occurs in pets after giving birth, and even after sterilization, a lethargic cat is common. You can figure out from the following symptoms that your pet has endocrine problems: extreme thirst, frequent urination, changes in appetite (the cat either begins to eat very little or constantly asks to be fed), deterioration in the condition of the coat and skin, an increase in the volume of the abdomen, weight fluctuations, cramps, heaviness of gait, blurred vision, low motor activity as a result of weakening muscles;
• Diseases of the musculoskeletal system
  , for example, osteochondrosis, arthritis, joint dysplasia, bone fractures, joint dislocations, ligament rupture. Find out that a cat has problems of this nature simply by the following symptoms: lameness, refusal to jump, change in gait, pain (the cat growls and bites if the owner touches the sore spot), swelling in the area of ​​the affected joints, refusal to eat and apathy. Cats with diseases of the locomotor system often do not sharpen their claws, take poor care of their coats, and do not wash themselves;
• Oncology.
  If the cat is lethargic, lies down most of the day, eats very little or refuses food at all, is rapidly losing weight and meows pitifully, suffers from vomiting, diarrhea and internal bleeding, the development of cancer can be suspected. Other signs of cancer in cats include bad breath, the appearance of ulcers and minor swelling on the body (in some cases the tumor is visible to the naked eye), aimless wandering around the apartment;
• Infectious diseases.
  A cat is usually very lethargic with the following infectious diseases: calcivirosis, rhinotracheitis, leptospirosis, panleukopenia, immunodeficiency virus. Common signs of these illnesses include a rise in body temperature, refusal to eat, shortness of breath, cough, wheezing during breathing, vomiting and diarrhea (usually foul-smelling and greenish), changes in the color of mucous membranes, discharge from the nose and eyes;
• Parasites internal and external.
  We are talking about the most common uninvited guests - worms, ticks and fleas. Helminthic infestations are recognized by stool disorders (a cat may have diarrhea alternating with constipation), vomiting, weight loss, an increase in abdominal volume, flatulence and rumbling in the abdomen, bad breath, greenish discharge from the eyes. Ear mites can be identified by constant shaking of the head, the appearance of a large amount of dark sticky wax, and itching (the animal constantly scratches its ears). Ticks on the body provoke the appearance of wounds and scales on the skin, hair loss to the point of baldness, and constant itching. Other parasites, fleas, manifest themselves in much the same way. Many owners fight worms with deworming agents, and use insectoacaricides to eliminate skin parasites, but before using such products it is better to consult a specialist;
• Inflammatory diseases of internal organs.
  Almost any inflammation is guaranteed to cause apathy in the cat and a refusal to play. So, a cat can be sad, for example, with gastritis or colitis, pancreatitis, cholecystitis, pyelonephritis, stomatitis, myocarditis. There are plenty of inflammatory diseases, so it’s difficult to name general symptoms. With inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in animals, stool disorders and vomiting, bloating, flatulence, blood in the stool, and fever are observed. If there are problems with the urinary system, the cat is lethargic and does not eat for several days or eats but little, there will probably be thirst and pain during urination. If the heart is affected, the pulse will rise above normal and shortness of breath will appear. And if the cat’s mouth is inflamed, the cat will salivate heavily, the gums will become red and swollen, and the appetite will decrease or disappear;
• Hypovitaminosis.
  Lethargy can also be caused by a lack of vitamins, for example, with a poor, monotonous diet. Animals with this problem are often inferior in height to their counterparts, they have dull hair and poor skin condition (dermatitis, dandruff), females often have miscarriages, and have problems with bowel movements;
• Anemia.
  If the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells is disrupted, almost all purrs experience weakness, cyanosis of the mucous membranes, shortness of breath, a drop in blood pressure, pulse fluctuations, and deterioration in the quality of the coat;
• Dehydration.
  With a lack of water in the body, the cat is lethargic and the nose is dry, the skin loses elasticity, the eyeballs look sunken, the mucous membranes dry out, saliva becomes sticky and viscous, and the pads of the fingers are cold to the touch. A cat in this state does not eat and hardly drinks, although it desperately needs water. If the animal cannot be given water even by force, you should immediately contact the clinic, where the doctor will prescribe an infusion of electrolyte solutions subcutaneously or intravenously;
• Foreign body in the pharynx or elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract.
  If the cat is lethargic and does not drink, and also refuses to eat, it often vomits and salivates profusely, its voice becomes hoarse, there is a possibility that something is stuck in the throat or elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract, for example, a fish bone or small part from a toy;
• Various complications after surgery
  (suppuration or suture dehiscence, postoperative hernia, etc.). If the cat appears lethargic after surgery during the first 1-3 days, then there is nothing to worry about, provided that the animal drinks water and shows at least minimal interest in food. Fever, plaintive meowing, blood or pus from a postoperative wound, constipation, vomiting are reasons to immediately contact the clinic.

What to do if the cat is lethargic all the time?

The only correct solution is to immediately consult a doctor. Making a diagnosis at home or prescribing treatment for your pet on your own is simply unacceptable.