Tonka has been here a couple of months. He’s made horking sounds as if he’s horking up a fur ball, but nothing has ever come up. Recently we’ve noticed that his hork sounds often come when he’s been active. For example, I just played with him. (He likes playing with that wily string.) After playing for a few minutes, he stopped and took up the fur ball stance. Again, nothing came up. Afterward he was fine, and is prowling around looking frisky.
The SO has taken out her stethoscope and listened to his lungs, but she never hears anything abnormal. He seems to be a healthy, happy cat; but the lack of fur balls when he horks is a concern. We’ve been thinking of taking him to the vet.
Any ideas?
In other news, he was very interested in the cat, dog, and goat on TV this morning. He stood up and watched closely, and then turned around and meowed. Too bad ‘mom’ is still asleep.
I think this is the first time I’ve encountered someone else using the term ‘hork.’ I got it from an old friend who addressed the family canine as “the incredible horking dog.”
I’ve had cats cough and hork occasionally without any obvious problems, or any discovered during regular checkups. I’d say watch and wait. OTOH, cats are fragile; if he seems distressed, weakened or in any way impaired, get him looked at.
He’s not distressed, weakened, or impaired. He just doesn’t produce anything when he goes into the coughing-up-a-furr-ball mode. (And no, we haven’t found any fur balls.)
One thing we see is that he’s a stress eater. Play with him when he doesn’t want to play, or scold him when he’s about to scratch the furniture, and he’s off to his food dish.
I always figured if they were horking and a hairball didn’t come up, they needed something to smooth the way in the other direction. So, I’d wipe some peanut butter on their whiskers. My theory may be correct, or it might have been some sort of behavior modification, because the horking would stop for at least a couple of weeks.
I’ve been hostess to maybe 30 cats in my lifetime, and some horked; some did not. (FABULOUS word, BTW. It is now a permanent fixture in my vocabulary. I can already envision other uses for it… like at staff meetings… people who hork and hork but never cough anything up, if you kwim.) Sometimes a hairball was forthcoming (or *furlog *as we like to call them) but often nothing.
Aw, he reminds me of my Marshall, who is no longer with me.
As for the non-productive horking, I have one cat that’s done this his whole life. I gave him hairball treatments for awhile, but nothing came of it. He’s now 14 years old and hasn’t had any health problems. He’s just a horker. My other two cats are outright vomiters, but that’s cuz they eat too damn fast.
Is he using his litterbox? I’d say take him to the vet if his digestion seems problematic or if he starts horking more often. Otherwise I’d just mention it at his next checkup. But that’s just me.
Have you had him checked for asthma? Our cat has spasms that sound like coughing/horking when he’s having trouble breathing. They may last 2 or 3 seconds or up to a minute. He gets real low to the ground and extends his neck. He takes a steroid twice a day to help control it, but he still has attacks several times a week. It’s generally worse in the spring when there’s a lot of pollen, but I don’t think he’s ever had a reaction from exercise. I’m not sure if you can hear any abnormalities with a stethoscope when he’s not having an attack., either.
Seconding the asthma / vet recommendation. Check out you tube for “asthma cat” and see if those horking cats sound familiar. I had a kitty who apparently had asthma for years but I too always thought it was non-productive hairball coughs. There are medications / inhalers available for feline use.
My late kitty, Figaro, had to be given benedryl during certain times of the year, even though she was an indoor cat. Just the pollen we’d bring in on our persons (and dogs) was enough to irritate her to the point of horking.
He likes to play with string? How about rubber bands?
Unless there is someone closer who can expertly palpate a cat, get him to a vet - if he has swallowed a string or rubber band, it is a matter of time until it blocks the intestine. Yes, I have seen a string coming out the other end of a cat, but it is exceedingly dangerous to either wait or try to pull out an end.
