My wife took in two stray kittens with the intent to give them a bit of TLC and then place them through some local adoption system.
They went to the low-cost adoption vet and looked ok, and got some shots, I guess.
My wife fed them and played with them, and they got pretty healthy in the course of a few weeks.
Suddenly, one of them developed shortness of breath with a bit of a wheeze. It appears he has trouble breathing which affects his eating. He’s not really eating.
We don’t want to incur vet emergency bills, so we are waiting for the low-cost adoption vet to get back to us. It might take a day or two to get to a vet.
In the meantime, are there possibilities we should be considering? I thought maybe he fell off the bed and perhaps hurt himself, but he does not appear to be in any pain.
We may not have enough info to go on. I guess it could be anything from allergies to some kind of infection. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.
If he can drink, you may have luck getting some KMR into him, using a syringe or dropper. At least then he’ll be getting some nutrition while waiting for the vet appointment.
Does your kitty have any discharge from the eyes or nose? Any sneezing, sniffling, coughing, or other symptoms besides the breathing issues?
One thing that’s really common in these little guys is upper respiratory infections, although those don’t usually cause wheezing. Try listening to see if you can tell if the wheezing is coming from up around his head or his chest. If it’s louder around his head, he may just have a lot of congestion, and cats tend not to eat well when they can’t smell well. You can try a little vapo-rub on his chin to open him up. If you do that, make sure you put it someplace he can’t reach it with his tongue, and supervise him closely to make sure he doesn’t groom it off. Wash it off after about 20 minutes.
If he’s eating dry food, try offering him wet. If he’s already eating wet food, try warming it up a bit to make it stinkier. If that doesn’t work, you can try baby food. (I’ve had good luck with the veal. Whatever you get, make sure it’s meat. Kitties don’t like strained peas any more than babies do.) If that still isn’t working, try putting a dab on his paws or on top of his nose and see if he’ll groom it off. Sometimes that can stimulate enough interest to get them to go on and eat.
If at any point his tongue, gums or (if applicable) his nose appear to be any color other than a nice bright bubble-gum pink, or he breathes open-mouthed or with his head stuck out so his airway is straight, hie thee to a vet IMMEDIATELY. Those things mean he needs help asap.
He took to some wet food pretty well this morning, licking up a bunch of gravy and maybe taking in some small solids. Neither one of them really went for the solids.
After “eating” he kneaded on a blanket and purred. His wheezing is too faint to pinpoint it.
Everything seems to look normal except his breathing is apparently labored. The expansion and contraction of his body is exaggerated when breathing, like he’s having to make an effort of it.
He doesn’t look like he’s about to die before a vet can look at him.
He might have asthma. Your description sounds like my Dickens when the asthma is bad. I notice that her asthma acts up most at the same time my allergies are acting up.
Like CCL says, open-mouth breathing, really pale gums, a stretched-out neck with lowered head, these are all signs of distress. When Dickens coughs, I think it sounds quite a bit like a hairball.
Good luck, and thanks for taking care of the little guys. I know how ruinously expensive it can be.
His breathing problems were the result of fluid build up in the abdomen. We had to euthanize him.
We just hope his brother, Poppy, didn’t catch it.
We’re keeping an eye on Poppy to see how he does. Poppy checked out fine, but you never know, I suppose.
We have two older cats of our own. Poppy will be under quarantine in a bedroom for about a month, under observation. The vet said he should be ok if no symptoms appear in that time. We’ll be sure he gets plenty of play time.
We also hope our older cats didn’t catch it, but that’s not likely.
I guess be careful bringing in strays. You never know what they’re carrying. This was completely undetected at the first regular vet visit where they both got shots and treatment for fleas, ear mites, and worms.
Oddly, the vet said FIP is highly contagious. From everything I’m reading, it’s just the opposite and quarantine may be unnecessary… but we’ll do it anyway.
I do a lot of research and get a lot of information through web searching, but with the knowledge I already have, I’ve found very few websites that truly give great information.
One exception is this one:
I use these guys for information frequently. This is one of the best websites I’ve found that is available to the public for getting animal medical information. Please read the FIP info they have here. I use other websites that are only available to veterinarians and veterinary professionals, not available to the public. A lot of the information MarVista uses comes almost directly from these proprietary websites, so it really is the best information you’re going to find.
FIP is one of the most heartbreaking diseases to deal with. We see a few cases a year at the shelter and it sucks every time.
