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Asthma in cats….

Did you know that cats could get asthma? “Paddykat” (pictured here) has asthma and, as you can see, looks no different from any other happy and contented cat! Not so when he was first diagnosed. Paddykat was coughing and his breathing was laboured.

We needed to rule out other possible causes of his symptoms before we could establish that he had asthma and start treatment with steroids. Paddykat is a keen hunter so we had to make sure he didn’t have lungworm. He had also had previous bouts of cat flu so we ruled this out as well before starting asthma treatment.

To start with, Paddykat had long-acting injections of steroids. These rapidly relieved all of his symptoms and Paddykat was a happy cat once more. After a while he was changed to steroid tablets so that a lower dose could be used which still controlled the asthma but carried less risk of side-effects. One of the side-effects of steroids in cats can be an increased risk of becoming diabetic. Paddykat’s owner is very good at giving him tablets so changing from the injections hasn’t been a problem.

Asthma in cats is very similar to asthma in people. Cats can be allergic to house dust mites, just like some people with asthma. Some cats will even tolerate using an inhaler!

If you have any questions relating to this post, please feel free to ask our vets in the comments box below.

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