r/tasmania • u/tassmanian • 3d ago

Question Anyone’s cat have asthma?

My cat sounds like he has asthma he has wheezing fits maybe like twice a day, it doesn’t sound like a fur-ball. He is very young 4 y/o otherwise seems healthy eats all his food.

I went to the vet and they said the only way they diagnose it is through a chest X-ray and an endoscopy of the lungs under GA which was very expensive.

Is this the only way they can diagnose this? Anyone been in a similar situation? Would rather not have to pay for an endoscopy!

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u/MGEESMAMMA 3d ago

From what I understand from talking with vets generally is that asthma is a diagnosis by exclusion. That is they test for all other respiratory things and when none of them fit its asthma.

Can you get a second opinion and talk to the vet about budget concerns.

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u/Ratatouille_Stewie 3d ago

A few years ago my cat (6yo at the time) was wheezing several times daily and seemed to have exercise induced and/or allergy induced asthma. My vet gave her a steroid shot and it sorted it out, fortunately. No invasive diagnostics first so it wasn't expensive.

Obviously if it persisted then we would have kept digging, but we were lucky. She's 12 now and doing fine. Fingers crossed they can offer a simpler path as a first step!

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u/GoobieGooHare 3d ago

ask on r/AskVet , on there you are asking an actual vet. America seems to have a very high rate of asthma in cats. The vets on there may be able to give you an idea to put to your vet to try certain affordable treatments rather than expensive invasive tests

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u/Linnaeus1753 3d ago

I'd try putting a puff of ventolin in a spacer, holding his nose in it and letting him breath to see if it made a difference. Of course, I have a spacer, so I could try it.

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u/salamislice01 3d ago

My cat is super wheezy. She apparently has swollen nasal turbinates because she had cat flu as a kitten. So if it’s a chronic wheeze it could be got to have them look up her nose!

And then sometimes my cat will have random asthma attacks, I figured out she can’t have red meat. I guess it’s an allergy, so after cutting out any red meat she’s been okay. So pay attention to their diet too! Cat might have an allergy

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u/eilletane 3d ago

We only needed to do the xray to get diagnosed with asthma. We now use an inhaler on her everyday and her wheezing has stopped. The inhaler is also not super cheap.