Hairball? Some kind of obstruction? Allergy? What's wrong Vakai?

[Medesha]

Vakai's been worrying me over the past few days. He has a little discharge from one eye, but his appetite is still good and he's still using the litterbox and running around playing so I thought it wasn't much to be concerned about until he started coughing.

It was before I fed this lot in the morning, I was vacuuming and then I heard Vakai making this awful snuffling, coughing sound. I ran over and he was low on the ground, neck stretched out, pressing his chin to the floor. I was about to try kitty heimlich, even though I couldn't think of what he could have eaten and choked on- I'd just been cleaning and there was nothing on the floor- when he straightened up and walked off.

And now it's happened again. The only thing that has changed recently is that I started feeding them raw, coarse ground turkey from Hare Today as opposed to chicken. Has anyone else's SV had an issue like this? I'm trying to get an appointment at the vet but there's only one in this town and I'm waiting for them to call me back.

 

[admin]

Vakai's been worrying me over the past few days. He has a little discharge from one eye, but his appetite is still good and he's still using the litterbox and running around playing so I thought it wasn't much to be concerned about until he started coughing.

It was before I fed this lot in the morning, I was vacuuming and then I heard Vakai making this awful snuffling, coughing sound. I ran over and he was low on the ground, neck stretched out, pressing his chin to the floor. I was about to try kitty heimlich, even though I couldn't think of what he could have eaten and choked on- I'd just been cleaning and there was nothing on the floor- when he straightened up and walked off.

And now it's happened again. The only thing that has changed recently is that I started feeding them raw, coarse ground turkey from Hare Today as opposed to chicken. Has anyone else's SV had an issue like this? I'm trying to get an appointment at the vet but there's only one in this town and I'm waiting for them to call me back.

You might want to switch back to chicken...but getting him checked out still might be a good thing.

I used to feed Hare Today, but am now feeding from Blue Ridge Beef, although I do have to drive 25 min to pick it up. The kittens are getting something called Kitten Mix from Blue ridge Beef and boy do they love it!

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I don't know... it might be a hairball, if the weather has changed where you are a cat often then changes its coat and so might have more hair. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to try a hairball remedy with him.

The other issue might be a piece of bone stuck somewhere...you said "coarse ground" so are there small bits of bone easily found in the mix? I think that less likely but all things are possible. It might be completely unrelated and just coincidentally timed with the diet change....

 

[Medesha]

I don't know... it might be a hairball, if the weather has changed where you are a cat often then changes its coat and so might have more hair. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to try a hairball remedy with him.

The other issue might be a piece of bone stuck somewhere...you said "coarse ground" so are there small bits of bone easily found in the mix? I think that less likely but all things are possible. It might be completely unrelated and just coincidentally timed with the diet change....

There are bits of bone in the mix- but I started giving it to them because the fine ground stuff probably wasn't doing much for their teeth. None of them have choked or anything, and I thought that if there was an obstruction, Vakai wouldn't be too interested in eating, would he?

The weather has changed x_X ugh and he's acting normally the rest of the time!

 

[xumi's mom]

Could it be he was reacting to a little dust being stirred up by the vacuum exhaust?

 

[Per Lausund]

Could be hairball (probably), could be little worm larvae in his trachea. Deworm just to be sure!

 

[Medesha]

I'm just hoping it's not asthma or something at this point x_X will keep you guys updated. Thanks!

 

[Medesha]

Update: Vet said it might be asthma, but said to try hairball meds first. Will see how it goes. Vakai is such a good boy when it comes to taking meds!

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

If it might be asthma, maybe start looking at your home to see how you might make it easier for him... being an asthmatic myself I know that it helps greatly to use a good HEPA air filter for example, keeping the place clean (duh!) and we ripped up all the carpets which of course not everyone can do! I think steam clean the rugs we have every month to help also...

 

[Medesha]

Well, she said that if the hairball meds don't work, then we'll get him in for an xray and stuff. If he does has asthma, I don't think I could rip up the carpets (the whole house is carpets) but I could definitely get the rugs steam cleaned more often...