Feline asthma is the most common respiratory disease we see in cats. Many cats are only mildly affected, but any asthmatic cat can have a severe and life threatening respiratory crisis that necessities emergency care.
Knowing the signs of feline asthma is important to any cat owner. Read on to learn how to do so, and how we diagnosis and treat this important disease.
How will I know my cat has asthma?
The warning signs that a cat is developing asthma can be extremely subtle. A good rule-of-thumb to go by is to never ignore changes in the way your cat breathes. Asthmatic cats often have difficulty exhaling, and you may notice a profound extra effort to breathe out. Coughing and wheezing are also signs of respiratory distress. In general, normal cats make almost no noise when breathing, so if you’re hearing much of anything when your awake cat is breathing, something might not be right.
Unlike dogs, cats don’t pant to cool themselves. Even after very active play, you should never see your cat breathing with its mouth open. Doing so likely indicates difficulty in getting enough air into the lungs, and if you see your cat opened-mouth breathing at any time, take her in for vet visit as soon as possible.
What does asthma do to a cat’s lungs?
Asthma in cats is very similar to asthma in people. Inflammatory cells and mucous collect in the walls of the airways of the lungs. This reduces the size of the opening and thus the amount of air that the airways can carry. The muscles of the airway spasm, making it even more difficult for air to move in and out of the lungs effectively.
Asthmatic cats typically show signs of the disease sporadically, and even x-rays don’t always look out of the ordinary. Because an asthmatic cat can go very quickly from having an occasional cough to a full-blown respiratory crisis, you should never ignore any type of cough or breathing difficulties, no matter how fleeting they seem.
How is asthma diagnosed?
Traditionally x-rays have been the diagnostic tool of choice for asthma. However, as mentioned above, an asthmatic cat may not have abnormal lung x-rays, so diagnosis can be challenging. Sometimes the diagnosis is made when the cat improves with asthma medications.
There are a couple of different techniques that can be used to obtain a sample of cells from inside of the airways, which can aid in diagnosis. The cat must be anesthetized, and then a small amount of sterile saline is injected into the airways. By lightly clapping on the sides of the cat – a procedure called “coupage” – we can force some of the saline back out of the lungs, hopefully containing cells that, when examined microscopically, will help make the diagnosis.
Can asthma be treated?
In the past ten years we’ve made some huge advancements in the treatment of feline asthma. Before that, typically the only drugs that were used were corticosteroid drugs, which while extremely effective at reducing the inflammation and thus the closing of the airways, but have undesirable side effects when used over long periods of time.
Today, most cats with asthma can be successfully managed with the use of inhaler devices that aerosolize drugs. The typical inhalers that children and adults use don’t work on cats, because they can’t be told to “breathe!” in order to get the necessary medication into their lungs. The inhaler devices that are used for infants with asthma, however, work great in cats, because the aerosolized medication “sits” in a chamber. Once a cat is trained to tolerate a mask over its face, it can successfully breathe in the medication, given a bit of time.
Will my cat always need medication if he has asthma?
Some cats can eventually go without daily medication for asthma, although the majority of them will need at least some continual therapy for life. If the asthma is being caused by an allergy to something that the cat is routinely breathing in, such as cigarette smoke, we will often see marked improvements when the cat is removed from that environment.
So, if you’re a cat-loving smoker, consider giving up cigarettes for your cat’s sake!