I have a senior cat who goes into labored open mouth breathing when he is in a hard purr and also has wheezing and snoring but otherwise acts normal – eats, drinks, and is active for his age. The snoring is even when he’s not in a deep slumber and it can be an airy rattle if that makes sense and he has a little squeak when he swallows. I saw your video on the cat with a polyp and thought maybe this could be what he has except that he’s almost 17 so the vet suggested it probably isn’t since that’s more of a young cat thing but did suggest a scope and CT which will cost me 2500-3500 and he will have to be put under. In reading about breathing, heart disease can also cause breathing problems and since he has heart disease I would hate to spend all the money and put him through that to be told the scope didn’t show anything. I’ve also been reading about asthma, but my regular vet nor the specialist even mentioned that it could be that and from what I’ve read, it’s hard to diagnose. He’s a flame point Siamese and he has early ckd and some heart disease (stage 3/4 systolic murmur and hypertension), so I’m nervous about putting him under. Aside from these “old man” things, the specialist and my regular vet say his labs are spectacular. The specialist said when she is presented with a cat that has these conditions, they bloodwork and labs never look this good. So I certainly don’t want to put him down if he looks good but I also feel like he can’t be comfortable with these breathing episodes. One thing to note, when they did bloodwork a couple of weeks ago, his eosinophils were elevated which I have read can be linked to upper respiratory and asthma. Im putting the link to videos of the wheezing and purring to see if you’ve ever seen such a thing in a cat. I sure wish I had you closer by. Thank you so much!
Jill

Wheezing https://youtu.be/gaf7WCRzu80

Purr/breathing https://youtu.be/kqnd4YORenY

The kitten was born ca. 4 weeks ago. it had two litter mates, one was born dead: The second one was totally normal, but found dead 3 days later in the morning. It had a wet/sticky mouth, but otherwise everything seemed normal.
The last one had also a wet/sticky mouth a few days later (ca. 1 week age) with little blisters on its tongue. Otherwise it was normal, it still got enough milk from its mother.
With ca. 2 weeks the kitten and its mother showed symptoms of cat flu, and it was also seen that the kitten was staying rather small, but otherwise normally developed.

The vet prescribed amoxcillin for both mother and baby. And an ointment for the eyes, as they were also affected. After 2 days the kitten had to be force-fed because it couldn’t suckle anymore. But it could be fed with the syringe without problem and ate with huge appetite. This was going for one week, with it’s general state of health being okay despite the cat flu. It had some discharge on eyes and nose, but it was otherwise still active and aware. He really is a little fighter, despite staying rather small.

During last week it finally seemed to get better, until friday morning we found it with heavier breathing. One eye was fine, the other closed with discharge. It still had appetite though. On Sunday the breathing was bad, but it could still swallow.

Today the breathing is really bad, it has to use its stomach to breath and also opens its mouth to help breathing (but no real gasping). It has difficulty swallowing and seems to have mucus in its throat. The nose is mostly dry, only few discharge. The infected eye has now a cloudy cornea, despite the eye antibitoics. It is also very restless, walks a few steps, then lays flat down. It’s easily seen that it doesn’t get enougn oxygen.
The vet said it most likely has developed pneumonia. It got something that should help its lung with breathing, and I should continue to give fluids and feeding as long as it will/could swallow. Of course it still gets antibiotics.

What can I do to help the little one with breathing? Should I let it inhale?

Depending on how it looks tomorrow I may have to euthanize it, as I don’t want it to suffocate :(.