My foster cat, who I am now considering adopting, has been struggling to breathe properly for about 3 months now. He came into the shelter with a suspected URI. However, after months of treatment with antibiotics and a whole swath of other anti viral medications, the vet determined that he wasn’t getting any better and euthanasia is on the table. I want to get a second opinion before we make any drastic decisions. I am doing online research and suspect that perhaps he has a polyp, a tumor, or foreign object in his throat/nose.

While I am dying to explore these other solutions, the shelter told me if I adopt him and take him to a specialist costs could go up to $5,000. I don’t have that kind of money. I am in Olympia, Washington State. Does anyone recommend any veterinary hospital that is more affordable and can explore other resolutions at a more reasonable price? I don’t want to give up on him, but can’t afford to spend that kind of money.

Thank you so much.

My 6-year-old cat has recently had some trouble breathing. She gets a deep sounding snore when breathing in and can’t seem to take a complete breath. The snoring only seems to occur when she is breathing in, and not out. The snoring does sometimes stop. This mainly happens when she is sleeping, her breaths are softer and she seems to be able to breath better. I have also noticed that when I hold her mouth open a little bit, she is able to breathe in and out without any problem. She occasionally has sneezing fits, but they are very rare to see. There is no discharge from her nose, eyes, or ears. She actually has a very dry nose. I have also noticed that she has been eating less than before, but she is still able to eat and drink water. We took her to a vet, but they told us they would only be able to diagnose her with an endoscopy, which they said would cost us around $1,300. I’ve looked online for symptoms similar to hers and cats that had similar breathing patterns/sounds. The closest thing I have been able to find is something called a “nasopharyngeal polyp”. I’m a little lost on what to do. Should I continue with the first vet, and get a concrete diagnosis? or get a second opinion and maybe bring up what I found while researching online? The cost of the first vet is kind of high for me as I’m a college student, but If it is what my cat needs to be able to breathe comfortably again I’ll pay it.

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

Does Reflux in premature kittens exist?
I’m asking because we got 4 tiny premature kittens yesterday with their mother. She didn’t have milk when the were born, so the little ones were bottle fed/syringe fed the 2 days before they came to us.. However since she still showed interets in her babys they stayed with her. They had around 70gram according to their owner. When they arrived, they were cold and crying. One died a few minutes after they arrived, despite slowly warming up. It had tiny bits of milk in its nose.
(they were fed ca. 60 minutes earlier)

When they were finally warmed up two were drinking, one was fed with a syringe. All were urinating normally, one had a bit of bowel movements (yellow and soft). I placed them to their mother who was very worried about her babies and cuddled around them immediatly. She had a heat pad below her box to help keeping the temperature. She was extremly nervous, so I left her alone for the time being.
When I looked after them for the next feeding, the second one was dead. Milk around nose and mouth. I checked for cleft palate, but there was none visible.
The other two also showed no signs of a cleft palate. However, they felt cold again despite lying on their mothers belly.

I warmed them up again and this time I didn’t put them back – as it seemed that the despite mother and heat pad below they could’t keep their temperature. So they stayed in the box we use for raising kittens.

One was drinking, one was not. The none drinking was tube fed. When I looked after them a ca. 15 minutes later the non drinking one hat milk running out of its nose and mouth. I cleaned it immediatly and it started breathing again – but I guess it still got something in its lungs, as it died a few minutes later.

The remaining one was now warm, still urinating normally and drinking. But it couldn’t settle down. It was always crying and seemed restless. The next two feedings went normally – as dfar as that is possible with such a tiny one. When I wanted to feed it in the late evening I found it dead – a bit of milk running out of nose and mouth. It was the smalles one of them with only 67 gram.

I’m very worried that I did something wrong… They were not the first babys I bottle fed (or syring fed/tube fed). But it’s not like I’m very experienced… Usually the ones I get are at least full term… I only had one premature Baby before, that also died after 2 days. It had only 53 gram when being born – but it was with me since birth.
None of the babyies I cared lost as much milk through their nose – and especially not their mouth. The only ones that did this, had a cleft palate. The healthy babys may choke at some milk at the beginnig when they try to figure out the bottle – and may show a bit milk at their nose when doing so – but they never showed those problems. They were fine later,

These ones died more or less immediatly after I took them in – and that’s why I’m asking myself, if I did something wrong – or if I should do something different next time – as all of them showed milk at nose and mouth. The third one looked like it had spit our everything it drank earlier and the last one also had more than just a drop outside of nose and mouth. I only fed tiny amounts – ca. 1ml each feeding, to get them started, was that still too much? The previous owner said nothing about problems with feeding – and I used the same milk as them.

It seemed all aspirated milk because it came back out of their stomach (reflux).
I know reflux is not unusual in human preemies – but what’s with cats and is their a way to avoid that? (If that’s the reason for their problems at all). But if not why came the milk back up?

My 11 years old cat died yesterday after 12 hours in pain. She has been lethargic for about 1 month now, but I really thought that was a result of her aging. She was occasionally puking, mostly unprocessed food. Yesterday she started puking but just liquids, greenish and with some foam. She was really in pain and she started breathing with her mouth open and tongue out. We took her to the vet which told us that was probably a kidney failure and run some blood test on her. Then he sent us home with the cat telling us to come back the other day, he didn’t realize it was an emergency. We took her back home but the situation got worse. She puked more, the pain got worse she didn’t have any energy at all. So we rushed to the clinic again at 1 am. The vet did some x rays on her, and told us she had something near her stomach but he couldn’t tell what it was. It could have been anything from a tumor to a hairball. He thought it was best for her to stay overnight. She was in very bad conditions, he just injected some pain killers to her. She died three hours later. I feel so bad for letting her there. I just can’t believe she is gone like this. Another vet that saw the blood test and the x rays thinks it neither kidney failure nor tumor or hairball. I’m devastated. What could it possibly be that killed my cat?

I have a 5 year young border collie lab and she has these episodes where she starts licking/salivating, sometimes lip smacking occurs. Episodes last about 1-2 hours. Her heart rateia normal 69-80 bpm. Her breath doesn’t stink. I brush her teeth daily. Pupils are responsive (no epilepsy or seizures, she doesn’t lick the air just her mouth) She has had a general blood test done. Her kidney/liver function, electrolytes, thyroid, hormones, and her Red and White blood cell count were all normal. Test results were all normal.

Sometimes she’ll open her mouth and it’ll seem like she’s gasping for air. I asked my friend, who’s mother is a vet and she said she may just be having digestion issues but I don’t think that’s the case. I never really see her drink water. I have her caged with a male bearded dragon and he’s 100% completely healthy. Tonight she was in her cage and she didn’t look good at all and I had a bad feeling so I picked her up and usually when I pick her up, she’ll flail her arms and legs around for a second until I put her on my chest. She didn’t flail her feet around or arms and she seemed completely limp. She’s still breathing and I have her in bed with me now. Please help. I’m so worried. I’m 16 and I don’t have a lot of money so I can’t take her to the vet because I don’t have enough money. If anyone that answers this thinks it’s manditory for her to go to the vet, I will do my best to find a way to pay for her to be seen. Thank you.

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 :(.

I have a new Kitten that isn’t eating much. He is drinking. He was at the vet (Dr. Magnifico) on Sunday because he was sneezing. Just adopted him and his brother on Friday. Brother seems to be fine. He is taking an antibiotic twice a day. He has been opening his mouth a lot, kind of like his nose is clogged and he is breathing through his mouth. He comes to the food (wet) when I put it out but he hovers over it and licks it, but I don’t think he is eating it. What can I do? It is snowing here and I will probably not be able to get him to the vet today. Thanks,

Brady