Hi Krista,

I discovered your YouTube videos yesterday and found your advice on cat care incredibly helpful. My wife and I are caring for our 18-year-old Birman cat, who is in stage 4 kidney disease with significant muscle loss. She’s also struggling with constipation and has other health issues, including high blood pressure and a heart murmur.

Currently, we’re feeding her a mix of wet food (chicken broth, chicken, pumpkin, and egg yolk), and providing SubCut fluids (50ml/day), along with the following supplements:

– Epakitin (0.5g/day)
– Pet-Tinic (2ml/day)
– Lactulose (3ml/day)
– Phos-Bind (0.2g/day)
– Potassium chloride (0.19g/day mixed in the broth – though we’re concerned she’s not getting the full amount since she’s unable to finish the broth).
– In addition, she’s on Amlodipine (0.25ml/day) to manage her high blood pressure.

Despite this, her weight has decreased significantly over the past year. She was once 3.3kg, but a year ago dropped to 2.5kg, and three weeks ago, it dropped again to 1.8kg, despite our best efforts to feed her.

A week ago, we had an enema done at the vet, which relieved some diarrhea, but there was still hardened stool near her anus. We’ve been massaging her abdomen and anus daily to stimulate defecation, and were able to help her pass a large, hard stool last Wednesday. Since then, she’s only passed small amounts of stool – mostly liquid or dark – and has had a lot of difficulty.

Today, we used a Pedia-Lax suppository (1ml), and after about 30 minutes, she passed a larger stool with dark liquid diarrhea. The stool was slightly hard, dark, and very smelly. She’s now very exhausted and resting, but did purr a bit before falling asleep.

For hydration, I gave her 10ml of SubCut fluids before the suppository to prevent dehydration. We’ve seen three different vets, but none have been able to provide lasting relief.

We’re reaching out for advice on whether we’re on the right track and if there’s anything else we can do to help her feel better and poop more easily. Any suggestions, given the circumstances, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time and any guidance you can offer.

Warm regards,

Joel and Sonia

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

My 10-yr old Tonkinese cat has a seroma on his throat from fighting with his brother (littermate), who bit him in the neck. This happened over a year ago. The vet did full test panel (no cancer), etc and drained it. It refilled within a week. I took him back to drain again, it refilled again. I did NOT want to repeat this cycle for fear of infection (not to mention cost). The seroma is still on his throat and I know bothers him, but does not affect his appetite. All the vet suggests is draining it again. He does eat more slowly than he used to, and doesn’t purr quite as much as he used to. I was hoping it would have shrunk by now, but it hasn’t. Any advice? I am extremely interested in holistic, alternative ideas, if possible. Thank you!

My father told once that animals, cats in particular, would become very affectionate, clingy, and purr loudly when the were seriously ill and death was imminent. Is that true? Those thoughts have always made loosing a pet difficult for me. The one time an animal desperately needs, and is communicating that to me I can’t help them even after they have spent their lifetime showing me unconditional love.

I have 2 siamese cats, they both accidently ate raw rancid beef on Fri morning. Since then haven’t eaten, not seen them drinking, looking and feeling sorry for themselves, vomiting and runs, will sit on my knee and quietly purr when petted.

So, we have a kitten about 4 to 5 months. We noticed that for the past couple of weeks, his stomach grows bigger and bigger. Now, his rear legs and tail are paralyzed. So, he walks with his two front legs and drags his rear legs. Also, he would always eat whenever we give him food. However, we noticed that he haven’t urinated or discharged. We would put him inside a box, so he could sleep. As he tries to sleep, his hands would shake every now and then. We also noticed that his heart beats fast sometimes, even when he’s sleepin’. And, he doesn’t have any voice when he speaks. I don’t know if it’s odd that he kneads and purrs, especially with his condition. So, today’s his 3rd day and nothing have changed. I tried lookin’ for any reasons behind his condition or what it’s called, but I couldn’t find any. We couldn’t bring him to the vet, especially because of the weather right now here. And, my Dad thinks it’s expensive and it would cost a lot of money if we bring him to the vet.

The skin on her muzzle under the fur seems pinker than normal, too. Also, her nose seems to itch (she rubs her nose area vigorously against my fingers, not just normal face rubbing) and gets a little dark crust around the edges. I noticed her nose running with a little clear discharge while I was petting her, but I read that it’s common for a cat’s nose to run when it purrs, so I didn’t think that was part of this. Her ears itch, as well. They don’t have an odor and I don’t see anything in them. Sometimes the fur on her chin will be discolored with a reddish/orangish tint and I noticed an area of dried liquid with a light tinge of brown around the border where she’d been sleeping this morning. Is this an allergy? I have more pictures I can post that show the crustiness on her nose and her upper lip from below.

Hi there!

My cat, Stella, is seeming to have a hard time passing a hairball. She will have a coughing fit and then lay down and moan and breathe loudly for about 10-45 minutes after her fit, purr and then go to sleep.

I’ve tried giving her hairball assistance treats but it hasn’t seemed to work. She just can’t seem to get the hairball out. Is there anything I can do to help her?

Thanks.