Asthma video

If anyone is interested, there is a very good video that has just been
posted of Fritz "The Brave" having an asthma attack. I didn't know the
symptoms of asthma when Sam first presented. After about 1 1/2 weeks of
his coughing I took him to the vet and my description was "that he
looked like he was coughing up a hairball". He had swollen lymph nodes
and was raspy so my vet gave him a steroid shot and antibiotics and sent
him home with oral antibiotics. About a month later I took him in again
because he was still coughing and I thought he needed a second round of
steroids which is how we treated him. I never described his symptoms in
such a way that my vet recognized asthma and of course he never coughed
while he was at the office. It wasn't until I found him in the hallway,
unable to breath and rushed him to the ER vet that we learned he had asthma.

I don't know if I'd have recognized the symptoms if I had seen this
video, but I like to think I would have given a better description to my
vet. If you are interested in seeing a cat having an asthma attack it
can be seen at http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html which
is a web site devoted to feline asthma.

Julie

On Wed, 11 May 2005 16:12:43 -0400, Julie Cook
wrote:

If anyone is interested, there is a very good video that has just been
posted of Fritz "The Brave" having an asthma attack. I didn't know the
symptoms of asthma when Sam first presented. After about 1 1/2 weeks of
his coughing I took him to the vet and my description was "that he
looked like he was coughing up a hairball". He had swollen lymph nodes
and was raspy so my vet gave him a steroid shot and antibiotics and sent
him home with oral antibiotics. About a month later I took him in again
because he was still coughing and I thought he needed a second round of
steroids which is how we treated him. I never described his symptoms in
such a way that my vet recognized asthma and of course he never coughed
while he was at the office. It wasn't until I found him in the hallway,
unable to breath and rushed him to the ER vet that we learned he had asthma.

I don't know if I'd have recognized the symptoms if I had seen this
video, but I like to think I would have given a better description to my
vet. If you are interested in seeing a cat having an asthma attack it
can be seen at http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html which
is a web site devoted to feline asthma.

Thanks for posting the link. Just watching the video, I'd probably
just think it was a bad hairball. Something else to keep in mind if I
ever observe one of mine doing this.
--
Steve Touchstone,
faithful servant of Sammy and Little Bit

[remove Junk for email]
Home Page: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/index.html
Cat Pix: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/animals.html

Julie Cook wrote:

If you are interested in seeing a cat having an asthma attack it
can be seen at http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html which
is a web site devoted to feline asthma.


Nikki is crouched all the time while she is coughing, Fritz seems to sit
upright sometimes, but otherwise it's the same. I do know the difference
between an asthma attack and a hairball attack; it's subtle but
recognizable. I can hear the difference even from another room.

--
Marina, Frank, Nikki, and Mere
marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

"Julie Cook" wrote in message
...
If anyone is interested, there is a very good video that has just been
posted of Fritz "The Brave" having an asthma attack.

http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html

Julie, thanks for pointing this out. It will be helpful to many people who
have
undiagnosed asthmatic cats.

Julie Cook wrote:

I don't know if I'd have recognized the symptoms if I had seen this
video, but I like to think I would have given a better description to my
vet. If you are interested in seeing a cat having an asthma attack it
can be seen at http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html which
is a web site devoted to feline asthma.

OMG, poor, poor thing! It makes me want to reach out and hold him
close, if that doesn't make the attack worse. Sam is like that??

"Takayuki" wrote in message
...
Julie Cook wrote:

I don't know if I'd have recognized the symptoms if I had seen this
video, but I like to think I would have given a better description to my
vet. If you are interested in seeing a cat having an asthma attack it
can be seen at http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html which
is a web site devoted to feline asthma.

OMG, poor, poor thing! It makes me want to reach out and hold him
close, if that doesn't make the attack worse. Sam is like that??


My Cheeky is like that about every 4 months. I try to get her a shot
when I see the first cough, but sometimes I catch the attack first. It
is very scary. Last time she was running behind me, about to zip down
the stairs for breakfast and it just felled her. She hunched and coughed
and coughed, the tip of her little tongue sticking out. Usually I can hear
congestion in her purr when it is time to get a shot. You have to be
careful not to give them too many as there are side effects such
as diabetes. I want to get one of the albuterol masks for her.

Steve Touchstone wrote:
On Wed, 11 May 2005 16:12:43 -0400, Julie Cook
wrote:



Thanks for posting the link. Just watching the video, I'd probably
just think it was a bad hairball. Something else to keep in mind if I
ever observe one of mine doing this.

Hairball is exactly what I thought when Sam first began coughing. I hate
to admit that he was evicted from the bed on several occasions because I
didn't want to clean hairball from my sheets and mattress. After I
learned what was going on I was saddened to see Sam getting off the bed
by himself when he had an attack. He'd learned that he wasn't allowed to
cough on the bed. Things have improved since then and fortunately, Sam
hasn't had an attack since March.

Julie

Marina wrote:

Julie Cook wrote:

If you are interested in seeing a cat having an asthma attack it
can be seen at http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html which
is a web site devoted to feline asthma.


Nikki is crouched all the time while she is coughing, Fritz seems to sit
upright sometimes, but otherwise it's the same. I do know the difference
between an asthma attack and a hairball attack; it's subtle but
recognizable. I can hear the difference even from another room.


I don't remember Sam sitting up either. I think he crouches and extends
his neck more, but I think the sitting up would get more air to their
lungs than the crouching. Fortunately we haven't had an attack since the
first of March and even made it through the heavy pollen season in
Atlanta. When we went out of town this past weekend I had the vet give
Sam a low-dose steroid shot so that he could stay home rather than be
boarded and have his inhaled steroids. I'm keeping a close watch this
week to make sure it didn't do any harm but so far so good. They had
told me the last time I boarded him that he had cried and clawed at the
kennel the entire four days we were gone. I thought the stress of being
in a kennel away from home was more harmful than the low-dose shot would
be and the vet seemed to agree.

Hugs and snuggles to Frank, Nikki and Mere
Julie

Takayuki wrote:

Julie Cook wrote:


I don't know if I'd have recognized the symptoms if I had seen this
video, but I like to think I would have given a better description to my
vet. If you are interested in seeing a cat having an asthma attack it
can be seen at http://www.fritzthebrave.com/asthma/symptoms.html which
is a web site devoted to feline asthma.


OMG, poor, poor thing! It makes me want to reach out and hold him
close, if that doesn't make the attack worse. Sam is like that??


Yeah, Sam had several attacks like this a day several times a week
before I finally figured out what was going on. You're right, you want
to just hold them. Fortunately, I have the inhaled albuterol and can
give it to him and get pretty immediate relief now. Finding him in the
hallway barely breathing is not something I ever want to re-live.

Hugs and scritches to Betty
Julie

Mary wrote:


My Cheeky is like that about every 4 months. I try to get her a shot
when I see the first cough, but sometimes I catch the attack first. It
is very scary. Last time she was running behind me, about to zip down
the stairs for breakfast and it just felled her. She hunched and coughed
and coughed, the tip of her little tongue sticking out. Usually I can hear
congestion in her purr when it is time to get a shot. You have to be
careful not to give them too many as there are side effects such
as diabetes. I want to get one of the albuterol masks for her.


I can highly recommend the Aerokat mask and inhaled meds. We've been
attack free since the first of March and made it through the high pollen
season in Atlanta without an attack. There were a few days when Sam was
wheezy and he got a hit of albuterol just to make sure. Poor Cheeky,
give her scritches and hugs from me.

Julie