[RachelsaurusRexU]

My most precious little princess, Meatball, has what I'm almost positive is feline asthma. At first, I thought she was trying to cough up hairballs and didn't think much of it. However, after seeing her have these episodes a few times, I realized that no actual hairball was ever produced. I googled and came across videos of cats having asthma attacks, and it's identical to what my poor baby cat goes through. Last night, she woke us up in the wee hours yowling like she was panic-stricken. We put her in the bed with us and she proceeded to have an attack. It was worse than previous ones, but not severe. All I could do was scratch and pet her to keep her calm until it was over. As soon as it was, she started purring, laid down and fell asleep on my pillow.

I called the vet first thing this morning and they're seeing her at 4:00 tomorrow. Thing is, it's a holistic vet. I decided to start with this route because I'd like to avoid steroids and all that if at all possible. If I'm not satisfied with this vet's treatment, I'll bring her to my conventional vet. So the question is, has anyone seen a holistic vet for asthma? What did treatment consist of and was it successful?

 

[Arianwen]

My Shadow lived to a reasonable age (about 13 which is younger than the average with my lot but still not bad) and was asthmatic enough for the vet to feel that neutering wasn't a good idea because of the anaesthetic. We largely managed to avoid steroids with herbs and other treatments.

 

[RachelsaurusRexU]

That is fantastic to hear! What specifically did you use? What worked and didn't work for Shadow?

 

[rightsaidfed]

I have the same issue with my kitten. I see it happen maybe once a week or so. My vet didn't seem overly concerned and didn't want to put him on steroids. She said the videos I showed him of my kitten weren't too bad (they seemed horrible to me!) and that if they get worse she could prescribe basically an inhaler like for people asthma.

I'll be very interested to hear what kind of natural remedies you found are available.

 

[Arianwen]

That is fantastic to hear! What specifically did you use? What worked and didn't work for Shadow?

Somewhere I have notes on what worked best for him - I'll look for them and pass the basics on.

 

[Arianwen]

Please before trying any of this, speak to your vet. I don't know what treatmetn your cat is currently on and things can clash.

Shadow didn't have the classic cough but had breathing problems that were diagnosed as asthma. This started when he was quite young. The first bit of this is general, what I would try with any cat with this problem - after that it is more what worked for him rather than general.

When he was having a bad time with it, he could always breath better if the air was warm and steamy so we would boil water and added herbs to the hot water for their smell to enter the air. I don't ahve any idea which of these will be easily available over with you so I hope this is still of some use. The ones that worked best with him were mullein, coltsfoot and cowslip. Proper liquorice sticks added to the boiling water could also help.

We would also finely chop small quantities of herbs and add to his feed. Mullein and dandelion were the two basics. I know the family is regarded as bad for cats but tiny bits of garlic also helped. Very occasionally, we would add a sall pinch of ginger well mixed in.

Primarily he and the two other cats we had at the time chose to toilet outside but we also had to be careful which litter was in the house.

 

[RachelsaurusRexU]

Thank you very much for looking up that info! I came back to update and I hadn't seen your reply until now.

It's been about a week and a half since Meatball saw the holistic vet. He prescribed the herb Ephedra, and it has worked beautifully. She hasn't had an attack since, nor has she had any noticeable side effects. Now we're playing with her dosage to find the smallest effective dosage for her. I know this herb is banned by the FDA, so many holistic vets might not have access to it, but I'm glad that mine did.