Need some help with my cat.

My cat over this weekend developed some wheezng sounds when he breaths. Vets not open untl monday and I'm worried sick. I've had this cat since I was little. He's about 10 years old, and has always been a very healthy cat. I must admit he is an indoor cat that hasn't seen the vet in a very long time. It almost seems as if he has a really bad hair ball that is making him wheeze. If he starts to purr loudly he gets choked up and trys to spit something out but he isn't able to get anything out. Got him some science diet food to help with the hairballs and some paste to mix with his dry food that is supposed to help break down the hairballs. Any of you have any experience with something like this. I'm freaking out a little cause I've had this cat forever, I'm planning on taking him to the vet on Monday. Anyone have any soothing words?

My cat does this too! I don't know what it is but he has been in for a check-up and the vet didn't say anything but I'm not sure. Now you've got me worried!! Let me know how it goes.

What got me worried was the fact that a hairball can get quite large in a cat and cause impaction. In some cases surgery is needed to remove the hairball. My cat isn't doing the wheezing once and a while is constantly, like he has something stuck somewhere. Ahhhh I just don't know, just happy I have a really good vet nearby.

It could be many things, from serious to not.
It is possible he has a upper respitory infection. He could have the old hairball problem. Could have something stuck in his throat. Could have a mild cough from allergies or dust. Might have a dustbunny stuck in his throat from hunting under furniture.
The best thing I CAN tell you, Cats that eat and drink, pee in the litterbox, generally are not on death's door. Relax, pamper and wait for the vet appointment(unless he gets worse of course).
*All of the above information/advice/opinion are only opinions held by the poster and not to be taken by any readers as official vet advice. Contents are measured by weight, not volumne, and some settling may have occured during shipping.
Wolfy

Thanks,

He scarfed down some food before although he made an array of noises I've never heard from him before. Drank some water and is now resting on the couch.

Again thanks

You can try giving straight Nutrical ( without mixing it into the food) and see if that helps but as mentioned it could be anything. My older cat 13 years now has been indoor and healthy since a kitten and she developed asthma 2 years ago. Another old boy I have here lived with my cousin for a long time who is a chain smoker ( the kind that never opened a freaking window in her life either) and after she dumped him on me when moving he developed a lung condition from the smoke. :mad:
I hope its nothing serious. I had a rescue here that managed to find a lose string from a blanket and thought it would be fun to chew until it started unraveling and getting longer and longer and she started choking on it. I pulled a foot of string from her throat!
Good luck and let us know what happens! :(

So I took hercules to the vet yesterday, where he completely stopped making the wheezing noise, and got some blood work done. It turns out kitty has diabetes and I'll be going there thurs to learn how to give the injection. This is all costing me a fortune right now but what else can you really do. Anyone else have a diabetic cat?

I know there are quite a few online support groups for diabetic felines. Good luck with him.

My cat Cato was diagnosed with diabetes last spring...I decided to not start an insulin program because I just couldn't bring myself to stab him twice a day for the rest of his life and live with the ups and downs balancing his blood sugar.

I decided in September that I couldn't bear to see him suffer any longer and put him down after sharing 12 and half wonderful years with him.

It's a hard decision and completely up to you...I know exactly how hard it is, especially having had him around for so long. :(

*big hugs*

I've worked with lots of diabetic cats, and it's honestly not that hard to manage, once you get them regulated. The regulation period is awful though...lots of blood tests and incremental adjustments to the insulin dosing. The needles for the injections are very tiny, and most cats don't even notice, include the horrid vicious ones who'd just as soon bite you on principal.

Very mild diabetes can sometimes be regulated with diet alone, usually Science Diet m/d which is a high-protein, low-carb diet. In any diabetic cat, feeding m/d can help reduce the insulin dose needed.

For monitoring, get a human glucometer, and get your vet to show you how to check the glucose at home. You can make a small wound on the ear and then just pick the scab (not as gross as it sounds) to get a tiny drop for the test. It's a very minor thing, once you know how to do it. Being able to monitor him at home will save you a lot of headaches and money trying to figure out if he needs to be taken to the vet or not.

A couple things to be aware of...you can get transient diabetes in cats secondary to some other stressor, usually a hidden disease process such as pancreatitis. Once that process is resolved, diabetes disappears. Also, in some cats the diabetes will spontaneously resolve for no apparent reason (mine did after two months).

And finally, diabetes in cats is nearly always secondary to obesity. Skinny cats just don't get it. Has to do with how the pancreas responds to fat deposition or something like that. Get the weight off and often the diabetes improves. And those of you reading this with fat cats who are not diabetic, consider this a very strong reason why you should be putting them on diets. If you can't feel the ribs with minimal pressure, you've got an overweight animal.

I really should change my signature because he lost a lot of weight since we cut back his wet food intake. But I'm sure thats probably what led to this, he was always very healthy until then. Is there any other way to treat this or is it either A) I do the insulin or B)I put the cat to sleep....this is all killing me, just spent the last twenty minutes holding him while he purred and crying like a baby. This is so hard, he's such a good mush of a cat; but with work and school I don't know if I would be able to commit or afford it. Oh man...

As I said before, a small percentage do well on m/d diet alone. At the minimum, start him on that right now and then work on getting the insulin regulated. A human glucometer will allow you to do a glucose curve at home, saving you money at the vet's. A glucose curve is where you take a reading right before you give the morning insulin, and then every two hours after that to see the highs and lows in his sugar cycle over the next 12 hours. You need that to be able to adjust his insulin accordingly.

It sounds complicated, but it's not that hard...just takes a while to find the right dose for them sometimes. If you'd like, we can talk on the phone about it.

If he's lost a lot of weight recently, it could be due to the diabetes kicking in...they stop being able to metabolize appropriately.

How often do you have to do glucose curves? I appreciate your offer with the phone but I'm in no shape to talk right now. Chronic sinus + crying=major face congestion issues. If you were me going to the vet what kind of questions would you be asking.

The problem is that a lot of it depends on variables...how well he responds, how long it takes get him regulated, etc. Sometimes they can swing back and forth for weeks before you find a good balance. Too little insulin doesn't produce enough effect, and too much can send them into a hypoglycemic coma.

I would definitely want to see a curve done within a few weeks of starting the insulin. That curve will tell you whether you need to adjust the dose up or down. A cat is typically considered regulated if you can keep the blood glucose levels around 200, meaning that in the course of the day it may swing between 150 and 250. Over 300 and you're definitely not giving enough, under 100 and it means the dose is too high.

Unfortunately, it's pretty much impossible to predict how a cat will respond to treatment...each case is different.

I would ask your vet what the odds are that this is transient diabetes secondary to pancreatitis (ask if they've checked amylase and lipase levels on the blood, if not this should be done), and I would get them to show you how to use a glucometer to monitor the blood glucose at home so you can check it yourself. It's definitely frustrating to regulate but it's very doable given time and money.

Well I had an appointment tomorrow to learn how to do the insulin injections but after a lot of thought and some tears I faced the facts. I realized that work and school were not going to allow me to have the commitment I needed to do this treatment. For the time being he's going on prescribed m/d cat food and in four weeks I'm going back in to check his blood levels to see how the diet has affected him. Buying my first round of food at the vet but I hope to find it on the net for less. If anyone knows any good sites let me know. I appreciate all the information and support everyone has given me. Cassandra thank you for sharing that experience it really helped me.