Sick cat - please please help!

[Godofwar]

I am an anxious cat owner (and Mother but that’s another story!) My cat means the world to us all.

She was hacking and coughing away Tuesday night and sure enough was sick half an hour later as she is from time to time. Ever since then she has been periodically retching, mostly dryly although was sick again last night. She also is making such a strange noise, I can only describe it as a hiccup/sneeze/cough. She does this periodically and sometimes dry gags afterwards.

I had her at the vet this morning. I was worried there was something in her throat. Vet says no. Says her tummy isn’t in pain but she is slightly tender around her throat. Suggested she may have grazed her throat with the retching on Tuesday and gave her an anti inflammatory and anti nausea jab. I’ve to phone tomorrow to update her.

She was fine for a bit when we got home but has started making the noise again from time to time and the odd dry heave.

She is acting perfectly normally, eating perfectly normally and doing the toilet perfectly normally. It’s just this noise. Please please help. I just want her to be ok and I’m here on my own constantly listening for the noise!!!

Mine does that and it's asthma. A course of prednisone, a steroid and cheap too, usually clears it up. It does stoke her appetite though!

Could she have a blade of grass stuck in her windpipe or nasal passages? I know of someone who's cat this happened to. Lots of expensive vets visits that didn't resolve it, until it came out of its own accord!

Thanks so much for your replies so far. I’m working myself into a frenzy here!

I hadn’t thought of asthma 🤔 I would assume that would require another trio to the vets to rule that out.

I had heard of cats getting grass stuck, I just don’t know how I would be able to check. The vet checked her throat and under her tongue and said it was clear.

Hoping someone else might weigh in. It’s been a looooong afternoon

My cat does this weird wheezing, coughing thing. Can you search for cat asthma attack on YouTube? There are lots of videos of cats having asthma attacks and it's exactly what my cat does. See if it's that..
If not, could he be trying to get a furball up?

One of mine used to do this almost daily. I was absolutely convinced it was asthma. But a vet saw a video and said it wasn't. Bizarrely it just stopped one day.,

Are you sure it's not hairballs?

Like a pp suggested, possibly a blade of sharp grass stuck in her palette or nose? Mine has done this (twice🙄) and both times needed it to be surgically removed...

How is she this morning?

Aww thanks so much for asking! I’ve just left the vet and they are keeping her in for an X-ray. Suspected asthma but going to double check her nasal passages and throat for anything. Fingers crossed. Unfortunately alone again all day so must keep busy! 😭

Oh bless her. Do let us know how she is. They’re such a worry aren’t they!

Such a worry, just like another child to me. I still have heard nothing and am catastrophising! I’m going to have to phone soon to see what’s going on. I’m scared though. Thanks for checking on me

Really hope she’s ok and the only reason you haven’t heard is she’s having a nice sleep after the x-Ray.

My cat was doing this recently, they did an endoscopy to check no grass stuck, turns out the roof of his mouth and inside his nose was very sore, looked like a wound. They reckon a sharp bit of grass got stuck and caused damage on the way out. Anti inflammatory and antibiotics sorted it for him.
Hope your cat is OK.

She’s home. It was a different vet from this morning. She completely bombarded me with information and options and I really felt quite overwhelmed and panicky.

She said there is nothing serious but her throat was quite swollen. When I asked what caused this she said it could be anything - even inflammation 🤷‍♀️ which I wasn’t sure what she meant. She doesn’t have asthma. She suggested a short course of steroids to see if that would help. I’ve to take her back tomorrow for a jab.

I’d mentioned to the previous vet that yesterday morning she had a bit of red blood in her poo which I showed her a picture of (gross I know!) and she said it’s normal when stressed but this new vet made a bigger deal of it and I’m so completely stressed.

Shes hiding under a bed now so I can’t even see how she is! 😭

Try to relax tonight (easy to say I know). At least it’s nothing serious. Take her for her jab tomorrow. The steroids make such a difference (my old boy is on them for life and it’s made him a lot happier, if a bit circular).
Try not to worry about the information barrage and focus on the good news.
Argh, I’m probably not making sense but trying to be reassuring. She’s home now, it’s not serious and she’s probably so grateful to be home.

Oh my god thank you so so much. You don’t know how much I appreciate your kind words. My husband works away and my parents are on holiday and I have no one to talk to so honestly thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have made such a difference today

Sounds like anxiety to me. Yours, not the cats

Unless your vet is somehow completely incompetent, you probably need to relax because all this is doing right now is costing you money

I do indeed have anxiety, I have therapy every week and have done for three years now.

I’ve just had a bad day

Give your beautiful girl a snuggle or a stroke if that’s all she’s happy with and listen to her purring and relax. It’s all good xxx

My cat has scraped his throat getting a hairball out the blood and drama he caused was immense it was covid too so I couldn't go in the vets with him they said he would be fine I gave him some chill out meds (zyclene) and hairball treatment to push it out the other end (because he was STILL trying to get a hairball out) the following day I had hair poo and although he was raspy for a day or two he was fine eventually

Aww thanks for that. I’m just going to focus on the positive for now and see what tomorrow brings! And have a glass of wine for dinner!

Don’t worry, we all act like this when they’re ill.

Not a cat owner so could be irrelevant but my dog sometimes makes strange worrying noises that turned out to be “reverse sneezing” nothing to worry about just means its a sneeze which isn’t harmful in anyway but goes up their nose rather than down it sounds horrific but is nothing to worry about, hope all is ok x

Just googled it and cats can have the same video with noise on the attached:
https://pethelpful.com/cats/Reverse-Sneezing-in-Cats-Causes-and-Treatment