Asthma in cats: how to help your furry friend. Asthma in cats: symptoms, treatment

One of the most dangerous and difficult to treat chronic diseases– asthma in cats. Living with this disease is difficult for both the owner and the pet - constant attacks are exhausting, the cat gives up from powerlessness, the cat weakens, and loses interest in the world around it. The situation is aggravated by the fact that difficult, tedious and expensive treatment bronchial asthma in cats it comes down to trying to achieve remission, that is, it is almost impossible to get rid of the disease forever. But compliance with certain conditions allows you to return your pet to active life and minimize the manifestations of the disease.

As is the case with asthma in humans, bronchial asthma in cats is a subject of heated debate among doctors. This disease has been thoroughly studied, but the causes of asthma have not yet been fully elucidated. It is known that an asthma attack is a narrowing of the bronchi, the so-called bronchospasm, which makes breathing difficult. There is thickening of the walls of the bronchi, inflammatory process, stretching of the diaphragm, copious mucus formation, swelling of the mucous membrane.

It is believed that asthma in cats is always allergic nature, and attacks occur when the amount of allergen in the body reaches a certain concentration, which is individual for each pet. Symptoms of asthma in cats may include: varying degrees and with varying frequency, from daily attacks to deterioration of the condition several times a year. Without treatment, attacks occur more frequently and their severity increases.

Obstructive and allergic respiratory diseases, also known as asthma, bronchitis, or bronchial asthma, affect many cats. Unfortunately, these diseases are not always easy to classify as they represent different disorders respiratory tract.

If a cat's airways are sensitive to certain irritants, their exposure will lead to a narrowing of the airways. Irritants are usually irritants dispersed into the air or substances that cause an allergic reaction in the respiratory tract. Regardless of the reason, the end result will be the same: 1) muscle spasms in the bronchi, 2) increased mucus production, and 3) blockage of the airways by a variety of cellular elements. Failure to clear the bronchi of these elements makes the cat susceptible to secondary infections respiratory tract.

A cat with obstructive pulmonary disease experiences the greatest difficulty breathing during exhalation. The lungs can become a trap for air, causing them to swell. In some cases, this chronic expansion of the lungs can lead to the development of emphysema in cats.

Which cats are at highest risk of developing asthma?

Obstructive pulmonary disease is most common in cats between two and eight years of age. It is believed that siamese cats have slightly more high risk development of asthma and bronchitis. According to statistics, cats get asthma more often than cats. Overweight and obesity in cats also increase the risk of developing respiratory diseases.

What are the clinical signs of asthma and bronchitis?

Cough and difficulty breathing (shortness of breath, shortness of breath) open mouth etc.) are the most common symptoms obstructive pulmonary disease. Cough is the main symptom, but it can have many causes. Many cats squat and crane their necks during coughing attacks. Wheezing is easy to hear with a stethoscope, but sometimes it is so loud that even the owner can hear it. Sneezing and vomiting are also sometimes noted.

Any episode of open-mouth breathing should be assessed emergency, which you should report to your veterinarian as soon as possible.

What are the causes of asthma?

Asthma, as mentioned above, is characterized by hypersensitive airways. The small airways, bronchi or bronchioles, can respond to a number of stimuli:

Diagnosis may require a series of tests to determine allergic diseases lungs.

Tests for heartworm disease(heartworms) - depends on the geographic region in which the cat is experiencing difficulty breathing.

Tests for feline leukemia(VLK) and feline immunodeficiency virus- these tests are useful to determine general condition cat health. FLV and feline immunodeficiency virus are often associated with respiratory diseases.

Bronchoscopy, cytology or tracheal lavage- Bronchoscopy allows the veterinarian to examine the airways of a cat under anesthesia. After visual inspection respiratory tract, samples of the mucous lining of the bronchi can be obtained. These cells and mucus can be viewed under a microscope (cytology). Using tracheal lavage, not a large number of sterile saline solution can flush the airways and provide samples of material deep in the lungs. This material can be cultured and examined under a microscope.

In some cases, despite complete and thorough diagnostic examination, the root cause cannot be identified. But even without identifying the root cause of asthma, many cats can achieve an acceptable quality of life with appropriate medical care.

How to treat asthma?

For successful treatment For allergic lung diseases in cats, one or more of the following procedures are used:

Prevention- Any irritants that may cause or worsen breathing problems should be avoided. In some cases, this may mean that you should avoid certain litter trays, eliminate cigarette smoke from home, etc. It is important to pay close attention to factors environment which may aggravate or worsen the cat's condition

Bronchodilators- These medications are used to open up the airways and allow the cat to breathe more freely. They should only be used as prescribed by a veterinarian and as directed for maximum benefit.

Corticosteroids- a class of steroids that have beneficial influence to reduce inflammation, widen the airways and reduce mucus production. In many cases they are used on a daily basis. When your cat is feeling anxious, injections can be used as an alternative to tablets. These drugs have some possible side effects, and their use should not be stopped suddenly, without careful monitoring of blood and urine tests.

Urgent care for an asthmatic attack may require the use of bronchodilators, oxygen therapy, fast-acting glucocorticoids and adrenaline. If your cat has heart disease, your veterinarian should advise avoiding the use of epinephrine.

Will my cat be cured of asthma?

Obstructive pulmonary disease in cats is usually manageable, but rarely can be cured completely. Sometimes a "cure" can be achieved if the root cause of a disease has been identified and corrected. The goal of treatment is to reduce the severity and frequency of attacks and improve overall quality life of a cat.

There is an opinion among many people that cats do not get sick. However, these cute pets can suffer from a variety of diseases. It’s just that the symptoms of the disease in an animal do not appear as quickly as in people. Bronchial asthma in a cat is not such a rare phenomenon. Chronic condition respiratory system accompanied by constant attacks of difficult breathing. The provocateurs of the disease are asthmatic pathogens. Penetrating into the animal's body, they provoke the development allergic reaction. For pathogenic processes the immune system cats react by producing histamine, which has a painful effect on the bronchioles, inflaming them and narrowing the lumen. Symptoms and treatment of asthma in cats are the prerogative of a veterinarian.

The course of the disease may be aggravated by muscle spasms. Swelling of the epithelium also occurs, and a lot of mucus appears.

Causes of feline asthma

The provocateurs of asthma in cats are poorly studied, however, it is known for sure that main reason The disease is an allergic predisposition of the body.

Elderly cat and little kitty have an equal chance of developing bronchial asthma. The phenomenon may be seasonal, when exposure to allergens occurs in different time years under favorable conditions.

Stages of the disease

Domestic cats suffer from asthma in different ways. The condition of the animal depends on the frequency of attacks and the severity of symptoms. The development of asthma in cats occurs in several stages. If you don't take any therapeutic measures, the disease may become more complicated.

The mild stage is mild. It is accompanied by rare and short-term attacks. Asthma does not manifest itself at this stage severe symptoms, so it often goes unnoticed by the cat’s owner.

Average degree. Infrequent attacks of the disease are accompanied by somewhat severe symptoms. The cat's condition is deteriorating significantly.

Difficult stage. The cat suffers from choking attacks every day. The cat may lack oxygen.

An extreme stage that threatens the life of the cat. If the attack is not stopped, a pet may die during an exacerbation. The cat is experiencing serious oxygen starvation. His lips and the tip of his nose become bluish. Loss of consciousness occurs.

It is impossible to start the disease and wait for it to reach an extreme stage. The ongoing processes may be irreversible. The cat needs to be rescued at the first symptoms of asthma. You should immediately contact a veterinarian who will examine the animal and prescribe effective treatment.

Symptoms of feline asthma

Symptoms of asthma in cats appear much the same as other symptoms. respiratory diseases. Signs may be similar to bacterial and viral infection respiratory organs, heart problems, oncology, penetration of foreign bodies into the respiratory tract. A reliable diagnosis can only be made by a doctor after a thorough examination.

Asthmatic attacks differ in some ways. There is a pronounced periodicity that may look atypical for a seemingly healthy cat. Between attacks, painful symptoms are almost invisible.

The signs are expressed as follows:

• sudden suffocation due to a decrease in bronchial lumens and muscle spasms;
• unnatural posture of the animal - bent paws, lowered head, breathing with an open mouth;
• rapid wheezing, hacking cough in short periods of time;
• restless cat behavior;
• fatigue and lethargy of the pet.

To avoid worsening the situation, the owner is obliged to provide first aid to the cat. To do this, you should do the following::

• Calm the cat. To do this, use a homeopathic spray with flower essence. It has mild sedative properties. The product is applied to the inside of the ear.
• If there is a therapy prescribed by a doctor, it should be started immediately.
• You need to give your cat more fluids to loosen and remove accumulated mucus from the bronchi.
• If the animal’s condition remains unchanged, you should immediately contact a veterinarian or call veterinary help at home.

Diagnostics

Revealing asthmatic symptoms happens with the help differential methods diagnostics to accurately distinguish asthma from other diseases that have similar symptoms.

• An informative diagnostic method is radiography. It allows you to exclude the development of pneumonia and the presence of tumors. An x-ray will show swelling of the bronchi and a stretched diaphragm, which indicates the development of asthma.
• A general blood test also gives a comprehensive picture of the disease. High level eosinophils are a sign of asthma in cats.
• A laboratory method is used to examine the cat's body for helminths to exclude pulmonary infestations.
• The respiratory organs are inspected for foreign bodies.
• Confirm or refute infectious and bacterial damage to the upper ENT organs.
• With an erased form of the disease, x-rays may become ineffective. In such cases, additional laboratory diagnostics are used.

Treatment of asthma in a pet

Therapy for a sick cat should be based on drug treatment. In often situations, an animal has to be treated for its entire life. Treatments for cat asthma include the following medications::

• Glucocorticosteroids - used to relieve inflammation in the bronchi. Long-term use hormonal drugs negatively affects the condition of the cat’s blood vessels, kidneys and liver.
• Medicines for dilation of the bronchi containing salbutamol are used for quick disposal animal from seizures. The products are produced in the form of aerosols and are used as an inhaler for cats with asthma.
• The use of antibiotics is only appropriate when a bacterial infection develops in the respiratory tract.
• To maintain immunity, the cat is given vitamins.

Hormone therapy

Hormones are used in different forms. Treatment regimen and suitable drug determined by a veterinarian.

Tablets are prescribed to achieve a therapeutic effect in short time. They have a constant therapeutic effect on the cat’s body, so that during treatment, new asthma attacks in cats no longer appear.

Injections tend to accumulate in the body and produce maximum healing effect. Among the disadvantages of injections is the risk of developing adverse reactions.

Aerosols are delivered medicinal components straight into the bronchi. They act locally and do not affect other systems. Aerosol preparations begin to act after a few weeks. For greater effectiveness, a cat inhaler for asthma is combined with taking tablets.

Prevention

So that your beloved cat with asthma experiences less painful symptoms, the pet owner must follow some rules for keeping the animal.

Maintaining cleanliness is the main condition. Dust should not accumulate on surfaces. The house should be cleaned using hypoallergenic detergents. Household chemicals should be stored in tightly closed PET bottles. All rooms need to be thoroughly ventilated, humidify the air, and try not to smoke in the apartment.

Bronchial asthma in cats is the most commonly reported primary disease bronchi of this type of domestic animal. This syndrome is sometimes called - allergic bronchitis cats.

Causes of asthma in cats

The disease is believed to be of an allergic nature, however, it is rarely possible to determine the specific allergen.

There is also no reliable data on gender and breed predisposition cats to asthma, but some researchers note that the disease is more common in Siamese/Thai cats.

Symptoms of asthma in cats

The main symptom of bronchial asthma is sudden attack dry cough, maybe shortness of breath, and sometimes the cat stops playing or hunting. Mild case may be limited to random and short cough, while the more acute one causes open-mouth breathing and blue discoloration of the mucous membranes of the mouth and skin of the nose (cyanosis). Repeated attacks often occur. Additional sign asthma is an inflammation of the airways that is chronic. All clinical manifestations will be the result of restriction of air flow by excess mucus in the bronchi arising in connection with the disease, swelling and narrowing of the airways, contraction (constriction) of the smooth muscles of the bronchi. Therefore, a severe attack requires a quick visit to the clinic, where the doctor can use necessary drug or several types of medications to normalize breathing, otherwise the pet may die.

Diagnosis of asthma in cats

Although the cough is frequent and in some cases main feature diseases, but it is impossible to diagnose asthma in a cat based on a single visual examination, because sick cats may have normal physical state, and asymptomatic course between acute attacks airway obstruction, and similar signs with chronic bronchitis of another origin. Such Chronical bronchitis is also manifested by a cough, but its cause is not an allergy, but most often bronchopneumonia, bronchopulmonary neoplasia (neoplastic tumors), rarely heart failure (it has been established that a cough of cardiac origin is characteristic of dogs, but in practice our cardiologists see this sign in cats), and also marked individual cases dirofilariasis and the presence of lung helminths.

Of course, the doctor will conduct a clinical examination of the patient at the appointment, including auscultation chest, in which crepitus and wheezing may occur. But radiography and bronchoscopy are also used for diagnosis. On x-rays may be discovered characteristic changes just for asthmatic bronchitis, sometimes signs of atelectasis (collapse) of the lung lobe. During bronchoscopy, not only the examination of the respiratory tract is carried out, but also the collection of material (tracheobronchial secretion) for cytological examination, taking tracheobronchial swabs to exclude respiratory infections. Yes, of course, bronchoscopy is performed under anesthesia, but it allows you to most accurately diagnose and select the most suitable treatment. Cytology of secretions reveals a large number of eosinophils characteristic of asthma - a type of blood cell (the blood of a sick cat with clinical analysis may also show eosinophilia, but not in all cases, so this diagnostic method is inaccurate). The study of swabs in a laboratory is necessary to determine whether there is any infection in the patient’s respiratory tract; if a bacterial infection is detected, then the laboratory doctors will also titrate antibiotics that can cure it. But special meaning given to exclude the presence of mycoplasmas and herpesvirus (it also causes viral rhinotracheitis in cats), because There is an assumption by scientists that these microbes, even those at rest in the respiratory tract, can contribute to spontaneous bronchospasm in asthmatic patients.

Treatment of asthma in cats

Self-treatment of the pet by the owner before diagnosis is not used in the clinic. No home first aid for cases severe cough And heavy breathing. Cat owners should remember that the presence of the above signs may indicate possible asthma in your pet, and with it there is always an increased amount of mucus in the respiratory tract and therefore the use of mucolytic drugs is strictly limited ( various syrups for cough, etc. medications), when used, the mucus increases even more and cats begin to choke; even a veterinarian in such a difficult situation may not be able to help a sick animal.

But as soon as the diagnosis is made, the doctor will immediately prescribe treatment for bronchial asthma in cats. It is important for the owner to understand that with such a disease there will always be a presence in the respiratory tract. chronic inflammation, regardless of whether the cat exhibits any symptoms of asthma or not. Accordingly, treatment will be successful if it is aimed at relieving this inflammation in combination with reducing the manifestation of severe clinical signs- cough, shortness of breath, excessive breathing.

The doctor will determine how to treat asthma in cats, but it is also useful for owners to know general principles therapy. The priority means of treatment are steroid (hormonal) drugs in the form of injections, tablets or aerosols (the method of administration is determined by the doctor, based on the severity of the condition and the degree of development of the disease, and, importantly, the character of the patient), bronchodilators (drugs that dilate the bronchi) are also additionally used. . The use of a bronchodilator alone in cats, unlike in humans, does not stop an asthmatic attack and is not used as monotherapy in veterinary medicine. Prophylactic or very long-term use of antibiotics for asthma is not usually used unless confirmed chronic infection respiratory tract in a patient, especially mycoplasmosis. As an alternative hormonal drugs It is possible to use cyclosporine if the animal tolerates the required doses well (and cats tolerate it better than people) and the owner can afford it financially.

Forecast

The prognosis for asthma is usually favorable if timely application to the clinic, because oxygen and steroid drugs quickly restore the patient.

Preventing asthma in cats

Prevention measures are significantly limited, but it is useful to exclude obvious sources of allergens from the cat’s habitat, for example, the use of aerosols, spraying household chemicals, use of bulk washing powders, non-synthetic bedding and beds, eliminate the presence tobacco smoke etc.