Muffin lives indoors. She is a normal very frisky young girl cat , but since the hot, humid, muggy weather of August, she has been less active and very wheezy. She now stops playing to cough. She arches her neck out to catch her breath. She literally can't breathe! Muffin's owners were preparing their home for sale: painting walls, cleaning floors and cabinets, deoderizing carpets. They had even put scented deoderizing crystals into each room to make things smell nice. Remember that a cats sense of smell is 14 times that of a humans. What may smell nice to us may be offensive or irritating to our cats! Remember too that our home is only part of our overall environment, but for our indoor cats, it is their ONLY environment.
Air quality affects the respiratory tract. Aerosol sprays should not be used unless the cat is put out of the room (including hairspray, deoderant, perfume) . Be aware of the cleaning products, paint fumes, scented cat litter, potpourris, plug-ins, carpet fresheners, spray cleaners, fabreeze-type sprays. Particulate matter (dust) comes from furnaces with dirty air filters, pollens and molds, wood stoves, dust-laden forced air vents, cigarette smoke.
Any and all of these items can cause your cat (and you) to cough, wheeze, have a runny sore nose, or irritated eyes. If you use these products often , your cat could even develop asthma symptoms: chronic coughing spells and shortness of breath, decreased energy, decreased appetite . If your cat is coughing, please contact your veterinarian.
This story has a happy ending! After removing all the scented products, cleaning smells and deoderizing crystals from the house, and airing it out well, Muffin is now back to her young frisky cat behavior. Now we can all take a deep breath....and hug the cat :) !
Dr. Maureen Flatley
Fox Valley Cat Clinic
Dr. Maureen Flatley
Fox Valley Cat Clinic
