Max +5 191 PANTING

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hollymayb

hollymayb

Member Since 2010
We've just brought Max back from the kitty hotel, where he was super happy & didn't want to come home. He was in the yellows all weekend, on the reduced dose of 1 u. He endured a long (1hr) car ride, mostly on highway, miaowing the whole way and panting. He does this every time he is in the car, even if it's a short trip, because he really really hates the car.

We've been home half an hour and he's still panting, and his breathing is fast & shallow. His mouth is continually open. He was not like this at the hotel, but a little in the car.

We've given him wet food cut down with cold water (in case it was the heat- which isn't too bad) and he ate it. We've checked his mouth/nose for blue, and he's pink. The pads of his feet are quite pink too.

Sean wants to go to the vet, I'm thinking the stress of another car ride could be bad for him. His BG was 191 15 minutes ago.

Please, advice!

Friday's Thread

Going to re-post in Health.
 
My kitty, Otis, does this too. Home from vet & has a stress attack. Water is good, since I have fluids I can give him 100 ml subQ. Usually, peace and quiet & on his terms, he settles down. Takes 3 -4 hours. Hardest thing for me is to quit bugging him.

This will bump your post & hopefully a vet tech or other expert will chime in soon.
 
the people around here who are vet techs always say that breathing distress is an emergency. If it seems like he is in distress, I would at least call the ER vet.
 
Hi,
Can't really give advice, but my Buddy did the same thing on car ride going to vet. He finally stopped in about 1/2 hr, when he cooled down. He seemed ok after all was done. Hopefully your baby will do the same.
Good luck
Jan and Buddy
 
Is he still panting? Sounds like he needs to cool down. Is there a cool floor he can lay on for a bit? If you take him for another car ride, to a vet, you can put ice pack coolers in his carrier with him, under a towel.
 
My cat was panting from being in the heat the other day. I had him come inside and he layed down next to an ice pack, for about 1/2 hour.
 
We called the ER vet, and they said they couldn't tell us anything over the phone, and that it was our decision whether or not to bring him in. I'm happy to take him in, but I don't want the stress from the driving/vet to make him worse. In other words, I don't want to take him 'just in case', I need to know that he NEEDS to go.

My husband has been brushing him to try to calm him down. He's still breathing pretty fast. Still mouth breathing.

He's lying down on the cool floor, and we have the AC & a fan going. It's about 80 F outside, maybe 70 inside so far. The car was ACd aswell, on the very cold side.
 
Been home for nearly an hour. He's just about stopped panting, though his breathing is still fast. Out of the woods?

Nevermind, he's started again.
 
How far away is your vet?
I'm not saying whether you should or shouldn't go, but whenever J.D. pants because of a car ride or heat, he has always stopped right away as soon as he was in the house and and/or cool.
 
The vet is 10 minutes away, and Max usually calms down within 15 minutes of being home. This time he was in the car for a little over an hour.

He's stopped panting within the last 5 minutes, but breathing is still fast.

I think we're going to monitor him, and I'll post if anything changes.

Thank-you all for your help & concern!
Holly & Sean
 
How's he doing Holly?
If he's doing better, could you edit your first post and take the 911 off?
 
FWIW for future problems like this. Tom did this last summer for no reason that I could find. True it was hot out and he came indoors laid down and began panting with tongue hanging out of mouth. I of course completely freaked as I'd never seen him do that before. heavy breathing. jojo had me look at his nails to see if he'd been hit by a car, no. look at his gums to see if they were turning blue, no. surrounded him with ice packs for 1/2 hour before he slowed down. off and on for an hour. Never happened again. Don't know what it was.
Someone suggested he was out chasing birds in 90 degree heat with his fur coat on.
Just saying this sort of thing might not be terribly uncommon.
Stress, Heat, Excitement or even a slight case of asthma attack.
 
Sorry it took so long to come back!

Max is doing much better. Everything's back to normal as far as we can tell. We tried piling cold packs in pillow cases around him to cool off, but he wasn't interested. He seemed to just want to be left along, so we let him crawl into a quiet place and calm down. Took a few hours for the breathing to get back to normal, but the panting was done after about an hour.

Thank-you all so much for being there. We were totally freaked out, and having you share your advice & experience went a long way.

Again, sorry to leave you hanging for so long!
Holly
 
Hi HOlly

I'm glad to hear he's feeling better. I have to say, though, that it's not normal for a stressed out cat to pant for an hour after the event and have increased breathing rate and effort for hours afterward. A stressed out cat who is otherwise normal should recover more quickly. You should and discuss with your vet screening him for respiratory and heart disease at yoru next visit, and keep an eye out for symptoms at home.
 
Please don't minimize this experience. I agree with Jess and, in fact, I'd encourage you to call your vet or get Max in for an appt. sooner rather than later.
 
I hope Max is ok. Once I took a cat now GA to a specialist 1.5 hours away. It was a long day and on the way back he was panting and felt hot so I made a quick stop on the way home at his vet. They checked his temp and he had a fever from the car ride and stress of the specialist appt. So I agree it is better to have Max checked.
 
Thanks Everyone,

I'll do some reading about heart & respiratory problems in cats so that I know what to ask when we see the vet. Your concern & advice is very much appreciated!
 
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