CAT COUGHS AFTER DRINKING

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CAT COUGHS AFTER DRINKING

by Vanessa
(Arizona)

Boo!!

After drinking water my cat (Boo) does the old hunch and heave thing like bringing up a hairball. She is eating..drinking..urinating.. and playing normally BUT..she dry heaves for about 15 seconds after EVERY drink. How weird is that? :) I have been a cat owner for over 50 years and have never seen this before. She is a long haired calico and 3 years old. One intentional litter (I kept the two kittens, both neutered) and now spayed. Boo lives in the dry, high deserts of Arizona. She sheds like crazy this time of year but never really brings up hairballs. Though occationally. She is a bit on the thin side but always was...very tiny delicately bones sweetie pie. Any help?

Thank you for being here for us cat people.
Vanessa
Arizona

P.S. Boo's son meows nearly every waking second? wanders around meowing LOUDLY and has since a kitten. Total chatter box. We do love this ..MOST..of the time. Not all night, but it's part of his personality.
Any reason Spike does this? We never considered there might be a reason other than personality.

Again. thank you

Hi, Vanessa,

I actually have seen this before, but never really found anything wrong and it had no negative consequences for the cat.

It could be hair that's irritating the throat/esophogus. It could be the way she drinks -- maybe she drinks too quickly or has a peculiar way of swallowing.

If this is not new -- if she has been doing this her whole life or even for the last year or so-- and she doesn't do this when she eats, I wouldn't worry.

If this is a brand-new behavior, a vet check-up would be in order.

As far as Spike's talking goes, that's just personality/genes. Could either of his parents have had any Siamese ancestors? Even if not, some cats are talkers and others aren't.

Thank you for writing and thank you for the great picture. I love it when cat owners send pictures with their emails. Boo is pretty and looks very intelligent.

I'd like to remind you and all my readers that you can always send pictures even if you don't need to write a letter. Just upload them in a question form and offer a little information about them if you would.

Thank you.
Dr. Neely

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CAT COUGHS AFTER DRINKING

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Jan 03, 2009

BOO.....Two
by: Kris

Hello. Just having a quick look for info on this subject and your site came up 2nd on Google search. To my surprise (Boo) and my cat Boo, have the same problem. He is a 3 or 4 year old short haired male I adopted from the SPCA a few years ago. Nice to know that this seems to be a common problem and hopefully it means nothing.He dry heaves 90% of the time for 10 or so seconds after drinking but no hair balls or throw up as well? Thanks for the info. and BOO says hi!

Kris in Vancouver

Apr 24, 2009

we have a coughing kitty too
by: Anonymous

Our one year old boy kitty, Meatball, has the same behavior. He loves to drink water (at the faucet, his water bowl, the shower after we get out, etc) but any time he takes a long drink (a few times per day) he's guaranteed to spend 10-15 seconds doing a little hunched over coughing, which sounds almost like he's doing a hair-ball dry heave. He is very healthy, basically never has actually coughed up a hair ball. His litter mate, Rosie seems far less interested in water and never coughs after drinking.

Tonight my boyfriend gave him a little faucet time in the kitchen while the house was quiet and noticed up close that his breathing sounded a little gurgly/bubbly after he finished drinking, but before he started coughing.

We hope this just has to do with the rapid pace at which he drinks/swallows and he's getting a little water down the wrong pipe. He's always pretty rambunctious - including right after his coughing fits, if something fun is going on at home.

We hope this is nothing to be concerned about!

May 04, 2009

Gabe does this too
by: Anonymous

My 20# 'hunka hunka burnin' love', Gabe does this also. He drinks, almost exclusively, from the tub faucet and afterwards heaves for a few seconds and then we hear a 'rattle' in his throat when he breathes. It goes away after a minute or so. We also noticed that if he has to wait for food (the bowl is usually kept full for the 3 cats) and then gets to eat he throws up most of it shortly after.

Drinking from a faucet or drinking in any other unusual position could be causing these cats to aspirate a bit of water into their trachea(otherwise known as "down the wrong pipe".) Sounds like they are both healthy, however.

Dr. Neely

Oct 16, 2009

Heaving after Water
by: Julie Robel

My cat does this weird heaving thing after he drinks water too, except he only drinks from his bowl. He has very gurgly purr and cough also. This only started happening immediately after he got fixed which is very strangs. He doesn't vomit and his stool and urine is normal. Any suggestions?

Dec 03, 2009

coughing cat
by: Anonymous

Has anyone noticed all responses have come from male cat owners. My male cat too does the dry heavy thing after drinking from the faucet, every time and for 10 to 15 secs then it is gone. I am going to investigate this fruther. If I can find this page again I will let you all know what I find out.

Drinking from a faucet or drinking in any other unusual position could be causing these cats to aspirate a bit of water into their trachea(otherwise known as "down the wrong pipe".) Sounds like they are both healthy, however.

Dr. Neely

Dec 05, 2009

Coughing After Drinking Water
by: Anonymous

My male Maine Coon has coughed after drinking water since I got him at 8 weeks old (he is a little over 5 months now). The vet couldn't find anything wrong with him. He does the "hairball stance" while coughing, but nothing ever comes of it, and then he is back to normal.

Dec 12, 2009

coughing cat
by: dave

The three month old female kitten we just got my daughter from the humane society was perfect until she drank water,she started in like a hairball was coming,she was fixed less than a week ago,only difference is this cat is female.Sounds like a common thing,I'm glad I found this article.

Mar 11, 2010

My sphynx coughs too.
by: Tara

I have a male sphynx that is now 9 months old. He does the same thing after he eats or drinks. I know it's not hairballs because he doesn't have any hair! I've been worrying lately and have been thinking about taking him to the vet. I read that although it is rare in cats, that it can be an infection in the esophogus or larynx. I also read something about tracheal collapse. Do you think this could be it????

Those are both real problems pets can have, but I doubt that they find that in your cat. However, of course, you should take your kitty to the vet for a complete exam. I cannot give you a definite answer since I can't examine your cat. Hopefully, it's nothing, but it's better to find out and treat anything early than to wait and wish you hadn't.

Thanks for writing. Let us know what you find out.

Best,
Dr. Neely

Apr 21, 2010

My two year old cat does this too
by: River

My two year old Male DSH tabby does this too and has since I got him. This behavior led me to take him to the vet at 4 months and it turned out he had pneumonia. After a long year of tests and meds, he finally had two lung lobes removed and they found that he had a collapsed airway - birth defect that was causing the pneumonia to keep coming back.

Six months post surgery, River is healthy and happy but still doing the hairball like cough after drinking water - he drinks out of a drinkwell. I'm hoping after reading all these posts that the two incidents are separate. Thank you for the great info!

May 11, 2010

Glad my boy's not the only one!
by: Jody

My boy Randy is almost 4 years old and has been hacking after drinking water since i first got him as a kitten at 9 weeks old. He's pretty spoiled and will only drink running water from the bathtub faucet. He will drink, hack and cough, go back for more, and repeat. I guess he's gotten used to his condition!

Like I said i'm glad this appears to be somewhat normal!

Jun 08, 2010

Female cat with same problem
by: Maggie

My abyssinian girl does this as well and has since I got her, but I think I know what caused it. She was fine until she was spayed and within a day or so quickly developed an "upper respiratory infection". The breeder was certain she did not have a URI because it was completely different than any URI she'd ever seen in her cats. Since she has continued to have the terrible coughing/gurgling after drinking each time, I truly believe there was some damage done to her trachea/epiglottis from the tube used in surgery. Sure, it could be a genetic defect as well, but the fact that a few others here noticed it after their cats were spayed, reaffirms my suspicion that this is a minor surgery complication.

In addition to her coughing/gurgling, she had an x-ray done when she was about 9 months old and it showed some very mild inflammation. Not so much that my vet thought it was asthma, but it could be heading that way eventually. I can't help but worry that the more she aspirates, the worse her lungs might be getting from this. I worry about that now because the gurgling seems to be getting worse over the last year, even though she shows no signs of discomfort or illness. To further my worry, she has also had problems in the last month or so with losing her voice. I'm hopeful this is simply from allergies (she's now on an antihistamine and it seems to help a bit), but I can't help but think they might be related. I just don't want this to further develop into something more serious down the road. In the meantime, I'm just keeping a very close eye on her.

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Jun 08, 2010
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Submitted by: Maggie

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My abyssinian girl does this as well and has since I got her, but I think I know what caused it. She was fine until she was spayed and within a day or so quickly developed an "upper respiratory infection". The breeder was certain she did not have a URI because it was completely different than any URI she'd ever seen in her cats. Since she has continued to have the terrible coughing/gurgling after drinking each time, I truly believe there was some damage done to her trachea/epiglottis from the tube used in surgery. Sure, it could be a genetic defect as well, but the fact that a few others here noticed it after their cats were spayed, reaffirms my suspicion that this is a minor surgery complication. In addition to her coughing/gurgling, she had an x-ray done when she was about 9 months old and it showed some very mild inflammation. Not so much that my vet thought it was asthma, but it could be heading that way eventually. I can't help but worry that the more she aspirates, the worse her lungs might be getting from this. I worry about that now because the gurgling seems to be getting worse over the last year, even though she shows no signs of discomfort or illness. To further my worry, she has also had problems in the last month or so with losing her voice. I'm hopeful this is simply from allergies (she's now on an antihistamine and it seems to help a bit), but I can't help but think they might be related. I just don't want this to further develop into something more serious down the road. In the meantime, I'm just keeping a very close eye on her.

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Jun 09, 2010

Pumpkin Puree
by: Julie

I gave my cat pumpkin puree for a couple days, which he loved and he has now quit the coughing... my vet thought it may have had something to do with a hair ball or something he couldn't digest... Our cat hasn't done it since so you may want to try it.

Jun 20, 2010

same issue
by: Vanessa

weirdly enough my cat ringo looks exactly like boo and has the same issue. maybe it's just a vanessa's longhaired cat problem? : )

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CAT COUGHS AFTER DRINKING

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CAT COUGHS AFTER DRINKING