by Vanessa
(Arizona)

Boo!!

Question About Coughing Cat

After drinking water,my cat (Boo) does the old hunch and heave thing like bringing up a cat 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. My cat, Boo, is a long haired calico and 3 years old. She had one intentional cat litter (I kept the two kittens, both neutered) and is now spayed.

Boo lives in the dry, high deserts of Arizona. She sheds like crazy this time of year but never really brings up cat hairballs. She is a bit on the thin side, but always was a very tiny cat with delicate bones. My sweetie pie. Any help?


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



P.S. My cat Boo's son meows nearly every waking second. He 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 cat 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 cat hair that's irritating the throat/esophogus. It could be the way your cat 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. She sounds like a healthy cat.

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

As far as your cat Spike's talking goes, that's just personality/genes. Could either of his cat 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 cat 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 of your cat 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