Helping your cat with asthma

Ways to help your cat: Remove allergens from your home. Easier said than done, but you can try to increase your cleaning to a more frequent schedule than you currently do. This includes cleaning all of her favorite spots to lounge around. You want to make sure that you are removing as much from her environment as possible. Change her diet. Most diets for cats are full of fillers and preservatives and unhealthy meats that are cheap and put into all the mass-produced brands. Try to find food with less ingredients and stay away from anything with fish and chicken. Unless the chicken is from a free-range farm, most of the chicken we feed our animals (and ourselves) are so pumped full of chemicals that it causes allergies that wouldn’t exist if the cat had eaten the chicken ‘in nature”. Get an air purifier. Not only will this help your cat, but you as well. Many of us live in apartment complexes or shared houses that have toxins in the air coming in through the HVAC units. You may not smoke cigarettes or weed, but your neighbor could, and it can come into your home through cracks in the walls or through the vents. Even for people that own their own home, you can still have toxins coming in. Running an air purifier will reduce the frequency of attacks. When we don’t have ours on, Sabrina will have more attacks.

What to do when she is having an attack: Get her inhaler. If you have one and have been able to train her to use it, this is your best tool at giving her relief. If she won't allow you to put it on her face (Aerokat) you can just try puffing the inhaler in front of her so she will breathe in a little. Engage her. Sometimes you will be able to ward off a full blow attack if you distract her with her favorite toy. Although in order to do this, you have to catch it quick before it hits a critical point. Distract her with treats. Cats love treats, and if your cat has a favorite, you need to keep some around. Sometimes all she needs is the sound of that bag opening to pull her out of it. Keep track of the attacks. Have an ongoing log or google doc that you can add to every time the attacks happen. Documenting this can help to understand what could have caused it, and also to have a good reference if you go to the vet. If the attacks become more frequent, consider visiting the vet to see if there is anything that can be done.

What to not do: Don’t freak out. Your cat is scarred and getting emotional won't help. If anything, it can contribute to a worse attack, as it is theorized that extreme stress can bring on the attacks.