Feline asthma is a common cause of cough and intermittent respiratory distress in cats that can be challenging to diagnose and treat. However, prognosis is generally good with the appropriate treatment. Feline asthma management can be separated into acute and chronic treatment strategies. Treating with bronchodilators can sometimes cause more harm than good.
Source: Veterinary Team Brief, September 2017.
Treatment is aimed at reducing aeroallergen exposure, reducing airway inflammation, and managing bronchoconstriction in cases that have concurrent expiratory respiratory distress. Take action recommendations:
- Identify an expiratory respiratory pattern early in dyspneic cats to confirm the presence of bronchoconstriction and to guide treatment with bronchodilators as quickly as possible.
- Be familiar with the novel therapeutics that have been investigated in experimental models of feline asthma and have been shown to be ineffective, as they should not be recommended as monotherapy.