A distraught cat lover has faced an upsetting ordeal when her cat Pumpkin began showing signs of abnormal breathing which left him at the emergency vet.
Taking to social media, Roxxie Taylor has warned fellow cat owners to act swiftly if they spot any signs of unusual breathing in their furry friend.
“If you ever see abdominal breathing on your cat where they are sucking in on their abdomen, go to the vet straight away. Do not hesitate,” she warned in a devastating TikTok video from the emergency vet clinic.
Roxxie shared her scary experience, saying: “I saw Pumpkin breathe in that way about an hour and a half ago, two hours ago, I don’t know, we’ve been here a while. And we were straight to the vets, and he’s now in critical condition. And they’ve even, they’ve even asked us if we want him to be resuscitated if anything happens.”
She further pressed the urgency of the situation: “So if you ever see breathing like in the next video in your cat, please go straight to the vets immediately.”
She went on to share a short clip, highlighting Pumpkin’s visibly strained breaths through his abdomen which had caused Roxxie to take him to the vet.
Doubling down on her dire plea, she penned in the video’s caption: “PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE, if you see your cat sucking in their abdomen hard, struggling to breathe, and particularly if they are open mouth breathing and coughing, go to a vet immediately.”
PetMD warns that while mild abdominal breathing in cats is not unusual during normal respiration, the use of their abdominal muscles to breathe could indicate laboured breathing.
This symptom should never be taken lightly, as it may point to serious health conditions, including asthma, heart issues, infections, physical trauma, or even cancer. Owners are urged to consult a vet promptly if they observe their cat struggling to breathe.
Updating her followers, Roxxie shared in a follow-up video the next day that she had eventually been able to collect her feline, Pumpkin, from the veterinary clinic, where the team had managed to get him out of immediate danger after considerable effort.
She detailed the intensive treatment Pumpkin received: “It took him hours to come down from critical to stable,” she said. “He’s had oxygen, diuretics, steroids – he’s had everything that he can have.”
Roxxie also mentioned transferring Pumpkin from the emergency veterinary service to their regular vet for further testing.
Urging pet owners to act quickly at the sign of trouble, she highlighted: “This is just a reminder, and I will put the video up again, if you see your cat abdominal breathing, take them to the vet immediately,” adding that Pumpkin’s prognosis remained uncertain.
Initially, it seemed Pumpkin’s scans indicated fluid in his lungs, but it turned out this was a misinterpretation. Rather than fluids around his heart or lungs, the actual discovery was an enlarged heart.
“He has hyper – HCM, I think it’s Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,” Roxxie clarified.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition causing the heart muscle to thicken, also referred to as hypertrophic, is the leading cardiac disease in felines, which can impede the heart’s ability to circulate blood efficiently.
“The prognosis is not great. He’s on medication now so he’ll be on blood thinners and diuretics for a little while,” Roxxy explained.
Roxxy further disclosed that Pumpkin might have only up to a year left, based on average survival rates.
“We may be lucky and we may have more,” she hoped. “They think that there was two things happening in the enlargement of the heart, the thickening of everything going on there, and they think also asthma on top of that.”
Concluding with an air of uncertainty, she confessed, “So I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t know how long we’ve got, so we’re just making him comfortable.”