Do Cats Cough?
📝 Summary
Cats do cough, though far less often than people — and when they do it usually points to a problem. Causes range from stress and allergies to colds, bronchitis, hairballs, or feline asthma, and because a coughing fit looks a lot like gagging, a lowered head and stretched neck is the tell-tale posture. Pin down the cause before treating, and see a vet if it persists.
1 Why Cats Cough
Cats cough for many reasons. Environmental or food stress and allergies can trigger it, as can illness — a cold, feline bronchitis, or pharyngitis — and hairballs are another common cause. Read the cough against your cat’s daily care and environment to make a first guess, then get to a clinic promptly.
2 Cough or Vomit?
Like us, cats cough, but not often — an occasional episode every few months can be normal, though most cats don’t cough unless something’s wrong. The respiratory tract runs from the nose down through the pharynx, vocal cords, trachea, and lungs; the lungs branch into bronchi and then bronchioles, and irritation anywhere from the throat to the bronchi sets off a cough, which makes the exact cause tricky. A cat’s cough sounds much like a human one, but the causes differ — feline rhinotracheitis, asthma, and hairballs among them. Watch the posture: a coughing cat drops its head, stretches the neck, lowers the body, and arches the back. Nausea brings similar gagging, but a cat that dry-heaves without bringing anything up is likely coughing, not vomiting; hairballs usually come up, whereas repeated dry-heaving is more often a cough confused with vomiting because the two postures look so alike.
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