Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

This post is going to be very detailed. I have a female cat around 1 yr and 6 months old, named Merkey. She's a happy cat but recently, me and my family members found out something strange happening to her. She's beginning to chew nothing and look as if she's choking on something.

We know she had furballs before and usually she will just vomit it out. But this time round its totally a different action. Following on, I will describe her behaviour.

Here goes:
Whenever she starts using her tongue, like for cases where she smells food and licks her nose wanting to eat, she will start to chew nothing vigorously and do the choking behaviour. At times, it gets so bad that she will use her paws to like 'dig' out something from her jaws/mouth. Almost looking like she smack herself.

Its going to be quite hard to visualize it through my words but probably one of you ever felt like choking and tried very hard to force it out. This is something that's happening to my cat. I checked her jaws and teeth and nothing seems wrong. She do this very often and its been going on for more than 3 days. I also massage her throat and neck area often hoping to make her feel better.

This choking like behaviour has caused her to stop eating her biscuits and shes going for soft food like tuna meat and sardines instead. Just a few hours ago, she tried to eat wet food (tuna) but only managed to eat only a very very small portion.

This worries us alot and I have no idea if I should bring her to the vet yet hoping it will be a normal thing among cats. It's very hard for me to open up her mouth to really check as she can get quite violent and bite us. And if I were to bring her to the vet, with her violent condition, I bet the vet would sedate her. I do not wish for her to go through anaesthatic again as she looked very upset when she had her spaying last year.

My only possible guesses are she's got ulcer on her lips or the inner parts of her jaw, toothache or something's really stuck on her throat cos shes been trying to force out something.

Have anyone of your cats gone through this? Pls advice. Is there anything I can do to make Merkey feel better?

What you are describing sounds like Merkey needs to see a vet very soon. She's got something going on which needs medical intervention ASAP. There is really nothing you can do to help her at this point.

Please do whatever Merkey needs to get back to normal. Although she may suffer from some discomfort from the initial vet exam, in the long run she will be a lot happier and may even have a longer life.
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Hello all I just got back from the vet. The vet suspects hairball or something soft stuck in her throat. He inspected her stomach and couldnt find anything hard inside except that its very compact. That's because she ate before going to the vet. So his assumption was that even if something is stuck, it would be soft, hopefully hairballs only. Since Merkey's stool is normal, he went on and checked further. He also inspected her mouth, teeth and gums and find everything of her healthy. Her pulse as well.

Surprisingly, the vet gave my cat a TUNA flavoured lubricant. It's weird but I had to take it. This lubricant is in gel like form which I have to feed my cat with for a week and observe. If things persists or get worse, they have to perform an X-ray on Merkey.

On food advice, he actually suggested canned food rather than biscuits. He claimed Merkey is bright and alert and shows interest for food (tested that too). On my side I tried my best to explain what Merkey went through but was assured that she is healthy except for her vetching and choking behaviour.

Hopefully it will really be just hairballs and go away. Thanks to ALL of your replies. I used every advice from your replies and asked the vet regarding it and good answers were given like taking care of her gums, teeth and the right choice of food.

Lets pray for Merkey and all cats in the world to be safe. *prays*

Mega **GLOW** to Merkey that all goes well with her!

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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Hi all!

Some updates on Merkey. As I am typing this out, she's asking me to play with her so I guess that's a good sign. Well its 630am now and I woke up earlier just to make sure Merkey let off her waste as she's not been doing it since the vet visit 2 days ago.

Finally this morning, she did. I inspected her waste and found some thick fur at some parts of it so I assume it is really hairball. However I will still observe her 'choking' behaviour. She's been eating more than usual and getting back to her biscuits as well. I hope not to overfeed her. Like they say, a healthy person is a person who eats, and a healthy pet is a pet that's eating!

Someone suggested me to try feed her wheatgrass occasionally to prevent/remove hairballs. Any say on that anyone? I am also willing to try natural methods to keep a cat healthy.

Hi everyone,

Merkey is fine now and back to her normal self. In fact more joyful than before. She wakes up purring, greet us in the morning and always hinting to us to catch her with her come-and-get-me stares. I have yet to try the cat grass but sooner or later I will. She's been eating well.

However, she kind of prefer wet food nowadays rather than dry. Anyway, someone from another forum mentioned something about barfs for their kitties. Anyone of you feed barfs to your cats? Pls share.

I am glad to hear Merkey is doing better!

You might want to start a new thread under Diet and Nutrition asking about BARF feeding - members will see the title and be more likely to respond if that is something they do.
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!