Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My cat has been diagnosd with atrial septal defect. He has no clinical signs of cardiomyopathy, the only reason he was diagnosed with ASD was because we had an echocardiogram and ultrasound after my cat's biologial sister died suddenly of a heart attack a few weeks ago.

Anyway, my cat has been coughing once in awhile for the past few years, ever since we moved to CA. My vet thinks this is from allergies since he never did this in the 8 years we lived in MI. But I've read that coughing could be related to heart problems. Have you ever had experience with cats that cough? He probably does it once every few weeks and usually it's in the middle of the night. Most of the time he follows coughing with vomiting clear fluid. It's not that I don't trust my vet that it's allergies, but I just wanted a second opinion.

Thanks

Coughing can be related to heart problems, but it could just as well be due to allergies, asthma, heartworm, lung disease or any of a number of other problems. Does your vet have any evidence of allergies?

I'm not really sure what the evidence of allergies would be. I think maybe my vet just said that because she's not sure what else it is. A few years ago my cat Sola was on the Z/D dry diet because the vet thought he had food allergies, but since he was still vomiting on that diet I switched him back to California Natural. And since getting your advice, he only eats the wet food and seems to be vomiting less.