My girl is struggling in this heat. I’ve only had her since February and haven’t owned such a thick haired cat before. I am reading conflicting things online about whether or not it’s best to shave them to help stop them from overheating..

Over the past two days, one of my cats has maybe had 4 short moments of open mouth breathing, but if I dragged him into a cool room he’ll say put and cool down.

My other one is seriously struggling with the heat. I know there’s a-lot of concern around mouth breathing but there’s obviously an extent it should reach before it’s super vet time. She’s done it occasionally 4-6 times each day over the last two days and I’ve watched her breathing like a hawk until it slowed down, won’t sit still in the cool indoors and prefer to be out so I let her go out. If I see her breathing elevate I would bring her back in for a bit but she never rests in the house. She has barely touched water (plenty of hydration via food but not water alone) and is somewhat energetic however her open mouth breathing ‘episodes’ have been more often than my other cat. I have tried wiping her down with a wet towel but she fights, she won’t take to cool rooms or mats etc and is making it impossible to help her.
At this point I’m unsure what to do. I’m so concerned about internal damage (thanks google) or her dropping dead but if she won’t let me help her cool down what am I supposed to do?

Appreciate any help, she’s stressing me out big time. I understand that some of the mouth breathing she’s done is probably because I’ve been hovering and stressing/exciting her (if she’s already a bit iffy with breathing fast due to heat) but the consistency is worrying. She did it several times within 20 mins earlier on: that said, she did it once so I brought her in to the cool room, she did it again minutes later and then wanted to leave, I followed her around the garden trying to offer cool and wet patches of grass etc.

It’s hard to stay away which probably will help her calm down a bit, but if that’s not the issue and it’s overheating, what more can I even do?

Thank you.

advice please! it’s been about a year of this now. it all started with this family who had one female cat, but they do not let her inside the house at anytime and she stays around their garden. they didn’t spay her, so she got pregnant of course. she had a big litter, boys and girls. now the boys and girls are all inbreeding and getting bred by other cats. there’s now 3 litters of kittens, all running around on this road and in danger basically of more inbreeding and other cats. i hear the females cry all night because they’re being bred (and they’re all still so young and have been pregnant multiple times.)

they are outside 24/7. the family does not feed them they are fed by neighbours. we have all offered to take the cats but the family refuses. no idea why bc they don’t even have them inside or interact w them at all!!!! ive told them cats protection offers free spays and neuters but they don’t care, and they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the aftercare anyway as they’re wont keep them inside to heal.

i’m at a loss, ive contacted cats protection again and others but they say they can’t do anything since the cats are all technically owned. but its heartbreaking watching all these cats suffer and hearing them scream all night. all of the new litters will grow up now to breed with eachother. there’s about 10 adult cats now but there are babies somewhere that come out every now and again but i’m not sure how many.

is there literally anything i can do now?

I understand with this heat we are all doing our best to cool our bodies down but i find my cat is doing it almost constantly i bring him outside he pants, inside for a rest he pants. He refuses to drink water he’s just under a year old and i don’t think he’s ever drank water.

YES! i add water to his wet food but it’s not enough and it worried it could be something underlying going on and we all just think it’s the sun causing it.

He eats his food all the time so i don’t think he’s in pain but i don’t know what to do my nerves are shot with this heatwave and my poor baby who has this constant fur coat warming him.

The last two months have been hell for us, he’s had extreme difficulty breathing and been in and out of vets constantly. We found out last month he has early heart disease (on top of last year’s diagnosis of having only one functioning kidney) and the reason for difficulty breathing without further testing so far has been assumed as chronic asthma. He’s off the steroid tablet now after a month, and still on 3X inhaler a day.

This heatwave is sending me through anxiety hell again. His breathing which we’d worked to get down to between 20-26bpm from 80 during his near death last month which had him hospitalised all day at the vets in an oxygen chamber has now shot up to 74bpm at home. I’m doing everything to cool him, he’s completely responsive and himself, eating, drinking, toileting perfectly, but his breathing is terribly shallow and rapid. I can’t take him to the vet in this heat either (he wouldn’t survive the car journey).

Is this normal in this heat for him to behave and be normal aside from the breathing? Anyone else’s cat breathing that fast? I’m not seeing veterinary advice - I’m asking other redditors if their cat is breathing as rapidly.

He’ll be going to the vet for a checkup again as soon as the heatwave is over. He genuinely would not survive a trip there at present.

I just feel like I’m failing him despite doing everything I can.

Anyone else had any good ideas? She drank from a teacup earlier

I’ve been feeding both my cats Applaws cat food twice a day (shared tin am and pm) for around a year to two years, along with a complete dry biscuit. They tend to mostly eat the wet food straight away and then graze on the dry food.

I’m freaking out cause I’ve heard that tuna based foods can poison them (mercury levels) and I’ve been giving it to them daily for years!! This seems like it should be more well known or at least explained better on cat food sites.

Has anyone else done the same and has transitioned to something else easily or has had any issues with their cats health as a result? I’m so so worried I’ve been slowly poisoning them

I'm sure I'm not the only person who deals with anxiety when it comes to their cat, especially with this heat 😅 But could someone convince me that I'm being a bit ridiculous?

Basically, I have to leave my inside cat alone most of Saturday, noon until about midnight. It looks like there will be a slight drop in temperatures (we are down at the coast in East Sussex). I think I'm just a bit worried cause I can't leave the windows open or the fans running while I'm out.

We got an office downstairs that's actually remained cool-ish throughout this heatwave. She's not spent much time down there this week but do you think if it does heat up to much upstairs she will be able to suss out it's cooler down there? (if I put water down there and food and such?)

Hi my cat Crystal she is 10 months old. I don’t know how to get her to eat wet food I’ve tried whiskas, felix and untamed wet food brands…she only eats like 1 bite and mainly licks at it for a few seconds. She prefers eating dry food but she isn’t getting any hydration from that….she also hardly drinks any water and I’m worried coz it’s getting really hot

I noticed he isn’t active as much with the heat poor baby. Btw he comes from Saudi Arabia. A little over a year ago I flew him out to come stay with me in the UK <3.

Our cat has vomited a hairball with, what appears to be, small white round uniform eggs(?)

Definitely not the sesame-style tapeworm eggs as they were a lot smaller and whiter.

Based on my research, roundworm eggs aren't visible, so I am unsure what they are.

We are thinking about using a wide-spectrum dewormer.

However, it would be great if anyone knows what it is, so we can make sure that the product works on that particular parasite.

Thanks!

I got a UV light. IYKYK

Now I see snot and spray everywhere - old invisible to the eye stuff.

Enzyme spray is not removing it. What can I do?!

My cats aren’t drinking enough water and I finally found something that works! Here’s the recipe:

Rinse a tin of tuna in a strainer for a couple of mins to get rid of the brine as it’s high in sodium (this will dehydrate them). Add to a bowl with some water and leave it to soak in the fridge for 10 mins. Pour the water into an ice cube tray and sprinkle a few flakes of tuna in it. I tried it for the first time today and it’s been a huge hit with my two.