by Frank Will

Created on: November 01, 2009   Last Updated: November 02, 2009

Respiratory distress in cats can be a frightening experience for both you and your cat, but in the vast majority of cases, you may not even know that your pet has this condition until it becomes very serious. With any type of trouble in breathing, your cat will experience a shortness of breath at any time during their normal breathing process rather it be breathing in or breathing out.

When this condition starts to become severe, your cat may not be getting enough oxygen from the lungs into their tissues which may become a life threatening situation.

Respiratory distress in cats, also referred to as Dyspnea, has a litany of potential causes ranging from fluid on the lungs, called Edema, to the beginning stages of heart failure. What makes this condition especially challenging to owners, is that it is a developing situation that is experienced by your cat and may show you only limited symptoms that will warn you that something is wrong.

If your cat could talk, they would tell you that something is not right and they have one of the five stages of this frightening condition. You may not see it, but they are living it.

Stage one is where your cat has absolutely no problems breathing unless there has been some type of a very strenuous experience or exercise. Stage two is when they start to have trouble breathing when walking for long distances or have exerted more energy than normal. Stage three is where your cat starts to have trouble breathing during any type of a normal walking or routine activity and they have to stop in order to catch their breath.

Stage four is where they have to completely stop after only a few minutes and now are having a much more difficult time in getting breath into their lungs. Stage five is when they have reached a point where they are having a difficult time in breathing in just getting up or down.

But there is one major problem; your cat can not talk and communicate with you how this potentially life threatening condition is actually affecting them, but it is affecting them. Although it might not be as visible to you as several other types of condition that will have symptoms that are easy to detect and react to, there are still some symptoms that you can watch for.

Symptoms:

The first symptom that may indicate your cat has a difficulty in breathing will be a sudden inclination to become stressed very easily. This symptom will be even more apparent to you than the actual difficulty in breathing. Your cat is experiencing something

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