I have a 11 week old Bengal kitten I got two days ago. We are so excited about our fur baby. The first night we were up all night with our little cuddle bug siting in the bathroom with the shower running because she was sneezing and coughing (almost sounds like she should be coughing up a hairball but I know she’s too young for that) to maybe try to relieve congestion…..? We contacted the breeder and she said she was not doing these things with her. We made an appointment with a local vet the next morning and got her in as soon as possible. Her stool looks fine, She’s active, and is eating and hydrating normally, nor a runny nose. The vet said she has a normal tempter and sometimes the stress of the move can cause a lowering of the immune system and she could have a viral infection. He gave us the option to come back and get antibiotics for it if it gets worse in a couple days because we hadn’t even had her for 24 house at this point. He also said it could be allergies due to us having plug in air fresheners but he also said that normally allergies don’t show up this early in age. She has gotten her first round of shots and deworming.

It’s only day two, she’s still having her coughing spells but it breaks my heart every time I see her coughing.
my question is:
Has anyone else gone through this?
If so,
Does this diagnosis seem accurate?
Could it have to do with her first round of vaccines she got 13 days ago?
Should we just go ahead and start antibiotics even though it doesn’t seem to be bacterial?
And if we are to just wait it out, are there any suggestions to make her more comfortable?

Thanks,
A worried fur mama

Welcome to our forum and congratulations on your baby. It is quite common for a new kitten to be extremely stressed out going to a new environment and leaving their mom and siblings. However, stress is not usually in the form of a cough. If you google "cat coughing," you will discover a lot of articles that could explain things. If the breeder is telling the truth and the kitten was not coughing before she left the cattery, then there could be something in your home irritating the throat and lungs of the kitty. It could be an odor (a cat's sense of smell is 14 times stronger than ours). And, your cat's nose is much lower to the floor than yours. I have air fresheners throughout my house and they don't bother my bengal. But ... they are also higher up from the floor and not plugged in further down the wall. So check that.

A vet is always your best source of information and if they ran tests and they came up with nothing -- not sure what else you can do. The vet would have listened to the lungs and could tell whether they were clear or congested.

It has only been a couple of days. And it seems she's spent a lot of time in the bathroom. So check that area first. Keep monitoring her carefully. Litter dust can also cause a cat to cough and sneeze. Be diligent and make changes if necessary.

I don't think I've had a kitty with a cough before. Sneeze yes, cough no.

Two really important questions: what is her activity level like right now? And how is her appetite right now? If either (or worse both) of those are effected (I.e getting worse), then to me she goes back to the vet asap. If those are both ok then you probably have more leeway.

P.s. I don't think it's the vaccines, and the vet is right about the stress to kittens immune systems when being regimes (and she's been rehomed a little early btw). All three of mine got little colds within their first few weeks with me, and in all cases they went to the vet, got shots, and were on the mend within a couple of days.

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The little monsters 3

Thank you for replying! Looking up a coughing cats is honestly devastating on the internet :( but I'm happy to say she seems to be doing better, she still does it when she wakes up from sleeping but nothing like what she was doing.

We were actually keeping her in our spare bedroom for the first couple days ( `1111111<-she loves the the keyboard) but now she's out and about in the rest of the house unless we are not here for an hour or two. We got rid of all the air fresheners and got a humidifier for the bedroom. She's always eaten fine and has had PLENTY OF ENERGY! I'm hoping we are in the clear. I take her back to the vet for her second set of shots next week, so if it's still going on then I'll see if they can run some blood tests.

Side note: Reading this forum has been a blessing especially the behavior section to help in her training!

Maxwell was diagnosed with asthma, tentatively, a few years ago after going through rounds of coughing and wheezing. Turns out, he had chronic pneumonia for several years, which was masked by the steroids he was taking for IBD. In september, he went on massive antibiotics for a month and cleared it up. A month ago, we were at the emergency vet for a severe asthma attack requiring oxygen tent and albuterol. It was awful for about two weeks, having to give him albuterol puff from my own inhaler several times a day. It's really scary when they cough. My point is to make sure that you stay on top of things and communicate with your vet with any changes in symptoms. I keep wondering if we'd caught the pneumonia sooner, whether he'd have developed the asthma.

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Hopefully, there was just an irritant in the air and you've gotten rid of it. Hopefully things will be better by the vet visit.