Hi all - my kitty has severe allergies, and is on Atopica twice weekly, which has had wonderful results.
However, twice now, about an hour to 90 minutes after the Atopica oral dose, she has gone through a period of about 20 minutes where she seems uncomfortable and her breathing is troubled. She seems very congested, with a lot of noise on the inhalation, but there’s no snot.
The first time this happened, on May 11, I ran her over to the emergency vet. They checked her out and told me there was nothing wrong with her (they very nicely also waived the charge, which was really sweet).
The second time this happened, yesterday, I taped it with my cell phone. The video is here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKowaKp7x3k&feature=youtu.be
Again, within about 20 minutes, she was totally fine, and has been good ever since.
I sent the video off to my vet, who is doing some research, and also to my sister (a vet, and the person who had Izzy before I did). But I thought I’d also do some crowdsourcing here, in case anyone has ever encountered something similar.
As background, Izzy is a 3 year old spayed domestic shorthair with severe allergies. She is on oral Atopica twice a week, and has been for several months. SHe weighs 9 pounds, and gets the Atopica dose for that size cat.
She also gets a sub-q injection of allergens once every two weeks, with an antihistamine (chlorpheneramine 2mg) an hour before. Diet is strictly Z/D wet with Wellactin, and she gets Revolution applied monthly. Indoor cat only, and I’m very careful to keep her away from stuff like household cleaners, dirty plates (that might have bad food on them) etc.
One other thing to note: I only noted this reaction AFTER I swapped to a new bottle of Atopica. The bottle appeared identical to the previous, but my sister wondered if maybe some inactive ingredients were changed, and she’s sensitive to one of them.