Have a cat with asthma?

I'm not sure how many people out there end up with a cat that develops asthma, however this could work for any animal that could suffer from asthma and needs to use litter. So here we go!

I noticed that my sweet Sally kitty was hacking and coughing a lot, and initially I figured she was dealing with hairballs. After watching her one day, though, I noticed there was no hairball at all, but she continued to struggle with a gagging, hacking cough of some type. I took her to the vet, and they told me she had asthma. They gave me a printout packet filled with care instructions for this, and one of the suggestions was to use a type of litter that had less dust, or no dust.

I did a few things to help her out, so that her attacks were minimized, plus she started medications for her asthma. One big thing was my search for a dust free cat litter. I tried several types, but the Arm and Hammer Cloud Control turned out to be our best bet. It is a bit on the higher price end of things, but it's been worth the little bit more money.

Now, this product has had some quality control issues, in my own experience. I have purchased a box that ended up having some dust clouds. Since I need for my litter to stay dust free, this was disappointing, but it is also really rare. I think in all of the times I have purchased this; I've had 2 boxes that have had some dust clouds, and I've been using this since 2020. I'd say those are pretty good odds.

My cat has asthma, and there's no changing that. She's going to be on medication for it for the rest of her life, but anything I can do to help her is worth it. This is a good litter to have, in my opinion, even if your cat doesn't have asthma. Turns out there are a few ways this sort of litter can be helpful. Rabbits, Ferrets, and Rats are among some of the pets that tend to use litter boxes also. These animals do tend to end up with upper respiratory issues for various reasons, why not use a dust free litter to aid in preventing those?

It might not be the thing that prevents your pet from getting asthma, or an upper respiratory issue, but it can aid in the prevention. Things like scented candles, living in dusty close quarters with no regular fresh air, burning incense, smoking indoors, using room sprays, etc. can provide circumstances that cause asthma in pets. Admittedly, I used to do a few of these things while living in an apartment (Mainly incense and room sprays...also carpet powders) and I feel really bad about it.

More things I did to help my cats (who don't have asthma), only feed wet cat food, don't use room sprays or carpet powders very often (when you do, open all of your windows), use dust free cat litter, use unscented products to clean their stuff, and vacuum often.

After post note: We have one of those Automatic litter boxes that does a self clean, and this litter works just fine in it. I'm not sure how many of those Litter robots take special litter, but the one we got can use this litter.

Thank you for reading, and God bless you!

E. G.