Middle of the Night Health Scares: Staying Calm When Baby Cat Was Panting

Hi, I’m Nicole! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my distinguished Burmese, Mr. Baby Cat.

I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning after a scary middle-of-the-night wakeup. I accidentally fell asleep while putting our daughter down for the night and woke to some rustling in the lounge. My husband was out there, and it sounded like both dogs were too (and of course Baby Cat was out there by the fire). The way I woke it almost felt like it was dawn and I had accidentally crashed out for the whole night, but when I looked at my phone, it was only 1:30 am. But that had me confused about the sounds.

Shortly after I began stirring, my husband came in holding Baby Cat and said, “you need to come see this.” In a house full of animals out in the forest, my imagination began to run wild, both good and bad thoughts racing through my mind.

As soon as I stepped into the dim light of the lounge, I could see what John wanted me to see. Baby Cat was not doing well. He was panting and drooling and his pupils looked like they were going to expand so far they’d be out of his eyeballs (I know this is not anatomically possible, I'm just saying they were huge).

I’ve only ever seen him do this once before when he was stressed and overheated after a windy car ride, so I assumed that this was overheating again and we acted fast. (And because of his love for the fire and heat, it’s safe to assume that the dehydration was real and he maybe got a little too comfortable by the toasty fire tonight).

It’s not normal for cats to pant and drool, so it was definitely a serious event, but we did our best to stay calm for him to help bring his stress levels down.

We took him outside and gave him a little wipe down/sponge bath with his pet wipes, and just did our slow breathing with him to show him we were calm. It was hard to know exactly what to do, and all of the advice online says to take your cat to the vet, but of course we can’t do that at 2 AM. We pet him and snuggled him and sang to him, and it was amazing how quickly he came right. I think he was overheating, then stressing himself out, and then heating up more, and then becoming more stressed, a vicious cycle.

Once his breathing went back to normal we gave him a few treats, and thankfully we were able to give him some subcutaneous fluids. I have never been more grateful for having the vet-prescribed responsibility of at-home sub-q fluid administration.

Usually, he squirms and we have to really persuade Baby Cat to sit still for the sub-q administration, but this morning, he laid down and relaxed during the process. We actually were able to give him his full dose with no arguments and very few treats. The dogs were very interested in what was going on, John reckons they were worried, maybe Mac was, but I think Rosa was just concerned about why Baby Cat was getting a midnight snack and she wasn’t.

Our little man is fast asleep in bed right now and breathing totally normally, but we’ll be keeping a very close eye on him over the next few days. Now I’m wide awake and just trying to deal with the adrenaline rush.

My poor husband thought he was waking me up to say goodbye to Baby Cat, we’re so used to him being the easiest cat and having no real issues to what feels like so many in the past year. I think we’re in the grieving process still, somewhat in denial about our little perky Baby Cat being an old man, still hoping it’s a phase, but knowing deep down that this is the progression of his disease and we need to hold him close every day and enjoy this new phase with him, keep him comfortable and happy as best as we can.

It’s moments like these that I also feel incredibly grateful to work with the incredible Hepper and Pangolia teams, having kind and understanding pet parents and veterinarians to talk to.

It’s moments like these that also make me think about all the pet parents out there who don’t have the pet-focused team surrounding them and try to figure out the best ways that our team can help, through our articles and ensuring that all of the content is up to date and helpful, with appropriate and easy to read directions for a panicking pet parent, and now, through our newest venture, PangoVet, our veterinary telehealth service. We want to help pets by making veterinary care more accessible, and I know that our online vet service is exactly what I would have used in this scenario tonight if he didn’t calm down after the sponge bath.

I’m excited to see how many cats and cat parents we can help with PangoVet because I know Baby Cat is not the only cat out there who has given his parents a scare overnight tonight, and I know he won’t be the last cat to do it either. I definitely think our pets can read the calendar and clock in this house because all of our pet health scares seem to happen after hours or on weekends.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading and being a part of this roller coaster with us. The little man is still snoozing peacefully and breathing normally. Hoping for a smooth, healthy day for him today, and that I can get back to sleep soon, too. But as I said to my husband after he said sorry for waking me, I will wake at any hour, as many times as I need, to ensure my babies are ok.