I live in NYC and have a beautiful Maine Coon kitten (just 9 months) which was bred in New England. (I actually have 2 brothers).

My kitten has had a very strange thing happening with its purrs for the past two months...it seems that when he purrs, after a few seconds, the purringt becomes rather frenzied...it sound as if a bird is caught in his throat. He get very upset and needs to go away and calm himself down. It has gotten to the point that he doen't want to get petted because he'll start purring and it makes him uncomfortable.

The vet first thought it was juvenielle onset gingivitis...we were scheduled for gum surgery, which I post-poned because he began sneezing. They thought the inflamation was affecting his throat. He would shake his head and I began thinking he had a polyp.

We were about to check further for that, when an acute situation arose which turned out to be an ear abscess and he had to have a bullae-ectomy, which was luckily done by my vet who is an excellent surgeon. (The surgery can leave head tilts, and other side effects, and we have been spared.)

He is now home on antibiotics but the purring problem and breathing problem persists. The vets think this is all connected to the ear problem, but my instincts tell me this is separate.

Has anyone had anything similar?

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000