Speaker for the Diodes

Veterinary Question: Breath Sounds? (Feline)

Perrine fell asleep on my ear.

I hear a distinct whooshing sound with a creak note under it. In a human, I would call it wheezing, though not especially severely.

Thing is, I don't know how noisy feline respiration normally is, so I don't know whether this sound is significant or not. She's showing no visible signs of distress ... (though in a cat that's not definitive).

So my question is: how noisy is a cat's breathing supposed to be?

This is not loud enough to hear when my ear is not in direct contact with her body, at least not with the background noise of a computer fan nearby and city traffic outside; but with her lying on my ear the creak-whoosh is quite pronounced. If it were all whoosh with no creak -- approximating 'pink noise' with no distinct tonal components -- then it probably would not occur to me to wonder about it.

(And now, of course, I want to get ahold of a stethescope and listen to various critters with it ...)