Why does my cat meow when I sneeze?
Cats often meow, run away, or act concerned when someone sneezes, especially if the sudden noise wakes them up. If the cat itself is making weird coughing or sneezing noises, it may actually be experiencing allergies or asthma. These respiratory issues can come and go suddenly, sometimes requiring expensive veterinary tests or medications like prednisolone to completely stop.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1pretending to sneeze to test or communicate with the catDid this help you?
- 2letting the cat react without interventionDid this help you?
- 3Getting a second opinion from another vetDid this help you?
- 4Posting a video of the cough to online forums for adviceDid this help you?
- 5Getting a chest X-Ray to check for asthmaDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“does anyone have a cat that meows when you sneeze? she always seems so concerned for me”source ↗
“Mine does, but only when I’ve woken him up…”source ↗
“My baby ( she is actually like 11-12 years old )has been making this really weird coughing noise the past 2 days.”source ↗
“Mine runs whenever I sneeze, and has since he was a kitten!”source ↗
“Yeah, either of our two cats will meow if someone at home sneezes.”source ↗
“They did suggest about $500 worth of tests I just want to get some more information . She did this last year too and it just went away all of a sudden, part of me also feels like it may be allergies ?”source ↗
“My cat was doing this exact thing and ended up having asthma, prednisolone completely stopped it !”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 12Why is my kitten suddenly yelling all the time and growling?
- 7Why does my cat licking my head hurt?
- 18Older cat still hissing at new kitten after months