Three numbers, taken the same way at the same times each day, do more for a cat in its last weeks than any amount of guessing: resting breathing rate, body temperature, and grams eaten with the minutes a meal takes. What follows is a recording method and a list of questions for a vet. It is not a diagnosis, and not a judgment about what anyone decides.
What this page does not do
No number below tells you what to decide, and nothing replaces a vet who has examined the cat. A resting rate of 44 can come from fluid in the chest or from 10 minutes of crying at the doorbell; only an exam and an ultrasound separate those. The choice between home care and hospital care belongs to the person who lives with the cat, made with a vet, and both routes are legitimate; a tool such as the quality of life scale supports that conversation without settling it. Two households with identical numbers can reach different decisions, and neither is graded here.
Start one sheet tonight
One sheet per day, 4 columns: time, breathing rate, temperature, food. Record at 08:00 and 20:00, plus any time the cat seems off, which gives 14 entries a week and a trend instead of an impression. Bring the last 7 days to every visit; one reading tells a vet little, while 14 show a slope. Write the time of the last full meal at the top of each sheet, since that is the number people misremember by 12 to 24 hours.
Breathing rate: 30 seconds, doubled
Count while the cat is asleep and undisturbed, never while it purrs, since purring hides chest movement and inflates the count. Watch the chest rise, count 30 seconds, double it; if the cat will not hold still, count 15 seconds and multiply by 4. Take 3 counts over 10 minutes and average them. Normal resting rate is 16 to 30 breaths per minute. Above 40 at rest, on 2 counts in a row, is when most vets want a call the same day. Above 60, or open-mouth breathing at rest, is an emergency.
Temperature: the 37 °C line
Normal body temperature is 37.5 to 39.2 °C (99.5 to 102.5 °F). Below 37 °C (98.6 °F) is where most vets want to hear from you within the day; below 36 °C (96.8 °F) is urgent, because a cat that cannot hold heat is losing regulation, and a warm blanket does not fix the cause. Use a digital rectal thermometer with water-based lubricant, 1 to 2 cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) in, and wait 10 to 60 seconds for the beep. Ear thermometers read 0.5 to 1 °C off in cats. Take it once a day at 08:00, and again if the ears feel cool.
Eating: grams in 24 hours, minutes per meal
Weigh the bowl, not the cat: 60 g in, 48 g left, 12 g eaten. A 4 kg cat that normally takes 50 to 65 g of dry food a day, or 3 to 4 pouches of wet, gives you a baseline. Two numbers matter: grams per 24 hours at 20:00, and minutes to finish a meal the cat used to clear in 4. A meal that now takes 20 minutes is a data point about pain, nausea, or weakness, not a personality change, and pain scales for cats are how a vet turns that into a score. No food for 72 hours is a call whatever the cat looks like, and an overweight cat is at risk sooner than a lean one.
The daily sheet
| Metric | How to take it | Record as | Call the vet when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resting breathing | 30 seconds asleep, doubled | breaths/min | over 40, twice |
| Temperature | rectal, 1 to 2 cm | °C at 08:00 | under 37.0 |
| Food intake | bowl weight before and after | g per 24 h | 0 g for 72 h |
| Meal duration | start to last bite | minutes | over 20 min, 3 days |
| Water | measure what you put down | ml per 24 h | under 100 ml |
| Weight | same scale, weekly | kg, 2 decimals | down 5% in 30 days |
Two minutes each morning and each evening. Photograph the sheet once a week, so a phone left at the clinic does not take the history with it.
Questions to ask, in this order
- What do you think is happening, and what test would confirm or rule it out?
- Which of my numbers would make you want to see the cat today, and which can wait 48 hours?
- What resting rate should I keep the cat under at home?
- What temperature at 2 am means I call the emergency line?
- How many grams a day should this cat take in, and how many days below that is acceptable?
- Which 3 signs mean I go to the clinic now, without calling?
- What can be managed at home for pain and nausea, and what does each cost per month?
- If we stay home, who do I call at 2 am, and what is the plan if the cat is distressed?
- Can you write the plan down so everyone in the house works from the same page?
Ask for numbers where numbers exist, and ask the vet to repeat the 2 or 3 that matter most. Asking these questions is not a refusal of care, and hospice-style home care is not a failure to try; a vet holding the numbers can support either route better than one working from a description.
Home or hospital: 5 dimensions
Compare facts, then decide. Drive time to the clinic in minutes. Who is home during the day, and for how many hours. Whether anyone can give an injection or run fluids, and whether the cat tolerates it. Cost per month for each route, including oxygen, which is billed by the hour in most hospitals. How the cat travels: 20 minutes of panic in a carrier twice a day is a real cost, and so is a cat that cannot breathe without oxygen. Write the 5 answers side by side.
When to call now, not next week
Open-mouth breathing at rest. A resting rate above 60. Temperature under 36 °C. No urine for 24 hours. A seizure over 2 minutes, or 2 in 24 hours. Crying that does not stop when the cat is lifted gently. A cat that cannot stand. Any one is a call today; 4 together means go, do not call. None of them is a reason to feel guilty about last week, because cats hide respiratory disease for months and a 48-hour change rarely has an obvious cause at home.
Four things to do today
- Write the 4-column sheet and fill in tonight's 20:00 row.
- Buy a digital rectal thermometer and water-based lubricant, and take one baseline reading while the cat is calm.
- Weigh the food bowl for 3 days to get a grams-per-day figure before intake drops.
- Book a visit, bring 7 days of sheets and the last full meal time, and ask the 9 questions above.
Frequently asked
How do I count breathing if my cat purrs the whole time?
Wait until the cat is asleep, then watch the flank rather than listening for breath sounds, because purring vibrates the chest without moving air. If the cat will not settle, count the chest movement for 15 seconds against a light surface and multiply by 4, and note on the sheet that the count was taken while awake, so the vet reads it as an upper estimate.
Is 72 hours without food really the line for a cat?
It is the line most vets use for a call, not a deadline you must watch pass. Cats mobilize fat quickly when intake stops, and an overweight cat can be at risk sooner than a lean one, so 48 hours with zero intake plus vomiting or weakness is already a reason to call. Record grams, not impressions, and take the sheet with you.
Does recording numbers mean I am delaying a decision?
It is the opposite when done for a week or two: a slope gives a vet something to act on, and it shows within 48 hours whether a treatment is working. Recording is not a substitute for a decision, and no sheet here tells you what to choose. If the numbers are stable but the cat is clearly distressed, the distress is the finding, and it is worth saying so plainly at the next visit.