Feline Asthma

[Kathy]

So. Not content with having an incredibly rare nasal tumour, Emmie-mog was presented at the vet today and gave all the symptoms of having developed Feline Asthma since the vet last saw her one month ago.

 

We said "nah, it's just a mild bout of catflu / a cold", but the vet insisted on running more tests.

We've just brought her home from having her nose cut off, she's tried to climb a ladder and had to be rescued on account of what seemed to be a severe asthma attack.. 

Anyone got any experience of this?

Ta.

 

[Mrs Pingu]

So has he definitively diagnosed asthma then?

Your kitty sure is in the wars at the mo...poor sosige.

[border-rider]

We nearly lost our Ol to asthma last year

he developed it around the time we moved, and they reckoned it was trggered either by an allergy or an infection

It responded a bit to steroids, but best to antibiotics, with about a 5 week gap between attacks   - which were life-threatening. He got very mopey, lethargic and fat.

It got worse and he responded less to the treatment, and it culminated in a trip to cat hospital for a battery of tests.  That cost £700, found nothing and triggered a really bad attack that they couldn't fix. We were given the "well, he's had a good innings" talk and they tried one last completely off-the-wall treatment which was a mycoplasma-specific antibiotic.  injections every day for 10 days.

And that fixed him

Within 2 weeks he was thin, happy and active again and he's been right as rain for 9 months now.

[Kathy]

Asthma hasn't yet been diagnosed officially: it's just suspected on account of crackling lungs and wheezing fits. Though the wheezing is probably exacerbated by the nosectomy filling her lungs with fluid…

[Kathy]

Test results last night. Cat has (a) asthma, (b) anaemia and (c) an unidentified respiratory infection. 

All that, on top of the cancer that may or may not have been completely removed (we won't get those results 'til after Easter). She's not doing this by halves! The vet's reckoning is that she has had the asthma for some time in a mild form, and it's just been aggravated by the current respiratory infection and fluid in the nasal cavity due to the tumour operation. He also hopes that the anaemia is due to her miscellaneous respiratory infection. So at the moment we're at the "wait for her to recover and see what's left" stage.   

[Mrs Pingu]

Awwwh