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Old January 29th, 2016, 12:12 AM
W137jdp W137jdp is offline
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Exclamation Asthma? Or pneumonia? Please I am desperate for help.

Hello, I am very concerned for my cats health. He is 1 year and 8 months old. 10 1/2 pounds. I came home yesterday after being gone for about 4-5 hours and when I left he was perfectly fine. When I got home he was wheezing really badly and had expiratory stridor. He was also visibly struggling to breath as he was using muscles in his belly. I hurried him to my vet and they did X-rays and said that he had asthma. I had thought at the time maybe he aspirated on something while I was gone but they were not concerned about that at all??? They said the X-ray was classic of asthma with dilated bronchioles and he had swallowed air into his stomach. They gave him a shot of dexamethasone and sent me home with predisolone and terabutaline I gave them both and waited a couple of hours but he did not respond at all. So I took him to the emergency vet last night and he is currently still there. After I got him there they looked at his X-rays and said the same thing that it was asthma so they started treating him with albuterol and oxygen for the whole night. I called this morning and was told that he was doing much better that I could come get him and take him home with an inhaler. They brought him out to me and he was not better at all he actually seemed worse. I said something to the ER vet and she agreed that he was not looking better and swore that he did not look like that when she talked to me earlier. So they took him back and put him on oxygen again and gave him more treatments. He did not improve with this and has actually gotten worse as today had gone on. They repeated X-rays and are now saying that it looks like he has a pneumonia. They tested him for feline hiv, leukemia, and heart worm and he tested negative for all of those. So now they have consulted a internalist who has suggested giving lasix which they did but without any real response. They suggested this because I guess cats are often born with cardiac abnormalities that can cause some of this and also they are getting ready to start iv antibiotics. They wanted to attempt to get some of the fluid off before they added more.

So I am desperately searching for any advice/help/suggestions for my poor little guy. I have looked everywhere in the house for something he could have gotten into and the only thing I have found is a new dumbcane plant that he might have played with. I called poison control and they said that would not cause those types of symptoms. I was leaning towards aspiration before I even took him in which does often lead to pneumonia but everyone is just kinda throwing that out.

I have already spent roughly 2000 dollars in this mess and unfortunately am starting to run low on funds due to being a grad student. I know we all love our pets but unfortunately I have a limit that's regrettably about to be hit. I can not stand this thought and have been sick over it the past two days. Please any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!!


Thanks all
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Old January 29th, 2016, 11:46 AM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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Sorry you are going through this.

Did the vets give any explanation as to why they "poo-poo'd" your thoughts on pneumonia in the first place?

Does he go outside at all?
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Old January 29th, 2016, 11:50 AM
W137jdp W137jdp is offline
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Exclamation

So they updated me today and they are now saying that he has pulmonary edema which is a sign of cardiac failure not pneumonia. They did an ultrasound of the heart and it was not enlarged but also did a BNP and it was abnormal which is a sign of heart failure. They are doing a cxray now then gonna send it off to a cardiologist for his opinion. If that is negative they are going to sedate him and look in the back of his throat to make sure he hasn't aspirated on anything.
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asthma, breathing difficulty, cat allergy, infection, pneumonia

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