I have a 10 neutered male cat. He and his litter were abandoned as very young kittens - ferel mother may have been killed.
Of the four kittens: one was blind and tiny and has a heart murmur but is otherwise healthy; one died of FIP, one is OK but not the most robust of cats and this one had a diaphragmatic hernia when he was about 8 weeks old and had successful surgery.
He has always been the most healthy of them all. He has tended to be overweight, though.
He has health problems now. At first, we wondered if he had diabetes and ensured that he only had the canned food, and then we investigated his dental. He started losing weight and his hair got rough. He did have a dental issues, though his blood work came back very good.
At his first exam in preparation for his dental work, his expert vet detected a class 2 heart murmur. He got an antibiotic shot and pain shot. The clinic did further investigation the following morning found fluid on the lungs as well as the tooth problem. The breathing rate then increased to 60.
He was then put on Lasix and Benazapril. A week later one lobe on his lung had collapsed. The breathing rate went down to 30 or 31.
He was given another antibiotic shot.
He was then put on Lasix and Pimobenden .
He was taken in yesterday with plural effusion and the vet took it off with a needle. The fluid has a protein of 7.7 which is high and further lab work is pending.
Spironolactone has been added to his drugs.
During this his ears have been cold. But, over the weekend they got hot. Then his breathing got worse and we took him in.
I will have to look at the records to get drug names as I was out of town for most of the vet visits. The pain killer was a four-day pain killer.
He certainly feels better with the fluid having been removed. His appetite is and has remained good. His breathing seems to be about 30 to 32 today. He is more active. But most of this relates to the temporary measure of removal of the fluid.
He has seemed to get worse when he has the antibiotic shots, but that could be coincidence. At least he was worse when he had the antibiotic shot without the paid killer, and when he had the antibiotic shot with the pain killer, after the pain killer wore off. The antibiotic was Covenia.
Yesterday, the cat expert vet was saying is not responding to treatment and was thinking that he won’t make it through this.
We would like to change that outcome. I know these vets are really good and caring. However, I can’t help but think that there is something still being missed. He didn’t have these breathing issues until after the pain shot and the antibiotic shot. The heart meds don’t seem to be working well on him.
I gave his family history to indicate that he is not a genetically strong cat. His sibling had pancreatitis about a year ago and recovered, but that was all quite vague. One other household cat had an episode with something called “pancreatitis” too, and it was also vague but resolved. Those cats saw a different less-competent vet and received only antibiotic shots. The situation did resolve well though. I’d say they both resolved a little slower than I would have expected.
ETA He has developed arythmia and that was causing him a lot of problems when he was at the vets yesterday. The slowness of his pulse contraindicates certain medications. I don’t know if the arythmia was abated by the removal of the fluid.
