Cat living with Asthma.

[JoKalsbeek]

Hello everyone. I woke up with 5.7, bg was great all day, even when I ate a piece of cake with friends, and then in the evening it rose to 14 and I brought it down to hypoglycemia, and now it's 9.0 A little annoying

My cat was diagnosed with asthma by a vet and now I think I'm a bad owner if I let this happen. For three days (since the start of inhalation), the cat had no аsthma attack, but today 2 happened. I'm under terrible stress.
Maybe I'm just exploiting with the fact that I have diabetes to whine here... but where do you usually find joy every day? I feel like I have very little happiness left inside me.

I'm not entirely up to speed, but was asked by a mutual friend to pop in. I have no idea what you have available to you, but here's a few things that might help.

Our Charlie has asthma too, (as do I and my husband, as it happens), and we have to put this type of inhaler-chamber on his little face twice a day.



Basically it's something to be able to put human asthma medication into a cat's airways, so it can either be a steroid inhaler or one that relaxes the muscles a little. (So salbutamol or flixotide, depends on what the vet perscribes; not available without perscription! Charly uses Flixotide.). They won't like it, but it's not noisy and it only lasts for a few breaths. Charlie asks for his inhaler every morning and evening, because bribes work: one inhaler on the face, equals five kitty treats. It may be more expensive than what you're doing now though, but if this is available to you, it might be worth looking in to. Mind you, there's a guy on the internet who keeps filming himself sneaking up on his cat with an Aerocat inhaler.... Basically destroying his relationship with said cat, because the poor animal is startled and forced every time, with no "compensation": it doesn't know it's being helped, it's just learning his owner can't be trusted. And stress makes asthma worse, so.... Not the way to go. The first few times it might be a bit iffy, but once treato's are linked to the experience, it gets better, and they learn quickly!

Also, asthma just happens. I've had it since I was four or something, meaning I'm also more prone to things like eczema and allergies. My first attack was triggered by my cuddly toys and carpeting. My mom was a very good cleaner, but I ended up needing vinyl flooring anyway, and hypoallergenic cuddly toys and pillows. For Charlie, his first trigger was kitty litter. Some are very dusty, or just made of a material that irritates his airways, like wood. (He's cool with anything clay-based and dust-free) Once it happened, it never went away. We use different, dust free litter now, but he still needs an inhaler twice a day, and if he has an attack in spite of that, it's usually due to stress (like with fireworks going off and scaring him around new years) or people using their fireplace and the smoke ending up in our ventilation-system. He might need a little extra puff then, OR, if it gets really bad, a little cat-sized prednison pill, which we always have around for back-up. Also given with treat-bribe material, of course.

As Charlie's getting a little older, he's having more coughing fits at random, so when we see the vet tomorrow for his annual check-up, I plan to ask for a steroid inhaler as well for incidental use. I have one for myself, but it's a disk with a mouth piece I have to suck on, and that won't fit nor work with an Aerocat. So, yeah... We're doing everything right, we're all familiar with asthma, and still we have a cat who got it when he was a year old. Not something we could've prevented or done anything about, it was just in his genes. So there's no way you should blame yourself for this. Whether you can switch to an Aerocat or stick with a nebuliser, whatever works is perfectly fine... Just maybe throw treats into the mix, if you haven't yet.

You're being a good cat-mom. Honest.
Jo

 

[Zhnyaka]

I'm not entirely up to speed, but was asked by a mutual friend to pop in. I have no idea what you have available to you, but here's a few things that might help.

Our Charlie has asthma too, (as do I and my husband, as it happens), and we have to put this type of inhaler-chamber on his little face twice a day.

View attachment 74776
View attachment 74777
Basically it's something to be able to put human asthma medication into a cat's airways, so it can either be a steroid inhaler or one that relaxes the muscles a little. (So salbutamol or flixotide, depends on what the vet perscribes; not available without perscription! Charly uses Flixotide.). They won't like it, but it's not noisy and it only lasts for a few breaths. Charlie asks for his inhaler every morning and evening, because bribes work: one inhaler on the face, equals five kitty treats. It may be more expensive than what you're doing now though, but if this is available to you, it might be worth looking in to. Mind you, there's a guy on the internet who keeps filming himself sneaking up on his cat with an Aerocat inhaler.... Basically destroying his relationship with said cat, because the poor animal is startled and forced every time, with no "compensation": it doesn't know it's being helped, it's just learning his owner can't be trusted. And stress makes asthma worse, so.... Not the way to go. The first few times it might be a bit iffy, but once treato's are linked to the experience, it gets better, and they learn quickly!

Also, asthma just happens. I've had it since I was four or something, meaning I'm also more prone to things like eczema and allergies. My first attack was triggered by my cuddly toys and carpeting. My mom was a very good cleaner, but I ended up needing vinyl flooring anyway, and hypoallergenic cuddly toys and pillows. For Charlie, his first trigger was kitty litter. Some are very dusty, or just made of a material that irritates his airways, like wood. (He's cool with anything clay-based and dust-free) Once it happened, it never went away. We use different, dust free litter now, but he still needs an inhaler twice a day, and if he has an attack in spite of that, it's usually due to stress (like with fireworks going off and scaring him around new years) or people using their fireplace and the smoke ending up in our ventilation-system. He might need a little extra puff then, OR, if it gets really bad, a little cat-sized prednison pill, which we always have around for back-up. Also given with treat-bribe material, of course.

As Charlie's getting a little older, he's having more coughing fits at random, so when we see the vet tomorrow for his annual check-up, I plan to ask for a steroid inhaler as well for incidental use. I have one for myself, but it's a disk with a mouth piece I have to suck on, and that won't fit nor work with an Aerocat. So, yeah... We're doing everything right, we're all familiar with asthma, and still we have a cat who got it when he was a year old. Not something we could've prevented or done anything about, it was just in his genes. So there's no way you should blame yourself for this. Whether you can switch to an Aerocat or stick with a nebuliser, whatever works is perfectly fine... Just maybe throw treats into the mix, if you haven't yet.

You're being a good cat-mom. Honest.
Jo

The story unfolds even worse. Musa got worse from inhalation, and my friend, whose son suffers from asthma, said that she was given 3 drops of Berodual for a 15kg child, and I was given 10 drops and 1 ml of Pulmicort for a 4kg cat. I was scared, I bought an online consultation with a veterinarian-pulmonologist, and she said that asthma was not diagnosed by X-ray, and medications were prescribed for the cat as if she weighed like a human (by the way, no one at the vet clinic asked her weight), we were told to take a general and biochemical blood test and sputum for analysis, but sputum is taken under anesthesia, and the device for this is only available in the clinic where she was diagnosed with asthma. I signed her up for tests today, we donated blood, her white blood cells are low, and she was told to have a bronchoscopy only when all the tests are ready (biochemistry will be ready only in a day). There are a lot of bad rumors about this vet clinic, but it is the only one with diagnostic equipment such as ultrasound, X-ray or endoscope. I'm afraid and I don't trust the doctors there. It seems to me that she may die because my friend's dog died from the actions of the veterinarian. When we were driving back, I took the cat to the veterinary clinic at my house, they looked at her tests and said she needed antibiotics. I do not know who to trust. I'm afraid I'll only make it worse with drugs.
I have a huge problem that because doctors saved my Life, I trust them unconditionally, but not all doctors are like my first endocrinologist.
My bg was around 10 all morning, but when my cat and I got home, it dropped to 7 without insulin.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

The story unfolds even worse. Musa got worse from inhalation, and my friend, whose son suffers from asthma, said that she was given 3 drops of Berodual for a 15kg child, and I was given 10 drops and 1 ml of Pulmicort for a 4kg cat. I was scared, I bought an online consultation with a veterinarian-pulmonologist, and she said that asthma was not diagnosed by X-ray, and medications were prescribed for the cat as if she weighed like a human (by the way, no one at the vet clinic asked her weight), we were told to take a general and biochemical blood test and sputum for analysis, but sputum is taken under anesthesia, and the device for this is only available in the clinic where she was diagnosed with asthma. I signed her up for tests today, we donated blood, her white blood cells are low, and she was told to have a bronchoscopy only when all the tests are ready (biochemistry will be ready only in a day). There are a lot of bad rumors about this vet clinic, but it is the only one with diagnostic equipment such as ultrasound, X-ray or endoscope. I'm afraid and I don't trust the doctors there. It seems to me that she may die because my friend's dog died from the actions of the veterinarian. When we were driving back, I took the cat to the veterinary clinic at my house, they looked at her tests and said she needed antibiotics. I do not know who to trust. I'm afraid I'll only make it worse with drugs.
I have a huge problem that because doctors saved my Life, I trust them unconditionally, but not all doctors are like my first endocrinologist.
My bg was around 10 all morning, but when my cat and I got home, it dropped to 7 without insulin.

That's a lot of (expensive) hoops to jump through... We filmed a coughing fit, which sounded like asthma to the vet, were given steroids to see whether that helped, while the bloodwork was being processed... When it did help and the bloodwork came back alright, the verdict was asthma, put on an inhaler, done. Otherwise it would've indeed been a course of antibiotics, which you can just try anyway... The meds are less expensive to try, than putting a cat under just for a test, really. Trial and error could be more effective, and less stressful. But that's if it's just a matter of confirming asthma, if there might be something else at play, who knows...

I don't trust doctors implicitly. Some I do, but they have earned it first. Others... I've been through too many misdiagnoses not to do my own research. But that's just me.

Diagnostic equipment can help, and does... But if it's the difference between spending a tenner on steroids of antibiotics, or hundreds or thousands on exploration... Just something to discuss with the doc.
Hugs,
Jo

 

[Zhnyaka]

I've read everything, so, mods, you can delete this thread, I and JoKalsbeek can go to the private message if we decide to talk. After all, my cat has nothing to do with diabetes.