Fred MIGHT have asthma (best case scenario)..anythingtoknow?

[Martica and Fred]

Fred has been having breathing difficulties which I thought was the return of cardiac heart failure (fluid in the lungs). Lasix has been helping but it's still sort of there.

But I had a long talk with the cardiologist today who said that because his breathing rate was so slow (13 breaths per minute), she doubted it was fluid in the lungs, and also he had a mild case of HCM diagnosed earlier this year and she said that in an old cat it usually doesn't deteriorate that quickly...so she suggested that it could be asthma/bronchitis...or even something worse a tumor in the lung or nasal cavity (which I'm not sure he can be checked for since it requires risky sedation) and I don't think I can treat him if it's something like that in his state and for his age.

so I have a vet appt on Friday and wer'e going to try to figure out. If it is asthma...is there anything I should keep in mind for the Db? I know, NO steroids....but what about the other drugs...inhaler? Fred has CRF and HCM as well....

thanks!
martica

 

[chriscleo]

whatever i did, i'd want to make sure first that the cardiologist says it's ok for the heart.

an xray will show whether it's asthma. my cat was diagnosed with it a few months ago so i got a prescription for flovent and an aerokat chamber to administer it. flovent takes up to a few weeks to start taking effect, so in the meantime most kitties are started on prednisolone (steroid) to help reduce inflammation and make breathing easier. they also get albuterol as an rescue type inhaler til the flovent starts taking effect. as the flovent starts working for them, the pred is tapered down to nothing, basically. asthma attacks are pretty scary if he has them, so i'd be okay about starting pred til the flovent can start working. it may raise the blood glucose a bit but he shouldn't be on it long enough for permanent problems.

my cat is normally pretty easygoing but gets panicky at getting the mask on to breathe in the flovent. many people burrito their cat at the beginning just til they get more comfy about the mask (inhaler). burritoing didn't work for me so now i just put harry in a pillowcase and wrap it around him so he can't get his feet out to fight the inhaler. calming voice and treat afterward, and they get more comfy and tolerate the inhaler more.

 

[Martica and Fred]

ha! burrito--does that mean wrapping them in a towel or soemthing? Fred is very compliant and not strong enough to wiggle or fight anyway, so I don't think it will be a problem. The predinisone is a little worrying...sure it's ok for a while? anyway, we'll see what he says. The cardiolgist will also be looking at the xray to doublecheck that it's not heart--but she said that his slow breathing pretty much suggested that it wasn't...

 

[WCF and Meowzi]

i'm not an expert on heart disease (i know nothing about it!), but there's something on Tanya's site about a possible link between corticosteroids (like pred) and a unique form of congestive heart failure. http://felinecrf.org/treatments.htm#steroids

 

[Martica and Fred]

Thanks, yes, I have to factor in all 3 of his diseases--I'll check this out...

 

[squeem3]

Here's the Fritz the brave web site for asthma info: http://www.fritzthebrave.com/

Flovent is typically used to treat asthma in diabetic cats. The Flovent molecules are too large to pass through the lungs and into the blood stream so it won't affect bgs at all. You need the AeroKat mask to give the Flovent to your cat, http://www.trudellmed.com/animal-health/aerokat