Sophia Might Have Asthma *Vet Appt. Sat. or Next Week*

[Anikaca77]

Sophia has an appt at 6 p.m. tonight to get her cough checked out. All this time I was thinking it was a hairball that she couldn't cough up and she won't take the hairball meds either so I just thought she doesn't like to throw up and is refusing too. Well I went to John's house last Friday night to drop off Lucie Noel Lu for him to take to Donna in CT and we saw Lucky doing the same thing that Sophia does and John said that, it's actually a cough coming from their lungs. I never realized that. I feel like such a bad mom right now that I've been maybe possibly neglecting her but she's going in tonight to get checked out and see what's going on.

I adopted Sophia from Fondas Foundlings, she's a local cat rescue whom I've been helping out for several years with her Petfinder site and I've helped post ads up.

Here is a link on how I met Sophia and came to adopt her:

http://www.petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=148093

She came to my house last Nov. 08. She is a very sweet girl.

Now onto Osiris. Osiris came to live with us last year as well because the PSPCA couldn't take in any cats due to a virus that was going around their shelter and Shirley couldn't take in anymore so we offered to foster him so he wouldn't have to be stuck in a cage and well we fell in love with him and he's been here ever since.

The reason why he might need to go to the vets tonight as well because his one bottom tooth (I've been trying to check everyone's teeth from time to time) is crooked but it's always been that way since we had him and never seemed to bother him much but just this past week I noticed right in front of that tooth his gum is red. The other day I checked it and it was normal color. This morning I checked it and it was red again. I think may take him in to get that checked out and just to make sure it's nothing.

Prays would be great right now, especially since I owe my vet over $900 right now and my husband isn't working right now so we are really low on cash but we need to do what we have to for our animals regardless.

Thanks,
melissa

[katladyd]

Boy, do I know what you mean about owing the vets!!! I started out owing them over $1,200 but have gradually got that down to a little over $100. I just can't seem to have enough free money to even give them $25 the last couple of months and this is stressing me out. She's a great vet and I don't want to lose her. I will be getting money in January that will enable me to pay off some of my bills and my vet will be the first!!

[Medusa]

You're not a bad mom, Melissa. We can't know everything. This is where PT really helps us b/c we learn things from members that we might otherwise never know. As for owing the vet, they realize we're in a recession just like everyone else and as long as you're making a good faith effort to pay off the bill, I can't imagine that your vet will trouble you about it. Prayers are going up right now for your furbabies. Keep the faythe.

[jennielynn1970]

I hope things will be ok for Sophia and Osiris. Don't beat yourself up, sometimes a cat can hide that there is a serious illness going on, and sometimes the symptoms just seem not very important. What is great is that you are getting them medical attention that they need, even though it is going to be costly to you.

I can totally understand the whole bills piling up and husband (or in my case, boyfriend) not working. Right now is a hard time to find a job, and the bills don't stop and the collectors don't care what is happening really.


Thoughts and prayers going out for your kitties and for you and your husband.
Hugs!

[Anikaca77]

The vets office called and had to cancel my appt. tonight but I'm getting Sophia in with my Sebastian and Apollo's appt. on Dec. 28th at 4:30 p.m. Osiris I'm going ot keep watching for right now but we'll see come Monday.

[Anikaca77]

We took Sophia, Sebastian, and Apollo to the vets on Dec. 27th or the 28th I think, and she looked over Sophia and her heart was beating so fast and Sophia was all worked up. She hasn't been to the vets for well over a year and I only had her at my vets just once and before that she had her eye removed at another vet.

She will be going in for a chest x-ray on Jan. 20th to see if she has asthma but the vet said it sounded like she did.

If she does she will go on meds but I'm not sure for how long.

Melissa

[krazyaboutkatz]

I hope that everything will go well for her on Jan.20th. I think if she has asthma that she'd have to be on meds for the rest of her life. Lots of prayers and positive thoughts are being sent her way. Please take care. (((HUGS)))

[Anikaca77]

This morning at 2 a.m. Sophia woke me up coughing like crazy. The poor girl went on forever it seemed.

She was in our bedroom with us and I got up and took her out to the living room to comfort her.

Poor thing. This was a bad one last night. I think I'm going to call the vets to see if we can move her appt. up so that way she can get started on some meds.

Melissa

[Anikaca77]

It's been a while since I updated this thread and we are still trying to help Sophia.

After Sophia had that huge coughing fit on Jan. 7th I was at the vets on Friday, Jan. 8th with Hermes and I was telling the vet about Sophia's coughing. Ellen is the main vet and the other vet I was seeing is Alice she's a new vet so she tends to go by the book and what not.

So I brought in a CD that had Sophia's coughing incase she wanted to listen to it and Ellen described what a cat with asthma will do and that's exactly what Sophia does so we decided at that point to start her on prednisone and so I started giving her 2 pills a day and then on Jan. 27th I went down to 1 pill a day and she started coughing 2 days after just doing 1 pill a day, I called the vets and they said do another 2 weeks of the pills at twice a day.

Last week she had a coughing fit in the morning shortley after I gave her the prednisone. I called the vets and the vet tech said just to see if she does it again and if she does I should schedule another vet appt.

So yesterday morning she coughed again. I called the vets and the vet tech scheduled Sophia for tomorrow morning but I'm thinking I'm going to call because the last time they said they were going to do an x-ray and bloodtest but she will need to be sedated for that because she gets super worked up before going to the vets and I don't want to take her to the vets just for a check up or something because that will stress her out.

Hopefully we can figure out something that will help her.

Melissa

[Snowhound]

Hi Melissa,

My cat Hansel had asthma when I lived in the UK. He was wheezing terribly and I thought he looked so sick he was about to die. Took him to the vet who gave him a steroid shot & some tablets & he was fine in a few days. Vet said the spring weather had triggered an asthma attack. Hansel was always a vibrant, healthy active cat so I knew something was definitely wrong with him. Now he's fine & back to normal & doesn't need on-going meds. Best of luck.

[Anikaca77]

Thank you for the information. They did a bloodtest and x-ray and found out that she does have asthma and the only thing we can do for her is try to get her on the lowest dose of pred. as possible.

Right now we are transferring her down to 1 pill a day and hopefully next week if all goes well this week we will attempt to take her down to 1 pill every other day and see how that goes for 2 weeks.

Melissa