Hubert

It's been awhile since I have talked about the cats. I can't be a crazy cat lady if I don't talk about them, right? So cat post today. You're welcome.

I recently found out that Hubert has asthma. I didn't even know that was a thing for cats, but apparently it is. I discovered this bc about 3 weeks ago, Hubert started making this choking, gagging noise. At first I thought it might be a hairball but nothing came up & he kept doing it. I thought he might have eaten something he shouldn't & that it was stuck so I took him to the vet.



The vet checked him out & took x-rays to make sure he hadn't eaten anything. The vet determined that he had allergies that were triggering asthma & that he had developed a bronchial infection as well. He gave him two shots, a steroid shot to help w/ the asthma/allergies & an antibiotic shot for the infection. The vet gave him 2 puffs from an albuterol inhaler to help him breathe right then & said we should be good for about 3 weeks & to bring him back in 3 weeks to see how he was doing. The vet said it might be seasonal & we would be able to tell once the steroid wore off in 3 weeks. If it wore off & his symptoms didn't return, it's seasonal. If they came back, it was chronic & we would need to do long term solutions.

About a week later, right before Labor Day weekend, Hubert started sneezing. All day long. His face started to look swollen & he became super lethargic. He was also finding nooks & crannies to hide in, which wasn't like him. And he seemed to be getting worse over the weekend, so I had to bring him back in on Tuesday after Labor Day for an emergency visit. I thought maybe the infection had gotten worse.

The vet looked @ him for a minute, asked the tech to get the inhaler, & gave Hubert 2 puffs on the rescue inhaler. He immediately gasped in a huge breath & the vet explained that Hubert not only has allergy induced asthma, but that he had it really bad. The steroid shot that was supposed to last 3 weeks lasted 8 days. His allergies were going insane & he was having a lot of trouble breathing.

So, this time, the vet sent us home w/ steroid pills that he has to take & an Rx for a rescue inhaler. I have to give him the pills & the inhaler daily for two weeks & bring him back in after that. It still might be seasonal, but it's a bad case of it.

If it's not seasonal, I will have to give him a daily inhaled steroid & have the rescue inhaler in case he has an asthma attack. If it's seasonal, we can just do what we are doing now for treatment @ this time of the year. So I really hope it's seasonal.

Thankfully, the pills & inhaler treatment appears to be working right now. The allergy symptoms have subsided & he is full of energy again, which is good. I was pretty worried about him but it's good to know it's treatable. Not cheap, but treatable.