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Home Forums Cats Asthma caused pulmonary disease in cat

Asthma caused pulmonary disease in cat

Published on: January 31, 2025 • By: Infrared · In Forum: Cats
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Infrared
Participant
January 31, 2025 at 05:07pm
Hi, my senior 18 yo cat got asthma and recently stopped eating, x-ray and blood test show pulmonary disease and kidney problem. steroid puffs dont really help. she breaths heavily often is there anything to help her condition? or is it the end? :(
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
January 31, 2025 at 05:46pm
Hello - and I'm sorry to hear that your cat is strugging with pulmonary (that just means 'to do with the lungs') disease, kidney disease and is off their food.  That sounds to be a lot for an 18 year old cat.   While the first two likely have diagnoses attached to them (eg feline asthma for lung disease - is that confirmed?) being 'off food' is a symptom, which can be caused by various means - including kidney failure, including athsma and including various other processes that cant immediately be ruled out, including pancreatitis which is common in older cats that are ill with something else.  Now; from where I'm sitting, its hard to know what's going on.  Athsma can often be treated to some extent, but I don't know how certain that diagnosis is or how likely it is to be the cause of your cat's refusal to eat at the present time.  Can you be sure that there isn't cardiac involvement or metastasis from a lump or some other disease process going on?  Since the steroid puffs have not been helping, have you been back to your vet / called them to discuss other approaches?  I would reccommend this as your next step. For me, when dyspnoea (failure to breathe properly) is suddenly more noticable, this is serious and a red flag - so please consider the involvement of an emergency vet if need be.
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
January 31, 2025 at 05:54pm
There is an article in the blog on this site that you may be interested  in; you will find it using the search function.  Look for something along the lines of: Can athsmatic cats use inhalers?
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Infrared
Participant
January 31, 2025 at 06:07pm
Thanks, will search. blood test and x-ray as recent as 3 weeks ago show abdominal, cardiac, liver, stomach, bladder all normal, no tumors. "There is a pulmonary pattern which is abnormal which appears to be a mixture of a bronchial pattern and a interstitial pattern especially within the caudal thorax, specifically within the caudal pulmonary parenchyma. Assessment: Significant airway disease is considered likely based on the thoracic study."  breathing is not constant for couple weeks already i need to know what to ask for from our vet, he said it's likely her time and call him when we ready :-(
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
January 31, 2025 at 06:29pm
For me, there is a gap between the report and the conclusion.  What does your vet think the diagnosis is?  It seems likely that they knew there was significant  airway disease before even taking the radiographs.   Is the cause of the airway disease still unknown?  What diseases does an interstitial pattern in the caudal pulmonary parenchyna usually suggest?  What is most likely to be causing it in this case?  Might a specialist opinion throw some light on the case?
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Infrared
Participant
January 31, 2025 at 09:14pm
i dont like our vet, and he didn't offer anything better... looks like she wants to eat/drink, but likely has hard time swallowing, hesitant at first for a minute or so, then she eats or drinks a little. all tests done after she suffered from coughing and refused eating. she survives for 3 weeks on me spoon-feeding her
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
January 31, 2025 at 10:32pm
That sounds miserable.  I understand that you do not feel well-comunicated with by your vet, but in order to help your cat, it sounds as though some questions need to be forced in order to make some decisions.  These may include; What are the differentials - the possible causes - for this condition?  Have you considered lungworm / Could Lungworm be one of them?      2)  can you think of any situation in which treatment could be curative at this stage?   3) Please could we talk to someone for a second opinion?    I hope that something here is helpful
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