Congested kitty

[kittenina]

Hello, my Kittenina has had congestion since the summer. Over that time ,the vet has given us 3-4 courses of a 10 day antibiotic (doxycycline). The doxy got less effective over time, with the last course only getting rid of the congestion about 90-95%. But in all cases her congestion came back.

At one appointment vet had me get blood test and biopsy of a polyp in her left nostril. Blood showed healthy kitty, biopsy was negative but they said precancerous sort of tissue.

The last appointment vet said we can't keep giving her antibiotics, have her prednisone instead, she's been on it 6 days of a 21 day trailing course, but her congestion is getting worse.

She's struggling. It's a noisy breathing sound and it worries me, I know she is feeling bad.

The vet also said he has a steroidal cream we can try if I can apply it inside her nostril. Well it's looking like I'm gonna have to call and request that because of no improvement.

I'm asking if anyone has experience with polyps or congestion and thoughts on what to do for her. She's a complete angel cat she's 13.

Some other notes, she stopped eating dry food, vet thinks cuz she can't smell as well.

 

[stephanietx]

What a pretty girl! I'm sorry you're both going through this. Has the vet done an x-ray to see if there's any growth in the sinuses?

 

[kittenina]

Thanks for your kind thoughts! The vet had suggested xray but then decided against it in place of the biopsy and blood, he didnt recommend it last time either. Is there any treatment for sinus growths?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi and welcome to TCS! Admittedly, I do not have experience with polyps, but it seems with the biopsy, there should be some further treatment options, which of course, one would be steroids. Have you considered getting a second opinion from an internal med specialty group? They might have some insight above and beyond what you would find with a regular vet.

If she truly is having congestion in addition to the polyp, you could try running hot water in a bathroom with the door closed to create a steamy-like sauna. and then sit with her in there for 5 minutes or so to see if it helps. If it does, you can do this multiple times a day. Hopefully, it could help with her eating too.

 

[stephanietx]

You could talk to the vet about nose drops that contain steroids, which might help.

 

[Kris107]

If you don't want to run the water in the shower, could try putting a washcloth on a dish then pour boiling water on it. That should steam. Then put near her nose. Poor thing...

 

[kittenina]

Hi and welcome to TCS! Admittedly, I do not have experience with polyps, but it seems with the biopsy, there should be some further treatment options, which of course, one would be steroids. Have you considered getting a second opinion from an internal med specialty group? They might have some insight above and beyond what you would find with a regular vet.

If she truly is having congestion in addition to the polyp, you could try running hot water in a bathroom with the door closed to create a steamy-like sauna. and then sit with her in there for 5 minutes or so to see if it helps. If it does, you can do this multiple times a day. Hopefully, it could help with her eating too.

Hi everyone, thank you for all of your input. I wanted to follow up now. We went to an internal med specialty and got different thinking regarding polyps. The internal medicine vet says polyps only occur in young cats. I mentioned that Kittenina has always had discharge from her left eye, and that maybe she has always had a polyp and now it is becoming an issue, with more drainage. The vet brushed that off. But i dont really remember what the vet said about polyp removal, if that is even possible. My original vet thinks its a polyp, and we had it biopsied, they said the type of tissue tends to turn into an aggressive form of cancer. But that it is not cancerous currently.

We are really stuck trying to figure this out for Kitty. In december she was on a trailing prednisone course that she responded to somewhat. But congestion returned and in late january i got my original vet to give me the antibiotics again, which worked about 90-95%, but again, the congestion returns. Linking an audio file so you can hear how bad it is, i know when i am congested and cant use my nose it is so miserable, and that makes me sad for her. But she is still a cuddly, sweet and loving baby angel...
Nina Congestion

The internal medicine vet gave me a treatment plan for a rhinoscopy/CTscan. The price was $6,500. During the rhinoscopy if there was a foreign body stuck in her nose that they could remove, they would. But if there was a tumor, it would likely be fused to the bone and that is not removable (radiation therapy). Other things that this course of action could assess would be a root abscess from her teeth. I can't remember what the treatment plan would do if they said it was a root abscess. But the takeaway i got was that the rhinoscopy/CTscan could very well not be conclusive. I am posting the evaluation from her visit:

Physical Exam:
On physical exam, Kittenina was bright and alert with normal vitals (temperature, pulse, respiration). She weighed 3.41 kg or
7.5lb. She had left-sided nasal discharge with crusted discharge around the left nostril. She had a soft heart murmur noted
today. With the exception of mild dental disease, the remainder of Kittenina’s exam was unremarkable.
Assessment:
As we discussed, there are a number of possible causes of nasal discharge in the cat. Some of these include a nasal tumor,
foreign body, tooth root abscess, chronic inflammation, fungal disease, or viral infection. All of these things can result in
secondary bacterial infection. The best way to fully understand what is driving disease in the nose, a CT scan of the skull with
rhinoscopy would be recommended. We discussed that we could consider an anti-viral; however, primary viral infection is
considered less likely at this time.

Remember that we had blood work done before this by my vet who said it came back good. I dont think the steamy shower really helps much.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice? I have spent more than $1200 already on this and the prospect of an inconclusive rhinoscopy/CTscan for so much money is disheartening. I wonder if there are good services for the same procedure in mexico, not even joking.

 

[kittenina]

To try to distill this:

• a nasal tumor - worst outcome, not removable
• foreign body - best outcome, removable during rhinoscopy,
• tooth root abscess - i believe this is treatable
• chronic inflammation - why would this only occur in one nostril? This seems unlikely to me
• fungal disease - i think the blood panel would have shown this
• viral infection - again, blood panel would have shown this

Our original vet said we could rotate steroids and antibiotics. But being on systemic antibiotics is not good in general.

 

[Antonio65]

My cat (profile picture) had a nasal tumor, a nasal carcinoma up in one of her nostrils, she was successfully treated with radiotherapy. So, in the worst case scenario, there's hope.

 

[GenCat]

No personal experience with this, but know someone who did have similar issues in a kitten. Failure to thrive, breathing issues, nasal discharge, etc turned out to be a growth in the nasal passage. Not sure how it was treated but he became a bundle of healthy energy and grew to be a huge cat. I wish you and your furry friend the best whatever you decide

 

[fionasmom]

The first vet actually did remove a tissue sample from her nose and biopsy it, but the IM vet is ignoring that procedure and the result?

What potentially is the foreign body in the opinion of the IM vet? I have had two pets with a foreign body in the nose, one dog and one cat, and in both cases it was inhaled and there was very noticeable distress and a run to the ER before it moved into the respiratory tract.

Is the CT part of the rhinoscopy procedure or would it tell anything if done separately and would it save any money if it were...or not?

 

[lisahe]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here but -- given that Kittenina's primary symptom seems to be congestion -- has any vet mentioned the possibility that she has allergies? Has anyone prescribed antihistamines for her? As an Allergic Person, allergies are what come to mind when I think of congestion! I don't see any mention of allergies in your very detailed (thank you!) notes, K kittenina , but, speaking from personal experience, I can say there are zillions of things that can cause allergies all year round, particularly now that we're having warmer winters where I live, in northern New England.

One of our cats (who is also asthmatic) has allergies and takes an antihistamine twice a day. (We have transdermal cream that goes in her ear. Some people use pills for their cats; that's much cheaper if you can pill your cat easily!) Allergies seem to be fairly common for cats -- I hear about them a lot in a feline respiratory disease group on Facebook -- so I'd strongly suggest asking your vet about antihistamine if nobody has tried prescribing them yet.

Good luck! Kittenina is beautiful, I hope you're able to find a treatment soon.

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. I am sorry your kitten is going through this. She is beautiful.

Routine bloodwork will not show a fungal infection. I would talk to your vet and see if there is Cryptococcus in your area. Don’t let her being an indoor kitty make you think she couldn’t get it. I have seen many indoor cats get it.

Can you post a copy of the histopathology report.

I have seen a nebulizer work for cats with these symptoms before. Saline, dexamethasone, and Acetylstine was used. You would have to discuss this with your vet. Steam won’t help and could make things worse.

 

[Alldara]

What colour is the discharge? If it's green, I would ask that the vet try an anti-fungal first. My cat did rounds and rounds of antibiotics, but only really started clearing up on this medication that was both anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. It was not caught on routine bloodwork or the slides. When she was moved back to regular antibiotics, she worsened and we couldn't get it cleared.