7 mo Medley has pneumonia and a heart murmur

[Lyzzie]

Our foster fail Medley has been diagnosed with pneumonia yesterday. The vet also heard a murmur, and we're going back next Wed. for an echo. He's only 7 month old. Yesterday I've been doing some researching, and although I like being better informed, I'm also scared.

He's coughing, has lost weight, and he's breathing faster than his siblings. His brother Moby and his adopted sister Shadow have also lost weight, but they all have been eating fine, so I dewormed the three of them, and sure enough, roudworms. That's disgusting BTW, and I'm not disgusted easily. I need to treat them again next week. Medley is the only one with the cough. I've been researching, and my working theory was that he was infested by the worms so bad that they made him cough, which is known to happen. That could also explain the fast breathing, but it didn't feel quite right, so we took him to the vet. After ausculting him, he did two X-rays, and he's got pneumonia. Which would also fits my theory.

But it could be much worse, could be FeLV, FIV, CHF, could still be FIP. He had a calici in December, which cleared out with anti biotics and anti inflammatory med, that's why I though at first the coughing could be a remnant of that.

He's on Marbofloxacin and Benazepril. They all have been on probiotics since early January.

Is there anything I can do to help him while waiting for the echo? I feel helpless, and he's so young, I didn't think I would have to deal with these kinds of things for a long time. Any advice?

 

[artiemom]

Can you put her in a steam filled bathroom with the shower running hot? that may help her breath and cough up some junk.. 

and keep her warm.. 

poor baby..give him some yummy food to make sure she eats.. and gets enough water in him... 

as far as the heart murmur: how bad was it? Your kitty could outgrow it...

so do not stress out now, about that.. there is a lot going on with this litter one... 

((hugs)))

 

[Lyzzie]

Thanks @Artiemom, I follow your Artie thread, so I appreciate you helping us all the more. I hope you're not too sick, and that Artie is happy. Maybe not "Happy" happy, but still

He's drinking fine, but eating is beginning to be a problem, so I'm going to pick up new stuff for him to try. He's not sneezing, just coughing for a few minutes once or twice a day. He does cough out junk every time and is swallowing it. He's breathing trough his nose just fine.

I'm going to do the steaming shower tip anyway, it's not going to hurt.

For the murmur, I don't know how bad it was, we will know more next Wed., but I'm still going to call anyway to speak to the vet and get a copy of the X-Rays. We were so surprised yesterday that we couldn't think of anything to ask.

 

[artiemom]

 
Thanks @Artiemom, I follow your Artie thread, so I appreciate you helping us all the more. I hope you're not too sick, and that Artie is happy. Maybe not "Happy" happy, but still

He's drinking fine, but eating is beginning to be a problem, so I'm going to pick up new stuff for him to try. He's not sneezing, just coughing for a few minutes once or twice a day. He does cough out junk every time and is swallowing it. He's breathing trough his nose just fine.

I'm going to do the steaming shower tip anyway, it's not going to hurt.

For the murmur, I don't know how bad it was, we will know more next Wed., but I'm still going to call anyway to speak to the vet and get a copy of the X-Rays. We were so surprised yesterday that we couldn't think of anything to ask.

Thank you for following Artie's thread...((hugs)) to you for doing that.. 

Perhaps his not eating is from his feeling sick.. could have a stuffy nose and cannot smell..

You could try some people tuna...make sure it is the water packed one.. and If you feel he is not getting enough in, you could make some tuna water: put a can of tuna in a container with the juice and some extra water.. add this to his food, or give him some to lap up...

I have done this for Artie.. the water does help..

He probably just feels horrible.. I know I feel horrible and do not feel like eating when I have bronchitis/pneumonia.. all you want to do is sleep..it takes everything out of you.. try some smelly treats also...

and baby food is really good.. the stage one food WITHOUT onions, garlic, or tomatoes...

or you could try some homemade bone broth.. just get some bones, put in a pot and boil it down.. can put a bit of meat in it also.. nothing else....

((hugs)))

 

[Lyzzie]

 
Thank you for following Artie's thread...((hugs)) to you for doing that.. 

Perhaps his not eating is from his feeling sick.. could have a stuffy nose and cannot smell..

You could try some people tuna...make sure it is the water packed one.. and If you feel he is not getting enough in, you could make some tuna water: put a can of tuna in a container with the juice and some extra water.. add this to his food, or give him some to lap up...

I have done this for Artie.. the water does help..

He probably just feels horrible.. I know I feel horrible and do not feel like eating when I have bronchitis/pneumonia.. all you want to do is sleep..it takes everything out of you.. try some smelly treats also...

and baby food is really good.. the stage one food WITHOUT onions, garlic, or tomatoes...

or you could try some homemade bone broth.. just get some bones, put in a pot and boil it down.. can put a bit of meat in it also.. nothing else....

((hugs)))

Thanks

!

I just mushed some FF, and I had warm water at the ready to make it soupy, but I didn't have to, he's eating it! We're good for now on the food front.

I called the vet, and got the X-Rays and more explanations about the echo. The echo is to see exactly what the problem with his heart is, to be able to treat accordingly. The vet tech wasn't able to give me any info about the X-Rays, so we'll ask about that again next week.

I think he's just really tired, between the stress, the sickness and the anti biotic injection yesterday. But he ate almost the whole can, so I'm feeling better!

Another stressful thing is money. I asked about the costs if we do an echo and FIV and FeLV tests, and that's gonna be about 160€. That's without meds. I know it seems like not a lot compared to prices in the US, but for us it is. We already paid 140€ yesterday. They will take a payment plan of sorts if we asks, so we will. We still have Sparrow's boosters and Shadow's spay to do next month. I have no idea how we're going to pull that off.

 

[Lyzzie]

Update : We are taking things one step at a time, so for now, we are going to wait and see what the echo shows us, and we'll go from there.

This is day 4 of Medley's meds, and he's feeling much better already. He's back to eating a lot, and he's playing more with us and his brother and sister. I think his breathing isn't as fast as it used to be, but I'm not sure, it's still faster than Moby and Shadow's.

I got the X-Rays from the vet, I'm posting them here :

THORAX1.png

• Lyzzie
• Jan 22, 2017

THORAX2.png

• Lyzzie
• Jan 22, 2017

 

[Lyzzie]

Update : we took Medley to the vet this morning, and his echo didn't show anything abnormal at all! There's no lesions anywhere, so it's likely that his heart murmur will resolve itself with time. He's going to get another echo in 6 months, to check things out. So YAY!

He's doing much better with his breathing, and he's coughing less and less. He's playing way more, and he also gained 200 gr since last week! The vet agrees with me that it's possible the roundworms did this to him, and I should deworm them all again now, and again every month for 6 months. The not so good news is that his pneumonia is so severe that instead of 20 days of anti biotics he's getting a full month, and it's pretty much a done deal that he will have respiratory problems on and off all his life. The vet was happy that he was on probiotics too. I'm keeping him on them at least as long as he's on anti biotics. We also get to take him back to the vet in three weeks to get X-rays done and see how his lungs are.

Oh, and we have figured out the whole money problem, so February is going to be tough for us humans, but Sparrow will get his boosters, Medley his X-Rays, and Shadow her spay and microchip.

 

[Lyzzie]

Update!

The last two months were so hectic, I didn't update on Medley, so here it is.

We went back for more X-Rays mid-February, after a month of antibiotics and Benazepril to support his heart. His lung were not much better, even when comparing the images next to one another, there was barely a change. So poor Medley was on for another month on both medication again. It was really disheartening to see so little progress, but at the same time he was really full of energy, playing with everyone like never before!

I had also just finished his third round of roundworms treatment (one every two weeks for six weeks), and he was hardly coughing.

But a week later I had to bring him back to the vet, because his lower lip was quite swollen, and it wasn't getting better. He got an injection of 0.2cc of cortisone, and the vet started talking about asthma, or maybe allergies. I asked about allergies, and when he asked me what kind of bowl I was using to feed them, I immediately thought of the toy feeder I got them, this one :
[product="19161"]Catit Design Senses Treat Maze  [/product]
They loved it, but the base when the kibbles drop is plastic. And that's a big NO NO. I told him about it, but he wasn't really convinced, saying that accounts for maybe 5% of allergies in cats, which are really hard to pinpoint anyway, but I should change it back to the ceramic bowls and plates I normally use.

While I was there, I thought I should have him combo tested. After Sparrow's boosters and Shadow's spay the week prior, we didn't really had the money, but what the heck, with 3 other cats at home, I needed to know. That was a LOOOONG 10 minutes, but he was negative for both!!! I was really happy about that.

We also talked about his lungs and coughing, and since he got the cortisone injection, the vet told me to keep tabs on the coughing, and to call back 10 days later. He had a suspicion that the cortisone would help clear his lung, since the antibiotics didn't seemed to help that much. 10 days later, Medley's lip was back to normal, and he wasn't coughing anymore, so I called the vet, and we were told to finish his treatment, and then see if he was still doing good.

On March 12 Medley got the last of his meds. A week later, March 19, the coughing went back big time, along with the rapid breathing. At this point, we were in the red at the bank, and I had already tapped out all my friends and family, so we couldn't get him back to the vet again. Instead we called, and they told us to just get him back on the cardiac support med, and see. He's on that since last monday, and his breathing has improved, but not his cough.

Last Saturday, John was cleaning the litter boxes, and called me to show me a big puddle of poop, not quite liquid, but almost. I looked at it, and then I saw it. The roundworms are BACK. And of course being Saturday night, everything was closed until today.

So first thing this morning, I went to the pharmacy to get his roundworms meds. I checked, it's the exact soma composition has the Drontal the vet sells, except it's only 6.50€ for the 2 caps, and with Medley's weight, that means I get two treatments out of it.

Anyway, I gave it to him, and he did poop tonight after his meal. And boy oh boy. I put gloves on, and picked the poop apart. I found 21 roundworms. 21. Poor guy is infested.

So I'm back to my first theory : his lungs are full of worms larvae, he's coughing them up and swallowing them back, and they get nice and cozy in his intestines.

For now, due to finances, all I can do is treat him for worms every two weeks on the dot, and keep giving him his cardiac meds, until we can bring him back to the vet. Which would not be before May.

I know I read somewhere on the site about a strong 3 days treatment for worms, but I can't remember where. I would like to get as much info on this as I could, in order to talk about it with the vet. I'm not sure that's something I want to try without his approval, but it'd be nice to know anyway.

I would also love your thoughts about all this, and any theories you might have!

 

[Lyzzie]

This morning I found 2 of Medley's poops waiting for me... So I dug in after breakfast, and I found 37 roundworms in them. OMG.

I called the vet, and got one of the vet techs, who advise me to keep treating him every two weeks, and if it's not working well enough, I should try a different molecule, like Milbemax, which contains Milbemycin instead of Pyrantel.

I asked if this could be related to his lungs, and she said no, which puzzled me, because the vet said yes, and I know it's true from my research.

I'm going to keep treating him every two weeks, and go from there.

I'm also going to treat the other 3 cats, but each two days apart, so I can tell who's pooping what more easily.

 

[maggiedemi]

Hi lyzzie. Any updates on your cats? I always enjoyed reading your threads.

 

[Lyzzie]

Hi M maggiedemi thank you! It was a messy few months, but here's the latest about Medley :

I kept treating him for worms, but it wasn't getting better, so I went to the vet, and got a month and a half treatment of Stronghold for him, and a month of Milbemax for Moby, Shadow and Sparrow.

We finished it a little while ago, and I'm happy to report that Medley is worm free! He's not coughing anymore, he plays like the crazy cat he is, he's not getting short of breath, and he's eating like an ogre! He's finally putting some weight on, and he's crazy affectionate.

I'm waiting a little bit to get him back to the vet and get an X-Ray taken of his lungs, but I think we're in the clear.

The only thing still bothering me is that he did get a little discharge in his left eye, for about a week. It cleared on its own. I'm thinking it's probably the coryza that's coming back with stress. I'm working on my stress level, because the timing of it was spot on, I think he's attuned to me, and I'm working on getting him a stress-free environment.

Here's a few pics of the little guys, Medley and Moby are now 1 yo, Shadow is 11 months.


From left to right : Shadow, Moby, Medley


Medley


Shadow


Medley


Medley and Moby
They are often mirroring each other like that, it's funny to watch!

 

[maggiedemi]

Thanks for the update! How is Sparrow doing? I remember he ran away for a little while. I'm so glad he's back.

 

[Lyzzie]

Sparrow is doing well! He disappeared for a little over a week in January. He actually was lost after running away from either another cat or a dog. Here's the thread : Sparrow didn't came home last night.

He's still allowed outside, but I'm working with him to make him more comfortable inside, hoping that his need to go out will lessen. It seems to work, he only got outside this morning for like 10 minutes, probably to do his business and check things out.