Hello all – I need some advice on whether or not my cat actually has asthma and if he needs an inhaler. I’ll start by saying he has been to the vet twice and I am still at a loss. Here’s the whole history which I’ll try to keep short. In 2012 my then 3 year old Himalayan mix started coughing like he had a hairball. After a few days of treating hairballs he did not get better so I took him to the vet. She said he sounded a tad wheezy, prescribed prednisone and it cleared up almost immediately. I changed his litter to a dust free kind and rid the house of any air fresheners and am now very careful with any cleaning products, etc. around the house, etc. He never coughed again and all was well. Cut to December 2019 and he is now 10 years old and the coughing started up again. No cat likes the vet, but my little Houdini is a nightmare to get in the carrier, pees and poops on himself, etc. He’s like a rabid possum. So, I gave it a few days and then called an in home vet. He said he didn’t hear any wheezing or crackling and thought it was more allergies than asthma. He prescribed a 10 day course of prednisone. After 2 days he was fine again, but then 3 weeks later the cough came back. So this time I took him to his regular vet clinic (nightmare that it was). Like the home vet, she said he didn’t sound wheezy, only very slightly. They did $700 worth of tests. I love my cats (I have one other) and if it cost 5 Gs to cure him, I’m in, I’ll figure out a way to pay, but these test started to seem unnecessary. They did x-rays, which I wanted, a blood test, a senior cat blood panel, and a urinalysis. Everything came back great. The x-rays showed his lungs were clear and his heart was not enlarged. His blood work was also good. They did however tell me that his blood sugar had a huge spike, which can be caused by stress. FYI, I had to leave him at the vet for 4 hours while they did all the testing, so to rule out diabetes they used his stored blood sample and did another special glucose test. That came back on the line of borderline diabetic so she would not prescribe any prednisone as that can cause diabetes. I asked if the previous course of pred caused the borderline diabetic line and she said maybe. That’s another issue, but he is only 1 pound overweight and I have now switched him to metabolic wet food. I monitored his water intake, which is only 6 ounces a day so I am 99.99% sure his is not diabetic. He has NO symptoms of it. That aside, I am so confused as to whether or not he HAS asthma. When I asked if this is just allergies, like the home vet said, she said there’s no such thing. Allergies ARE asthma. She recommended a “flushing” procedure where he would be under anesthesia and they would flush his nasal cavity and lungs. I said no, to which she seemed annoyed. That sounded unnecessary and anesthesia is always a risk, especially for an older cat. I also researched this procedure and the consensus was that it doesn’t help anything. He is strictly an indoor kitty and is not at risk of parasites, in my opinion. It certainly looks like classic asthma – wrenched neck and a hairball like cough. It lasts a few minutes but is intermittent. He coughs a few times and swallows, then after 20 – 30 seconds coughs again and it goes like that for about 3 – 5 minutes. I think it stresses me more than him. He will literally stretch after, walk over to a toy or food bowl, or just go back to sleep. He honestly doesn’t seem very bothered by it. He seems to have an “episode” once a day. I have seen him go a day or two without, but I was home all day on a long weekend and he would have one and only one “episode” so I don’t believe it is happening a lot. He doesn’t have any other asthma symptoms – he doesn’t wheeze when he’s breathing, have labored breaths at rest, cough up foamy mucus, or breathe with his mouth open. At this point, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to start him on an inhaler if it’s not necessary, but I don’t want him in an emergency where he can’t breathe. But if his lungs are all clear, would that even happen? I could take him back for even more tests, but what are they going to determine? Is there such a thing as feline allergies and this is just a post nasal dry cough like a human gets? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!!