I need a sanity check. My vet's office has no available appointments today, my long-term usual vet is out until Monday, and the specialist we're seeing is ONLY in on Mondays (and I'm not sure I trust her).
We have a senior-ish kitty, named Nutmeg, who has been with us for about 4 or 5 years. She showed up in our backyard, mangy and thin and with some kind of infection. One day she just came over to me and collapsed in my lap, so we took her to the vet - teeth infections, blood infections, sinus infection, plus the usual ticks, fleas, worms. Scarily thin. Vet said she might not make it, given that she also appeared to be older (in her teens).
But she did. She recovered from all of her issues.. except one. She was perpetually snotty, sneezy, and congested. We spent thousands trying to find out why: what was causing the infection, CT scans, x-rays, a blind biopsy. We tried different medications over the course of a year. Eventually we ended up in the territory where the next tests would be 2k - 3k each, and may not give us a definitive cause, so we decided to stop hunting the cause and focus on treating the symptoms. In the meantime, she was given a diagnosis of chronic rhinitis/sinusitis
For four years, she's been on a low-dose steroid regimine. .08cc of prednisolone, once a day. If she seems to have a flare-up (a few times a year), we give her an extra dose in the morning and then slowly taper her off over the morning dose after a week.
Fast-forward to this past April. We started noticing that she was a little more lethargic (taking more naps) and chalked it up to her getting older. But we also noticed she was eating. We started keeping a record and watched how, over the coming months, she was eating much and much less - to the point where she was eating maybe a quarter tin of wet food a day (roughly 1.25 oz - We take a 5 oz tin and split it into two meals, and she gets 1/4 cup dry food as a snack before we go to bed). So we took her back to the vet.
Vet ran a bunch of bloodwork tests, x-rays, and said she couldn't find anything that would explain the appetite loss. She sent us to another facility for an ultrasound. The ultrasound didn't show anything either, but the vet at the new facility wanted to run a different test to check her liver (the logic being that the low-dose steroid may have damaged her liver over the years and was contributing to the problem). But we would have to take her off of the steroid for at least a week. In the meantime, she prescribed an appetite stimulant.
While she was on the appetite stimulant and the prednisolone, she had a healthy appetite back and gained about half a pound over three weeks. Once the prednisolone was tapered off, she returned to not eating - even with being on the appetite stimulant. I chalk this up to her being completely congested and unable to smell food.
We go in for the liver test, and there appears to be no issues. So this second vet now wants us to stay off of the prenisolne, and get an inhaler instead - the thought is that the prednisolone is affecting her ability to taste/smell, and thus is what is causing Nutmeg to not eat.. But the inhaler would cost too much from a US pharmacy, so she is sending us to a Canadian pharmacy to order it, and it will take 2 - 3 weeks to get here. Meanwhile, this vet puts Nutmeg on meloxicam for a week in the interim - and says that the meloxicam should make it easier for her to breathe, so she should be hungry and we shouldn't need the appetite stimulant, but she gave us another perscription for the stimulant just in case.
She had her first dose of meloxicam on Monday evening. She ate maybe 1/2 of dinner.
Tuesday she did not eat at all.
Wednesday morning we gave Nutmeg the stimulant. She threw it up. We got a new dose and gave her this. She got very drooly. We put food down her - she ate maybe 1/4 of a meal. We gave her the meloxicam before dinner, and then put down dinner. She ate maybe 1/2.
Thursday: She ate maybe 3/4 of breakfast, and 3/4 of dinner
Friday: She was VERY wheezy (sounded like she was breathing through a straw), didn't eat anything
This morning: Gave her another dose of the stimulant. She ate a smoothie kitty treat, but didn't touch dry food breakfast. Tried to smoothie some wet food for her, didn't touch that either.
The meloxicam doesn't seem to be working to control the congestion. We've seen Nutmeg breathing from her mouth - not full-on panting, but she was laying on my chest and was very wheezy. I saw her little cheeks puff in and out as she was breathing. She has NEVER done this on prednisolone. She also doesn't seem to be able to sneeze out any snot that she has - before, it would be kinda gross with her sneezing snot everywhere, but at least she could breathe.
The specialist only works on Mondays. I attempted to call my personal vet - the one that has been treating Nutmeg for four years, and sent us to the specialist. She will not be in until Monday either. My vet's office has no Saturday appointments available. I need a sanity check. Something in my brain is saying that this entire situation is crazy, and I feel like I'm sitting here with a cat that is worse off than when I originally took her to the vet in the first place. I love my personal vet and I trust her judgment, but I don't know this specialist. I'm trying to emotionally detach from the situation and look at it logically, but I'm finding it very difficult when Nutmeg is wheezing, having to be force-fed pills (which no one enjoys), on a medication that has severe warnings, and having to wait 2 - 3 weeks for yet another medication to arrive...
So please, anyone with chronic rhinitis/sinusitis cats, share your experiences. Maybe I am crazy, maybe I'm not. I just need to hear something that isn't my own echo chamber anxious brain.
We have a senior-ish kitty, named Nutmeg, who has been with us for about 4 or 5 years. She showed up in our backyard, mangy and thin and with some kind of infection. One day she just came over to me and collapsed in my lap, so we took her to the vet - teeth infections, blood infections, sinus infection, plus the usual ticks, fleas, worms. Scarily thin. Vet said she might not make it, given that she also appeared to be older (in her teens).
But she did. She recovered from all of her issues.. except one. She was perpetually snotty, sneezy, and congested. We spent thousands trying to find out why: what was causing the infection, CT scans, x-rays, a blind biopsy. We tried different medications over the course of a year. Eventually we ended up in the territory where the next tests would be 2k - 3k each, and may not give us a definitive cause, so we decided to stop hunting the cause and focus on treating the symptoms. In the meantime, she was given a diagnosis of chronic rhinitis/sinusitis
For four years, she's been on a low-dose steroid regimine. .08cc of prednisolone, once a day. If she seems to have a flare-up (a few times a year), we give her an extra dose in the morning and then slowly taper her off over the morning dose after a week.
Fast-forward to this past April. We started noticing that she was a little more lethargic (taking more naps) and chalked it up to her getting older. But we also noticed she was eating. We started keeping a record and watched how, over the coming months, she was eating much and much less - to the point where she was eating maybe a quarter tin of wet food a day (roughly 1.25 oz - We take a 5 oz tin and split it into two meals, and she gets 1/4 cup dry food as a snack before we go to bed). So we took her back to the vet.
Vet ran a bunch of bloodwork tests, x-rays, and said she couldn't find anything that would explain the appetite loss. She sent us to another facility for an ultrasound. The ultrasound didn't show anything either, but the vet at the new facility wanted to run a different test to check her liver (the logic being that the low-dose steroid may have damaged her liver over the years and was contributing to the problem). But we would have to take her off of the steroid for at least a week. In the meantime, she prescribed an appetite stimulant.
While she was on the appetite stimulant and the prednisolone, she had a healthy appetite back and gained about half a pound over three weeks. Once the prednisolone was tapered off, she returned to not eating - even with being on the appetite stimulant. I chalk this up to her being completely congested and unable to smell food.
We go in for the liver test, and there appears to be no issues. So this second vet now wants us to stay off of the prenisolne, and get an inhaler instead - the thought is that the prednisolone is affecting her ability to taste/smell, and thus is what is causing Nutmeg to not eat.. But the inhaler would cost too much from a US pharmacy, so she is sending us to a Canadian pharmacy to order it, and it will take 2 - 3 weeks to get here. Meanwhile, this vet puts Nutmeg on meloxicam for a week in the interim - and says that the meloxicam should make it easier for her to breathe, so she should be hungry and we shouldn't need the appetite stimulant, but she gave us another perscription for the stimulant just in case.
She had her first dose of meloxicam on Monday evening. She ate maybe 1/2 of dinner.
Tuesday she did not eat at all.
Wednesday morning we gave Nutmeg the stimulant. She threw it up. We got a new dose and gave her this. She got very drooly. We put food down her - she ate maybe 1/4 of a meal. We gave her the meloxicam before dinner, and then put down dinner. She ate maybe 1/2.
Thursday: She ate maybe 3/4 of breakfast, and 3/4 of dinner
Friday: She was VERY wheezy (sounded like she was breathing through a straw), didn't eat anything
This morning: Gave her another dose of the stimulant. She ate a smoothie kitty treat, but didn't touch dry food breakfast. Tried to smoothie some wet food for her, didn't touch that either.
The meloxicam doesn't seem to be working to control the congestion. We've seen Nutmeg breathing from her mouth - not full-on panting, but she was laying on my chest and was very wheezy. I saw her little cheeks puff in and out as she was breathing. She has NEVER done this on prednisolone. She also doesn't seem to be able to sneeze out any snot that she has - before, it would be kinda gross with her sneezing snot everywhere, but at least she could breathe.
The specialist only works on Mondays. I attempted to call my personal vet - the one that has been treating Nutmeg for four years, and sent us to the specialist. She will not be in until Monday either. My vet's office has no Saturday appointments available. I need a sanity check. Something in my brain is saying that this entire situation is crazy, and I feel like I'm sitting here with a cat that is worse off than when I originally took her to the vet in the first place. I love my personal vet and I trust her judgment, but I don't know this specialist. I'm trying to emotionally detach from the situation and look at it logically, but I'm finding it very difficult when Nutmeg is wheezing, having to be force-fed pills (which no one enjoys), on a medication that has severe warnings, and having to wait 2 - 3 weeks for yet another medication to arrive...
So please, anyone with chronic rhinitis/sinusitis cats, share your experiences. Maybe I am crazy, maybe I'm not. I just need to hear something that isn't my own echo chamber anxious brain.