My Cat Has Life Threatening Periodontal Disease And Feline Asthma, Please Help!

[cottonfluff]

Hello there to anybody who is concerned enough to read this. My name is Luke. I have a soft, fluffy, what I believe to be Ragdoll breed buddy of mine who is currently suffering from an extremely horrible infection in his mouth.

He has been suffering from this condition for a long time, and I know I could have and should have been much more proactive about his health, but he is in damn near critical condition now and I can feel the life waning from him.

Before I further explain, I would first like to provide a little back story on him and his condition.

A few years after I got out of high school and I was already working and in my own place, my mom broke up with her "boyfriend" who she had a daughter with many years after my father left her life. When they broke up, my mom was not in the best financial position to support herself, so I ended up moving back into a little apartment with her and my sister. My mom bought this cat a few months after we moved in to kind of just bring us all back together again as a family, minus my sister's father. For whatever reason, my sister started calling him "Rattles" and it stuck.

About 4 years later my mom ended up diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought long and hard but eventually the cancer had moved into her bones and was literally turning them to powder. She passed away a few summers ago and this cat is now one of the most beautiful gifts she left me in this world, and I care for him more than anything else in my life even above my own. He is my child to me.

When I moved out of town after my mother died, I took this cat with me up to a relatively high elevation mountain town. I just really needed to get out of Southern California.

About a year or so after the move, I started to notice some very heavy breathing out of him, and specifically when I would put my head on to his chest his breathing sounded almost like a long sigh or moan, as if he was in pain.

I wasn't sure what the issue really was since he was eating and playing and doing everything normally. He would just have these times where he was laying down and felt really weak and just sapped of energy. This went on for a while until one day I caught him coughing like he was hacking up a hair ball, but nothing was coming up. He was just giving a raspy heave over and over again.

This is when I ended up bringing him in to a local vet up here. I expressed all my concerns with his breathing and coughing, but after checking his chest with a stethoscope, the vet didn't see anything wrong with his breathing. During the exam, he did however, discover that my cat had some tooth decay going on in his upper right molar. He suggested that I have the tooth removed and that they could do the procedure there at their office. I believe I bought some antibiotics from him at the time and then left the vet on a mission now to save up enough money to fund this tooth removal (I was, at the time and still now, barely making what I needed to survive, so this was going to be huge for me).

Fast forward a little bit closer to the current day. About half a year maybe longer after that initial vet visit, I managed to stockpile about $1,500 extra to spend toward the tooth removal. I made an appointment for a pre-op exam and brought him in..

After a few hours, the vet (same guy from this first visit) comes back and essentially explains that my cat has feline asthma and that he would be at a huge risk being put under anesthesia. "Really? You mean to say he has had breathing problems all along and you were unable to identify them the first time I brought him here and expressed my concerns for that exact issue"?

I was absolutely livid. I knew my cat had breathing problems, but I didn't know it was actually asthma and wish I had known. I could have been helping him with that all along instead of saving my money toward an operation that could never be performed..

So now.. about a year has gone by since that last exam, and I have been trying everything I can but his condition is only getting worse. My main regimen at this point with him is to essentially soak a q-tip in some colloidal silver and smear it onto his teeth and gums and / or actually give him a tiny shot of it into his mouth to swallow. However, I feel as though I can not continue to do this forever and have only been able to do this for days at a time before I feel the need to break him from it.

His condition is at a point now where it is clearly and obviously becoming unbearable for him, and he is losing the will to fight through it. To top it all off, I was vacuuming just a few weeks back and found one of his decayed and corroded teeth on the floor. His teeth are literally just falling out his head at this point. He isn't going to make it much longer like this, and I don't know what to do for him.

If any of you have any bit of information that you believe could help me in any way with my friend here, please share whatever you can with me. I am in desperate need of help for him right now, and I am struggling just to keep food in both our bellies.

Thank you

Sincerely,

Luke

 

[Kieka]

First of all, welcome to TCS. Your cat is quite a handsome one.

I am so sorry to hear about your cats health problems. It is always a scary and heartbreaking experience when our cats are sick.

I wish I had more to offer as advice but I haven't had experience with feline asthma or dental diseases. Hopefully someone else can offer more specific advice and will see this being bumped up.

Here are some threads that may help you out some or give you some direction/tips:

Feline Asthma And Heating Pad?
Any experience with Feline asthma??
How to handle feline asthma
Asthma diagnosis- did I get swindled?

 

[lalagimp]

I don't understand why they can't treat the asthma and get that stabilized and then take him in. Will your cat use an inhaler, or have they not recommended that? We have one cat that won't, and when she gets flare ups with her asthma we end up using a short course of oral steroids. She can end up going something like 2-3 months after that without having a "fit".
Our other cat is cooler than that. He will work with us on an inhaler. There is a device called an Aerokat where you put the inhaler on the end, puff it into the chamber, have the little mask on your cat's face, and a little flap between the mask and the chamber that will flick and tell you that they are breathing it in with each breath. Usually, he'll have one asthma attack a month or so, and we just treat him with albuterol. If it becomes more frequent, we have inhaled steroids with the Flovent inhaler and you treat him for a week and it reduces inflammation that way. Much safer than oral steroids because it's not systemic and just goes directly into targeting the lungs. Some cats are more severe and use the Flovent on a higher frequency, but since we got him to lose 4 lbs, we honestly haven't used the Flovent at all.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

First off, I'd find a different Vet to treat Rattles. Is that an option wherever it is that you live? I"m guessing you may be in a small town now, but even if there isn't a 2nd Vet in town, could you possible drive to a larger town for the procedure? BE sure to get his records from the old Vet to take with you.

Also, check around, particularly if you have to drive somewhere else, for the best prices, as they vary vastly. We just had dental work done on both our guys, including a few teeth pulled, and had the premium package done because I'm so anal about these things, and for the cat who had 3 teeth pulls, the bill was less than $800 including the pre blood work, the antibiotics afterwards, etc. And our Vet is NOT the least expensive, by far.

Yes, having asthma complicates things a little bit, but by no means precludes having this necessary procedure . this is another reason why I think you should find another Vet. Here is a thread about a cat in a similar situation who had the dental and everything worked out fine: Asthma Cat needs Dental work! Scared about the Anesthesia any advice or information greatly appreci My feeling is you must do something as your little friend is in severe pain and withering away before your eyes. Take the chance to give HIM a chance . Otherwise, what is his quality of life? Certainly you don't want him to suffer...we can see that in your post.

BTW, if you need more money than what you have already managed to save up, many people start up "gofundme" accounts for their furkids. There is also this: No Money For Vet Care? How To Find Help And Save Your Cat's Life

Please keep up posted as to what happens

 

[foxxycat]

you would need to find a vet who specializes in internal medicine=they know the procedures for what anesthesia to use=a cardiologist would also be able to know this information. More vets are hiring out internal medicine vets for this reason- Yes it's scary to think about putting in surgery but sounds like it needs to be done. A good vet will monitor oxygen saturation and have iv fluids going at the same time. There's a procedure for cardiac patients that I have heard of asthma kitties using a similar procedure-I saved it as an email years ago but there's a way to do this safely. The hard part is finding a vet who knows how to use different anesthesia medications.

What area are you in?

I have an asthma kitty and we use the aerokat for inhaled steroids. For now you can opt for oral pred OR a long acting steroid shot BUT there's some complications that can happen with a long acting shot=but when it's a matter of breathing or not-maybe do the shot and transition to oral inhaled steroids AND albuterol for coughing spells.

Flovent is the drug of choice for this=it's very expensive in the US. I order from kiwidrug dot com in NEw Zealand=it's made by Glaxosmith. the same medication but it doesn't have the counter like ours do here-so you have to keep track. Find a vet who knows how to treat feline asthma because you will need a script for the highest dose Flovent. I and many other cat owners learned the hard way to just start at the highest dose one=we tried the middle dose and it didn't work=she kept getting coughing spells but in the meantime- see if you can find an internal med vet to help figure a way to get the dental surgery done.

 

[lalagimp]

Flovent is the drug of choice for this=it's very expensive in the US. I order from kiwidrug dot com in NEw Zealand=it's made by Glaxosmith. the same medication but it doesn't have the counter like ours do here-so you have to keep track.

That's a good resource. I was ordering Stewburger's Flovent through NorthWestPharmacy.com, but last I checked in they had updated their policies and were unable to take credit cards and are only doing personal checks. It's a Canadian pharmacy that routes drug fulfillment to other countries like India, or at least I haven't had anything personally from Canada yet. It takes up to 3 weeks to receive medications.

 

[neely]

Another warm welcome to TCS! I'm terribly sorry for the loss of your mom and health issues with your beloved cat. What you have described regarding the dental decay sounds like FORL. Here is some info. from a previous thread which may be helpful: Teeth Cleaning?

I agree about searching out a 2nd opinion from another vet. If it is at all possible you may want to consider going to a veterinary teaching hospital at a university medical school, e.g. U C Davis. Not only can they provide knowledgeable and excellent veterinary treatment but frequently for a lesser fee. It's worth a try! My best wishes to you and your cat, I'll be thinking of you. Please keep us updated.

 

[foxxycat]

That's a good resource. I was ordering Stewburger's Flovent through NorthWestPharmacy.com, but last I checked in they had updated their policies and were unable to take credit cards and are only doing personal checks. It's a Canadian pharmacy that routes drug fulfillment to other countries like India, or at least I haven't had anything personally from Canada yet. It takes up to 3 weeks to receive medications.

Unfortunately due to laws passed from big pharma-we can no longer do credit card with Kiwi-I just send them my e check info and the first time I had to call and verify-the next times I ordered=they processed it and I have been ordering for 2 years from them. I also use inhousepharmacy.vu. They are also in New Zealand but I had issues with flovent inhalers only lasting 14-15 days=honeybee would struggle and not take the entire puffs-so I ordered from kiwi and now we can go 25 days without issues.

With inhouse I didn't have any issues with their other medications=albuterol and revolution and frontline. They also carry other medications that I had a script for-it was easier for me to buy this way than deal with local pharmacies. I like the idea of mail order-especially when some of the meds aren't covered by my insurance so it's easier to do it this route.