not so good news :(

Hope the medicine works and your follow up goes well.

Just my thoughts for you. Dont let weight gain fool you. This was one thing that kept us treating conservatively at first. "Well..he keeps gaining weight and thriving?" Confirmed bronchial pneumonia diagnosis by x-ray on 2/3 which continued for more 7 wks.
12/16 - 15 wks @ 3.1 lbs
1/13 - 4.1 lbs
2/3 - 4.9 lbs.
3/10 - 27 wks @ 6.5 lbs.

Oh my gosh. I feel so bad for you, your DH and Hobbes. You certainly have had alot going on with this darling. Certainly hope to hear soon that he is doing better and lots of for you...

Thanks everyone for the vibes. Yes, Wednesday cannot come soon enough. We want to start him of any treatment that he needs ASAP - the asthma is a high probability with the cough and the lung spots, and that needs to be taken care of.

Thanks for sharing the info on peumonia and weight gain, lenny & squiggy. I totally undertand that you mean. We are definitely not putting off anything based on that. As you can see, we had made the appointment with the cardiologist based on the murmur, though Hobbes has no "cardiac" symptoms. It was only when the vet said that his cough does not sound like hairball but asthma, we insisted on the chest x-ray. The chance of it being asthma is more based on the cough and other symptoms. He is already on zithromax - so pneumonia will likely be covered by that.

Hobbes has stolen the heart of everyone at the clinic. The vet mentioned how I had a great kitty and the vet tech is just in love with him and he told me how good Hobbes was when he was "hospitalized" for half the day on Friday. They were all praises and I was glowing with pride. Whatever happens to them healthwise, DH and I feel blessed to have them in our lives and think we hit the jackpot - twice!

Again, make sure they know whether it's bronchitis or asthma. They're not the same thing and take slightly different treatment. With bronchitis a cat can have it for weeks to months and rarely cough, since some cats are more cough resistant and only start coughing once a certain degree of inflammation is reached.
Asthma causes the attacks regardless (if untreated) of how resistant to coughing a particular cat may be.

Either way it looks like you need to get all inhaled allergens and irritants out of the home ASAP.

I'm glad you got the x-ray. With coughing the lungs can't be ignored, they need to be checked. If in the future once he's on a threatment, if you want to gauge how well it's working or maybe suspect that it's not - you can double check a new x-ray.

I wonder something, though. His URI was assumed to be herpes? But it responded to antibiotics? If he never had the murmur before, could the URI have done it, specifically if it was bacterial? And in a house with so many cats, was bartonella ruled out back then?

Hobbes

One more day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for tomorrow.

Many vibes for tomorrow and for hte future with Hobbes. I have one cat with asthma and we keep it in control with pred, but it always scares me when I think of hte side effects. I only wish inhalers were available in Europe. You are looking after Hobbes so well and covering every possibility, that I am sure he will get through all this.

Originally Posted by jennyranson

I only wish inhalers were available in Europe.

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Fluticasone propionate goes under the name of Flixotide in Europe. It's available in inhaler form and diskus.
In the US no inhaler is marked for pet use, if that is what you meant, we use intended for human inhalers.

Thanks everyone for the wishes. I am very nervous about tomorrow. Really hoping and praying that we get good news tomorrow. It will be a 45 minute drive and weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve prepared the best we can with feliway and soothing music and disposable litter box (just in case). His carrier, blanket and cushion are all lined up. We did get the care credit card since we wanted that option and we got Hobbesâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] x-rays to take with us. DH called the clinic yesterday to make sure they have all the information from my regular vet so thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s covered. I will just fill up the new patient form tonight. Am I missing anything?

A question: Hobbes eats wet food at around 6:30 am and gets dry at around 12 noon. His appointment is at 11:30 and we will leave between 10 and 10:30. They said that the appointment will take 1 ½ hours approx and I think (if everything goes on schedule, we should be home by 2pm. Should we give him food then? Any suggestions on this matter will be really appreciated.

Strange_wings: Thanks for all the suggestions/ pointers. Hobbesâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s URI was never associated with herpes and it got resolved with zithromax. The issue is, if it is bartonella or pneumonia, zithromax may be the drug of choice either ways. Considering Hobbes has a cough 4-5 times a week, what we can observe, of course, and these attacks are not long – sometimes as short as 10 secs, we are hoping that it is not anything very virulent. We will, however, try to go to the bottom of this and give him the treatment he needs. Also we do not know when he developed the murmur. The day after we got him we took him to the vet and thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s when he diagnosed the URI and murmur. The next time I took him the doctor confirmed the murmur but he was ok otherwise. It was only after coming back from the vetâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s that Hobbes was sneezing and the doc started him on zithromax again, so that any infection can clear by the time we have the cardiologist appointment. So really do not know the relation between the murmur and URI. After we see the cardiologist tomorrow, I guess we go back to our vet and get the cough related issues resolved.

Saying prayers for Hobbes. I hope all goes good for all of you today. Sweet boy.

I don't know what time zone you're in, but I'm sending heaps of vibes! I don't know if you'll see this, but I think waiting until he gets home to feed him should be just fine (if that's the question).

for a good visit to the specialist and help for Hobbes. I think either way with his noon feeding will work - if you feed him when you get home, or take a little bag of kibble with you and see if he'll eat at the vet or in the car home. The most important thing to Hobbes is that you're with him...that'll give him the most comfort.

You guys are terrific - I'm so hoping you get good news, but Calvin and Hobbes couldn't be luckier kitties, no matter what.

Originally Posted by Calvin&I

Also we do not know when he developed the murmur. The day after we got him we took him to the vet and thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s when he diagnosed the URI and murmur.

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From other posts I somehow got the impression that the murmur was discovered more recently. It may just be a case of bad luck and bad genetics since he came from a house full of so many cats.
With my three siblings all having bronchitis and being feral born, that's the only conclusion the vets and I reached.

The reason I mentioned herpes is because l-lysine hasn't been proven in studies to be much help for other viral infections.

Bartonella is a bacteria, which can actually cause a pneumonia. It's a pretty nasty bacteria and is more likely in situations like the one Hobbes came from (lots of cats in an enclosed space). I don't know it if has the capacity to lay low after antibiotic treatment and flare (grow) back up if the antibiotic wasn't successful in killing it all - though it would be logical it would be like every other bacteria in that respect. Since there's the chronic cough you may want to discuss with your vet about trying to figure out precisely what is causing the URI like symptoms in case it's something treatable that can be cured. Especially before any sort of steroid is tried to treat the cough.

Just waiting anxiously, though I'm assuming you're not in the eastern time zone LOL. !!!!!!!!!!

Me too on the waiting part Hope to see an update soon and praying that all went well.

Right there with you - checking in hoping for good news!

We are here too.......hoping it all went well!

Hi everyone,

I was waiting for the hospital to call back with Hobbesâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] bloodwork before I posted anything.

The gist of the visit is that the cardiologist could not find anything wrong with Hobbes (yaaaayyyyy to that ). She did not even hear a murmur today. The echo showed that his ventricles are larger than normal but she does not think that there is a primary cardiac cause for it. It is the upper limit of normal for an adult cat and since Hobbes is 8.5 months old, that is a little unusual. So we will do a repeat echo in 4 months, when Hobbes is over a year and see if there are any changes. There are otherwise no structural/functional issues and it just may be that this is just Hobbes being a little different anatomically. The cardiologist joked that Hobbes may just be the "Secretariat of cats" - with a super atheletic heart. She did do a test to check for anemia and that turned out normal. They just called with his CBC and DH asked for a copy by mail.

The full story: We hardly got any sleep last night and this morning we got ready to go. Hobbes just figured out that he were about to cage him when we both got ready (which we go when we go out but I think the fact that his carrier was in his room since yesterday could have done it). He first went and hid in the basement and then he ran to the 2nd floor under the bed. It was a ton of struggle and some force to put him in the carrier – which totally broke our hearts. He cried and cried and so did Calvin, who tried to free Hobbes and then he just sat under the dining table till we left. Hobbes was very vocal and was trying to free himself and was hitting the carrier door with his head. I sat with him on the backseat and spoke to him. He would calm down and then get agitated again. He was ok once we reached. The cardiologist came and examined him and tried to hear his heart from a really long time but could not hear a murmur. Then we were discussing the possibility and DH asked a couple of questions, which made her ask him if he was in the medical profession. On learning that DH was, she got down to a lot of details and there was a shift in the language she used – for which I am grateful really since DH understands way more about all this than I do. So even though there was no murmur today, but with the x-ray of the enlarged heart, we decided to go for the echo. She did mention that murmur can be transient and with the x-ray showing what she termed a mild to moderate enlargement, doing an echo just made sense.

They asked us permission to draw some blood on Hobbes and then brought him out. He seemed pretty tired. They were all praises as to how good Hobbes was (earlier when she had examined him I front of us, Hobbes was so cooperative). Apparently during the echo Hobbes fell asleep and they did not have to give him any sedative at all. The doctor then came out and gave us the details of her findings and the only thing out of the ordinary was the size of his ventricles. She went through all the reasons why that can happen and told us how they seemed unlikely. She was now using a lot of medical language, not realizing that I was not a med professional but then I asked her a couple of questions and told her that I was not in the field and she explained things to me. So all in all, it was good. A huge sense of relief. We returned home after 3 pm and all 4 of us napped. DH and I woke up when they called about the blood test results and the kiddos are still sleeping.

We also realized that Hobbes has not had a cough since last Thursday visible to us. The cardiologist thinks that it may not be asthma but rather bronchitis. So we will go back to the drawing board about the asthma issue and see what our regular vet says.

So overall we are relieved after our visit. Yes, we do not have very concrete answers, but Hobbesâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s heart is working well – which is good. We will probably have some more answers in a few months.
Thanks everyone for all the vibes. I am so so grateful for all the support and advice – life would have been much more stressful without all of you.

OK, I AM sorry about the stress of getting him into the carrier and the trip, and I'm also sorry your vet scared you with a potential grade 3 or 4 heart murmur.

But this is GREAT news!

Yes, some unanswered questions to be addressed. But if he hasn't coughed since last week - then it sounds like it might not be asthma either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hobbes is one lucky little boy to have such wonderful parents, and I'm just busting with smiles! I KNOW it's been hard on you .... but now you're not wondering or questioning or second-guessing - and you also KNOW that Hobbes' heart matches the size of his sweetness!

. You must be so relieved, because we are all so relieved that I can only imagine how you must feel. PHEW!!!! AWWW I know that must have been terrible getting him into the carrier. I decided to start leaving a carrier out all the time now with a comfy bed in it just in case I need to get someone to the vet. I swear these cats know when something is up though, everytime, poof and their gone. You will all sleep well tonight, well, except for Calvin, he want to play now with his whole family home he slept all day.....