Requesting vibes for Hobbes - eye infection

Really - how much does this boy have to suffer????
Friday night I went to go to the bathroom and saw Hobbes walking towards me and I saw that he was blinking one eye and thought it was because he just woke up and was adjusting to the light or something. Then yesterday, Saturday, I saw that his right eye looked a little smaller than the left and he was constantly blinking it, but he was not rubbing it or anything. He ate, drank, used the litter box, and played normally. DH had a long day at work (5 am to 7 pm) and when he came home I went on complaining about it and Hobbes was lying on the cat tree - we looked closely to see if anything had got in and saw that his nictitating membrane on that said was red. We called the Emergency Clinic and took him over. It was a STRUGGLE putting him in the carrier and he was upset and crying and scared.

Hobbes had swelling and redness - which could be infection or injury but the vet leaned towards infection (likely chlamydia). There was no ulcers, which was great. He also had fever. He is on a topical antibiotic with a steriod and oral amoxicillin. He also had an e- collar. His eye kind of seems worse today than it was yesterday and I am scheduled to take him to his regular vet tomorrow for his IBS. He is his curious self but not as playful - his energy is kind of low. He is also hating the e-collar.

Would really appreciate any words of wisdom you may have or if you could share any similar experience and what works for you. I also request you to send some TCS magic vibes our way.

Today was a mixed bag, really, but I can live with it.

Since I posted yesterday, Hobbes was getting worse and DH (who does not second guess others at all) started wondering about the choice of drugs Hobbes was given from the ER. He was not happy that Hobbes got a topical medicine which had a high content of steroid. Apparently you avoid giving steroids in case of infections. Also for something like conjunctivitis tetracycline is a better choice of drugs and then something like erythromycin/ azythromycin – to him amoxicillin did not make any sense. So he withheld the ointment but gave him the oral antibiotic and wanted to see what our regular doctor felt.

So off we went today and the doc agreed completely. He asked us to stop the oral antibiotic and that he would start a different one only if we see any signs of a URI developing. He also prescribed terramycin ointment instead. We also got Hobbes out off his e-collar – he hated it. In fact he did not want to poop since he could not clean himself and he is very particular about cleanliness. After he came home he spent hours grooming himself.

As to his IBS, the Dr. wants me to give him whatever food does not make him worse and keeps the bleeding to a minimum. I have been giving Hobbes prescription food for 1 meal since he does not like it too much unless it had TONS of fortiflora in it. Till now I was giving him Iams intestinal low residue and Calvin will not touch it – which was good and I could give Calvin chunky stuff that Hobbes does not like. However I got the Hills i/d and z/d today and I served the i/d for dinner and Calvin LOVED it Hobbes not so much unless it is doused in fortiflora. His poop has been really good (touchwood) and no blood since. So right now I will give him a mix of prescription and non-prescription food, as long as he does well, and the doctor agreed.

For his asthma, he is on prednisone as needed and I have had the aerokat inhaler chamber delivered. Waiting to receive the inhaler medicine and then will start training him. Inhaled med is much safer than oral or injections, especially for his heart issues. Which brings me to the most upsetting part of the doctor visit: his heart murmur was more pronounced than ever. Hobbes has a murmur which was diagnosed but then in the last 3 visits to various vets (1 his doc, cardiologist and e-vet on Saturday) it was not there. Today it was very loud. I understand that cat heart murmurs can be tricky and transitional. Good that we have a follow-up visit with the cardiologist on the 13th.

DH and I are scheduled to go on our first vacation since we got Calvin in November of last year – we are visiting friends in northern Wisconsin. If anything changes we will, of course, cancel. Was talking to the doctor about it today – our petsitter works in the clinic and the boys like her. She is more access to the doctor than I have and he was joking how he is scared when she petsits since he has to deal with any issues that arise during the weekend. I generally think that the boys will be in good hands but DH and I cannot help worrying.

Thank you, everyone, for sending us all the vibes and your comforting words. Many of you are currently dealing with health issues of your furbabies and I really appreciate your words and support.

Thanks, everyone. Hobbes is blinking less but his membrane is still red and he does keep that one eye closed sometimes. Although a lot of times it looks that the swelling is down. Yes, Hobbes has a ton of issues and I asked his doctor why and he thinks it is genetic. Also staying in the overcrowded shelter may have added to it. I went ahead and asked for a FIV testing since his was done when he was 2 months and then he was at the shelter for 5 months and I am not confident how safe that shelter was since a lot of the cats would go out and roam outside and that's a place with many many ferals and abandoned cats. Thankfully it was negative.

@ Laurie and AC: We will still have to see about the vacation. The only time we have left the boys alone was when DH was out for work and I had to go to Chicago for some work, too and that was for 1.5 days. Although it will be hard, we want to be able to take trips without the boys, since some trips will be unavoidable and we want to have the stomach to do it. However, I am supposed to talk to the petsitter today, and if she is comfortable, we will leave very early on Friday and return Monday night. Hobbes may still need the ointment while we are away and that's probably going to be the deciding factor.

The good news is that I will not have to be away from home this semester (I had a post about this in the Lounge a few weeks back). I do not have to teach and am on a fellowship - the money is a whole lot less but staying with the boys and DH is priceless.

@ Tari: Thanks for sharing Harvey's story. The doctor mentioned that it seems harder than it really is. Once the med arrives, he wants me to take the aerokat, inhaler and the Hobbes and he will show me how to go about it.

Thanks Lauren, Laurie and AC!
We did go on the vacation - we left Friday morning and returned Monday evening. It was tiring (13 hours drive + tons of traffic in Chicago on our way to WI) but it was a nice break with good friends.
But my carpel tunnel was acting up and I have been wearing a wrist brace and was avoiding typing. Decided to take it off temporarily today to post.

Thursday, the day before we were to leave, Hobbes started sneezing - we knew that conjunctivitis could accompany URi and we were hoping that we were lucky. But alas. So past midnight we filled his prescription refill of zithromax and gave him a dose the next morning before we left and spoke to our petsitter, who is great and loves the boys. She was ok with it. We returned to the boys being well and happy and well fed.
However, things have not gone so well and I guess I should start another post. Calvin is being diagnosed with asthma, too, and his attacks have been way worse than Hobbes

Awwww - thanks so much for the vibes! We've been needing them so much. It's been kind of rough the past week with Calvin but we are keeping our fingers crossed that he's on the road to recovery.
Update (sorry, long):
Last tuesday Calvin had a bout of cough

Wednesday: he had 3 bouts of coughs (exactly like asthma attack), some sneezing and not himself.

Thursday: he had 1 cough in the morning, some sneezing and was withdrawn. Took him to the clinic - our regular vet was on leave and another doctor saw him, diagnosed asthma and put him on prednisone. Since Hobbes had URI a few days back and conjunctivitis I raised it but he did not think that an antibiotic would be useful at that point. I came home and gave him a pred but my evening he got much worse - lots of asthma attaks (even on pred) and sneezing and he was totally withdrawn. I called the boys' sitter, who works at the clinic, and she called the regular vet, who asked to give him another pred

Friday: DH took time off from work and we both took Calvin to the clinic. He was there for a few hours and not surprisingly - NO SYMPTOMS. He had an x-ray and turned positive for heartworm antibody and negative for antigen. We got him home and he again got worse. We had to give him 2 preds that evening. Bought HEPA filters for our central air system and multiple air purifiers for the rooms. (I told DH we are not sending Calvin to college since we spent his college fund on purifying air ) We kept him in the bedroom at night with the humidifer running. Till that point our asking for antibiotics since we saw him having classic symptoms of URI had not worked (our thought was that Hobbes had it and although those are virus, zithromax has always worked for Hobbes and we wanted to try it). Friday night we were frustrated and I asked DH if zithromax would be harmful for him and after some research we just gave him one dose to see) He again needed 2 5mg preds to keep his symptoms under control

Saturday: The symptoms persisted - by then we were running on no sleep. Calvin was too sick to sleep and we kept them in our bedroom with the humidifier. The vet called and said we could add antibiotics. By evening we could see Calvin improving a little at a time and Sunday and Monday we saw more improvements - his appetite, mood, less sneezing and running nose and eyes. We decreased his prednisone to 5 mg once a day and though there has been sporadic coughs, they have not been too out of control.

Tuesday/ yesterday: We took Hobbes to the cardiologist, and with our vet sending her a fax with Calvin's details too, she did a consult with us - with Calvin's x-rays and blood work and general symptoms. Since Calvin has responded better to zithromax than prednisone, she recommended we wean him off the pred and keep him on zithromax- after 10 days we are to give him a dose of the antibiotic every 72 hours for 6 weeks. In case the asthma gets worse we will call her. If things gets worse, we may have to do a tracheal wash but Calvin needs to be off steriods for 2-3 weeks for that to be useful. It seems we went from Calvin being diagnosed as primarily asthma to severe infection - we dont think it was ONLY asthma, since the antibiotic really helped, but it can be a combination of both or only infection - we hope the next few weeks will determine that. Calvin's heart seemed slightly large in the x-ray but he's not really slim and that can be the reason but down the line we may get an echo for him, expecially if we have to keep him on long term steroids.

The good news we got was Hobbes's heart looks good and he does not need to go to the cardiologist for follow ups. He tested negative for both heartworm antibody and antigen. We will now keep them both on Revolution (we had previously not since our vet did not want to add too many meds since they were being treated for other stuff and they are indoor only).

So we try weaning off Calvin from the prednisone and see how that does. Am bracing myself for a few asthma/ asthma-like attacks.

Would appreciate if anyone has any ideas/ comments as to what we do now - how to deal with the situation.

Thanks for the vibes, Laurie
The only major symptom that Calvin has now is the "asthma" cough - and that's a mystery - whether it is an airway issue (as normal asthma) or an infection thing. Calvin did have another "attack" an hour ago This is a tough one - since with weaning him off pred, he may have to go through more cough attacks, in an attempt to determine what's the cough all about. In case this is "infection" related, the prednisone in the mix is making the antibiotic less effective and not letting him heal totally. And if it is a respiratory issue (more run of the mill asthma), his cough will get worse and that will be an indication. The surprising thing is how sudden the onset of this was. But also for any other diagnostics like bloodwork or tracheal wash, being on pred will not give us an accurate result. On the other hand if this is asthma, then he will need to be on steriods throughout their lives and then we will go ahead and get an echocardiogram since his heart was a tiny bit large so that we have a baseline. This is all so much to take in

DH did ask the doc about antihistamine - especially when Calvin was continually sneezing. Unfortunately, they'd prefer not to do that - I cannot remember the exact reason but it may be because the antihistamines stop the symptoms but not really deal with the inflammation or something. There were too many things discussed and sorry I do not remember all of them but I remember DH found the reason convincing.