Inflamed airway, asthma & feline herpes virus, need advice

Sorry, it's a bit long, please bear with me.

One of my cats has cold that comes back from time to time whenever there's a weather change or stress, he gets snotty, nasal congestion and sometime eye discharge. My vet said that he probably picked up feline herpes virus from shelter where he was adopted about 2 years ago. He's been doing much better this year, he had some sneezing and clear nose discharge here and there that he would bounced back from before it's a full blown cold and we didn't have to take him back to vet or give him meds. However, around the end of October he started with the sneezing again and the green mucus nose discharge, and into 1st week of Nov. he started with occasional coughing and heavy congestion so we brought him to the vet to help clear things up. He was prescribed with Orbax, we gave it to him for about 8-9 days but didn't feel that the medication did him good because there was no apparent improvement. He is still heavily congested and the sneezing and the nose discharge continues. However, just about 2-3 days ago we noticed that he is taking short, shallow, quick breath, about 60/min, looking more tired (but at the same time his sneezing and nose discharge seem to be much better). We were extremely worried and took him back to the vet yesterday to have that examined. The vet took an x-ray and said that his airway is inflamed and what looks like the beginning of asthma, but his heart looks normal(He has level 2-3 heart murmur). They nebulized him and gave him a shot of Dexotone(not sure if this is how it's spelled). I took him home, after a bit of rest, his breathing slowed down a bit, he was much more like how he used to, playful, laid-back, asking for treats and canned food. The doctor prescribed him Orbax again and Theophylline which is suppose to help open his airway and calm the inflammation. This morning his breath was again short and shallow, I suppose Dexotone has worn off and he is feeling painful with the breathing again. He only ate a bit of canned food and did not drink any water. I struggled a bit feeding him pill/Theophylline but finally got it down his throat around 12pm. After an hour or so, his breathing actually gotten faster rather than slower, and he seems much more uncomfortable than before. I counted his breathing per minute, and it was 100/min. Now it's another hour later, his breathing slowed a bit and is around 80/min. I called up the hospital and the staff told me my vet is not in today and won't be until Sunday. Staff advice is if my cat shows adverse reaction to the meds than stopped giving it to him to see how he does and speak to the vet on Sunday.

Looking at him in pain is just very hard and I don't know if I should wait until Sunday to see my vet. He didn't eat much this morning and he has been good with intaking water up until yesterday. He licks his nose and appears to be thirsty but did not attempt to go to the water fountain. I'm feeding him some water with a syringe. He is much more inactive today, he walks around a bit and would just sit or lay down on his belly. There is no more sneezing or nose discharge. I still plan on giving him Orbax maybe around evening when Theophylline wears off. I have no experience with asthma/inflamed lung and don't know if this can wait until Sunday? Or if there is anything I can do to help him feel better... Any advice? Thanks

Well, the first thing you can do is order NOW L-lysine powder. It's been clinically proven to stop the herpes flare-ups. It has no taste, and even the fussiest cat eats it if it's sprinkled on or mixed into wet food. :nod: It is safe to use (excess is excreted). 500mg is a typical dose (1/4 teaspoon), given half in the morning and half at night. During a flare up, you can bump this to 1000mg for a few days (1/4 teaspoon in the morning and 1/4 at night).

As to his breathing, perhaps you mean dexamethasone? I expect they would have given him a steroid shot for the inflammation. :nod:

Some kitties with asthma are put on steroids (often just some level of prednisone), and that helps control the problem. There are a number of TCS members with kitties with asthma, and some have to use nebulizers for them.

If he's having trouble breathing, I wouldn't wait until Sunday. I have asthma, and not being able to breathe is NOT fun. And yes, it would make him lethargic.

FYI, steroids in cats are far better tolerated than in people, and the long term risks aren't at all what they are in humans, just in case you have to explore that with your baby. I don't know how the heart murmur figures into it though.

Hopefully some members with asthmatic kitties will chime in here.

Vibes for your baby!

Hi spilledmilk,

I am really sorry that your cat and you are having to deal with this - it is really tough. I would not wait till Sunday and try to look for a doctor as soon as possible since shortness of breathe along with inactivity and refusing to eat are not very reassuring.

Hobbes is my cat who has a grade 3 heart murmur (this is transient and the cardiologist has never heard it) but 2 echocardiograms have ruled out are problems as such. He has asthma coughs and is currently on inhaler twice a day and before that he was on prednisone (steriod). Since an inhaled steriod is safer, we took this route. He also has herpes for which he gets l-lysine. When I see any signs of cold/ sneezing or any other stress at home, I increase the dosage to prevent a herpes flareup. He gets URI from herpes and also got conjunctivitis. It seems that with the sudden onset of your cat's wheezing/ breathing problems coinciding with a herpes flareup, it may be an infection rather than allergic asthma. I say this because my other cat, Calvin was diagnosed with asthma when he had a severe cold and was having touble breathing. He was given zithromax (this antibiotic has really worked well for my cats) as well as prednisone (suspecting he had asthma). While this crisis was going on we had taken Hobbes to see a cardiologist who agreed to do a "fax consult" for Calvin and ruled out asthma and asked us to wean Calvin off the prednisone as pred and antibiotics both together often reduce the potency of the other. But she told us to keep calvin on the antibiotic for 2 weeks and then every 72 hours for 6 weeks and he recovered. So my belief is at times a severe infection can present as asthma and so getting a second opinion may not be a bad idea at all, especially since you will not be able to see your regular vet till Sunday and your cat is obviously suffering. Also like humans, sometimes a change of antibiotics is warranted and maybe another vet will give your cat a different antibiotic which will work better.

So since the chest x-ray did not show the heart to be enlarged and there has been an ongoing infection with your cat, it may or may not be asthma but I would think (purely from experience that I had with Calvin) that the infection aspect needs to be ruled out first and seeking medical attention at the earliest would be your best option.

Sending lots of vibes your way

I agree that seeing a vet sooner rather than later is best. Are there any other vets who could see him today?

My cat Riley has asthma as a result of heartworms and he uses a steroid inhaler each day. However, he has never had any trouble with mucus or that type of infection so your kitty may have another type of problem. I'm wondering if they've thought about chronic bronchitis or something like that?

My Wellington has had asthma since kittenhood and was on prednisone for years, a very small dose. But on vet advice I stopped it last year, unless he had an actual attack, because of long term side effects.His health is complicated by the fact that he has no tear duct on the right eye, so the discharge builds up unless I wash his eyes daily and he became very prone to eye infections and ulcers. The vet agrees with me that he probably has herpes simplex too, though he has not been tested. I also recommend the l-lysine - I started hiom on 500mg a day three months ago and he is decidedly better, only one asthma attack despite the seasonal weather changes, and no eye infection at all. But I would agree with the others that your cat, in acute stage of an attack, should see a vet as quickly as possible, and possibly a specialist. It is so distressing for a cat to be unable to breather poerly and I sympathise with you both.

Thanks for the responses and vibes, they were really helpful. I did rushed my cat back to the hospital and this vet disagreed about the heart and recommend an echo-cardiogram asap. He scheduled us for the next morning but I feel like it couldn't wait and took him to the ER right away. We were able to get an echo-cardio done overnight and he was diagnosed with HCM heart failure as the main cause for his rapid breathing. He is currently being treated for fluids in lung with lasix and oxygen tank for breathing. The ER vet still needs to touch base with the cardiologist to make a treatment plan for him. We are going to see if his breathing will be stabilized enough(out of oxygen tank) for us to take him home tonight.

Thank goodness you got him in to the vet quickly! Good vibes for a full recovery

Thanks/ He is very tricky right now as he has HCM, URI and asthma all at the same time. He has done pretty well with lasix yesterday but his breathing still quickened when he was taken out of oxygen tank this morning. The vet discussed with the cardiologist and they decided to do another x-ray on him to get a look at how his lung and heart are doing with the treatment. We are waiting to hear an update in a couple of hours.

Oh thank goodness you took him! I hope he was able to go home with you, and proper treatment will resolve this!