Culture and Sensitivity Test for URI.... under anesthesia?

I'll try and make this as short as possible. We're bringing my 14 year old to a veterinary teaching hospital on the 26th for a cardiology evaluation and a dental. He's had lifelong respiratory issues(including mild asthma and URIs) but has been having flareups that involve nasal/sometimes eye discharge off and on since December. Previously he would only have bouts of chest congestion/coughing. He's had nasal congestion lately and hasn't been as active so I went ahead and brought him back to a local vet today who works at the same practice as a vet we recently found(and liked). He was prescribed Clavamox.

I asked about getting a culture and sensitivity test but she said they have to put him under anesthesia for that. I was under the impression that she could just take an ocular and nasal swab. My boy has been through so much that I'm not sure if they've ever done this simple test for him at any point. He's been to two different veterinary teaching hospitals, internal medicine specialists, and so on.  At one point in the past, a bronchoscopy was suggested but his regular vets and I agreed that it wasn't worth the anesthesia risk as the results would most likely be inconclusive and it wouldn't change his treatment plan.  I hope that makes some sense as I'm going on very little sleep right now.

So.. the hope now is that the veterinary teaching hospital(5.5 hrs away, closest option) dental department will swab him/etc while he's under anesthesia for the dental. I've had zero luck with trying to combine procedures in the past at vet schools due to the different departments but this one is so SIMPLE. I'm currently waiting for them to call me back with an answer.

He's doing well, btw. He ate with his brothers as soon as we got home and he's currently walking around exploring. Also, I didn't leave an update but the lumps I was so worried about are now believed to be cysts(this was a HUGE relief).

Glad he is doing well  

Are you need reassurance that your Vet is telling you the right thing...that he must be under anesthesia to have the culture done?  If so, I'm not sure anyone hear can give you that, as I'm guessing it is up that that particular Vet.  But are you saying the only Vet that will do his dental is 5 1/2 hours away, or that the only possibility of having them BOTH done at the same time is driving  5 1/2 hours.  Wow!  Perhaps it's more than just the swab that you "assume" it is?  Did you ask your local Vet why THEY can't do it at the same time, or do they not do dentals?

Hello and thank you for once again replying to one of my long threads. He had a great day yesterday and is currently napping with his brothers.

We're bringing him to the vet school because they have the closest cardiologist to us. I decided to go ahead and have the dental done there as well because it seems like the safest option for him. I'm still worried but I know they won't put him under anesthesia if they feel the risk is too high.

I've spoken to the person coordinating everything and she thinks adding the culture/sensitivity test won't be a problem and there will also be an option of doing other tests(if the internal medicine specialist there suggests them).

Now that I'm a bit more awake I do believe he's had a culture in the past and nothing was found. Hopefully they can obtain a better sample from him while he's under anesthesia.

I've had a kitty get a C&S test three times.  Once they did nose, throat, eye and she didn't need to be anesthetized.  It was very quick and painless.
 

I've seen no mention on here(I came across some of your posts; very helpful) or in any articles I read of anesthesia being used. She mentioned doing the test(through Idexx labs) on another cat recently so it wasn't a foreign concept to her. I brought in some printouts from the Idexx website but she knew right away what I was talking about. She did mention it being difficult to get a good throat swab. My cat is an excellent patient, though, and will let you do anything to him.