Asthma *AFTER* Depo Medrol Shot?

My American Shorthair orange tabby had trouble breathing through his nose so we took him to the vet figuring he has an URI on 02/28. It was the first time he'd been to a vet for anything except vaccinations and his neutering. The vet agreed after taking his temp and finding a mild fever. She gave him Depo Medrol and injected antibiotics and some amoxicillin for me to give him with a syringe. After that visit he started having episodes that look very much like cat asthma comparing it to videos on Youtube.

I took him back on 3/8. He had no fever, and she gave him a shot of Dexamethazone to fight inflammation thinking he's having drainage and it's causing him to cough. He's still doing it.

I took him back on 3/15 and she wanted to do labs. When the labs came back she says he has diabetes because his blood sugar is too high. 

I no longer trust this vet. She gave him Depo Medrol, a long-lasting glucocorticoid, that naturally raises blood sugar. I literally had a false diabetes diagnosis myself once due to the same reason (I am asthmatic and had been on steroids for that and nasal polyps) until the doctor remembered I was on steroids and said to disregard that reading since the steroids were throwing it off. I have since had normal blood sugar returns in labs. I know a cat is not a human but some things are going to be the same.

I've already sank several hundred dollars into vet bills. I went ahead and purchased pet insurance since he doesn't have any kind of diagnosis except "Upper Respiratory Infection" yet. I plan to take the labs and everything to another vet but I'm moving (across country) shortly and won't be able to do it right away, but I'm very worried. It does not make sense to me for a cat to have asthma symptoms AFTER taking what's basically Methylprednisone; that's what the doc injects me with if my asthma is really bad and I feel much improved in hours. Instead he literally didn't start having these coughing attacks until after he'd gotten the shot of that and the antibiotic. 

What else could it be? Pneumonia? Wouldn't that show up in the labs and improve with antibiotics? The CBC and Differential categories were clear except MCHC which was literally .1 over reference range so I am not concerned about it. Getting some anecdotal feedback would help me guide what questions to ask when I take him to get a second opinion, since now I have less trust in a vet's expert opinion and want to be sure I feel like I agree with the vet before I blindly pump my cat full of more things that may not help him. I have noticed he seems less playful than he used to be. He will still paw at things in play but he doesn't zoom around after his mouse-on-a-string like he used to. It does reinforce the asthma hypothesis although having it while on steroids undermines it. 

Thank you,

Lucinda

I think you need to see a different vet as well.  A mild fever to me says that there is an infection of some sort and I wouldn't think any type  of steroid would be given.  A steroid ratchets down the immune system which I wouldn't think is something that should be done with an infection.

Yes that is correct-we don't want to do steroids in the middle of an infection...some cats don't respond to the injected steroids.

I have an asthmatic cat and she doesn't respond well to pred or shots. We use Flovent with the Aerokat and she has albuterol for break through times. The flovent works like a charm-she still has a very soft wheeze but it's nothing like it used to be...

Some cats can get a kitty cold with a low grade fever-it's usually caused by a virus-7 to 21 days..sometimes it just takes time to work it's way out. My cat got a humdinger of a cat cold from a cat show we went to and it took her 3 weeks to get better. We did sub fluids and stinky wet food to get her to eat. There were 3 days she was very lethargic and didn't even move. We went to the vet where they gave her sub fluids and Zithromax for antibiotics. That seemed to help but took a good day to start working...the worst part was she was so lethargic she didn't want to get up..so I put her in her big green fuzzy bed and sat her outside on the front porch in the sun- it was 65 degrees that day-she was loving the hot sun on her but she wasn't interested in exploring..sometimes these things take a bit to get over.

Is your kitty drinking water? I don't understand why the vet gave steroids this early in the diagnosis either. You can try syringing water and using baby food to get food into them. make sure no onions..honeybee LOVED the babyfood when she was sick...even her nose was running so we knew it was just a pesky virus that had to run it's course but she has asthma and the vet wanted to use Zithromax incase she had a bacterial infection in her sinuses. She was having colored junk coming out of her nose..that poor cat.

What about treats? Will he eat treats? At this point we just want to get some type of nutrition in them even if it's junk food=to at least kick start the appetite..if they can't smell their food they may not eat..tuna and baby food were the ruling foods in my house during that time.