Healing thoughts please for Rosso

Please can you keep my baby Rosso in your thoughts. On Thursday he was sleeping peacefully with his brother when he suddenly started coughing. I picked him up and took him to the kitchen, where there is a tiled floor and no carpet because I thought he was going to be sick. Well, he wasn't, he just carried on coughing and though the violent coughing eased he kept on sort of "huffing" and swallowing hard. After about an hour of this it didn't go away, so I called the vet and took him in.

She couldn't see anything, said he might have swallowed/chewed something that had irritated his throat, gave him an anti-inflammatory shot and antibiotic and I brought him home. She wanted him to go back the next day, in the hope and expectation that he'd be better. He wasn't, so she decided to keep him in, give him a GA, so that she could have a proper look. She couldn't find anything at all, except that his throat was very sore, so he got more anti-inflammatories, he fed a bit, so I was allowed to take him home last night.

This morning I crushed the tablet in the specially mushy food she had given him and he ate quite well. He had a bit more at lunchtime, but throughout the day has gradually got more lethargic and when the time came for his next pill, he wouldn't eat anything. Obviously I couldn't shove it down his throat, when his throat's the problem. I've not seen him drink all day either, though I've tried to get him to lick water from my fingers.

Anyway it got to half past midnight and I knew there was no way I could sleep without someone doing a check on Rosso. (Sorry vet ...) His third eyelid is partially closed, he's sitting in a hunched position, most of the time his mouth is open and his little tongue sticking out. He doesn't seem to be having difficulty breathing, thank God, but he is making a funny squeaking/whimpering sound. We phoned the vet's emergency number and she has kindly agreed to go to the surgery, so my husband's taken him now. (I've got to stay, because we have children in bed).

I know it's unlikely to be anything terribly serious, or they wouldn't have let him come home yesterday, but I am so very worried. I lost my Sophie only in September when the vet kept her in with what she thought was just a tummy bug, but turned out to be acute pancreatitis and they phoned me to tell me that she died. Please God don't let me lose little Rosso, he's only 9 months old.

From your description it sounds as if he is definitely very sick. I do hope it turns out well.

Oh no, Jan! Poor little Rosso! I am praying for him. Please feel better, little boy! Please keep us updated, Jan, how he's feeling and what your Vet says.

Sending lots of healing vibes to Rosso.

Just to give you an update. The vet kept him in last night. She said that because we had not been able to get the pills down him as he wasn't eating, his larynx was swollen again and it was obstructing his breathing. She gave him the anti-inflammatory by injection, and let him spend some time in an oxygen tent. She phoned me at 2.00 in the morning to say that he had settled well, his breathing was better and he had had something to eat.

This morning it sounds as though he is even better. She still wants to keep him in so she can continue giving anti-inflammatory via injection. He has had a blood test which shows there is nothing in his system causing this problem. He has eaten and passed urine. She said that he is slowing down his own recovery by purring and mewing at everyone all the time - he definitely wasn't up to that yesterday he was just lying in his bed, so he is obviously improved. She wants to keep him in to keep him quiet and allow him to rest - he wouldn't get the same peace at home.

She said that she was of the opinion that this was just a throat inflammation, though it's a mystery what's causing it. He has already had an exam under GA and an X-ray, so the next step would be a endoscopy by an ENT specialist if he doesn't recover and they think that they need to explore further for something stuck.

The only other thing I can think of is that when the three cats all play together, they often go in for throat biting - not maliciously, just play. Could Rosso have got a hard nip on the throat which caused his soft tissues to swell and have this reaction? Anyway, thanks for your thoughts and prayers and please keep remembering him. The next time we speak to the vet is arranged for 10.30 am tomorrow.

The vet phoned again this morning. Rosso still is improving - he hasn't needed oxygen since we took him in as an emergency on Saturday night. He is now taking his medication orally, anti-anflammatories and antibiotics. We still don't know what caused the sudden trauma.

The vet said we could chose whether to leave him in there, or to take him home and continue his treatment at home, but he would have to be kept quiet and receive as little stimulation as possible. In a house with 2 other cats and 2 children we decided to leave him there, although I'm really sad not to have seen my baby since he was so poorly on Saturday night. The problem is that every time he purrs or mews he irritates his throat again, it swells and starts him off going back to square one, and he's such a lovely cat he purrs and talks to you even when you just speak to him. We'd have to shut him in a room on his own if he was here - and then it's my guess that he'd mew to be let out, and the others wouldn't help by going and mewing at his door. I'd want to keep checking on him to see if he was OK and then he'd mew and purr!

So we have decided to leave him where he is, for his own good. The last thing I want is for him to go back to the state he was in Saturday night.

The vet says she is hoping that when he finishes the course of anti-inflammatories the throat swelling will have subsided and stay that way. If it swells again when the medication is over they will try an endoscopy to see if anything is still there that an examination and x-ray has missed and they will also have to consider whether it's a problem that he was born with, like a smaller larynx than usual or something like that, which has only just come to light. She also said if a endoscopy didn't help and the problem continues he might have to have a biopsy,which wasn't easy as it's quite a dangerous thing to do on that area, so we're hoping and praying it won't come to that. We just hope his larynx goes back to normal and stays there when the medication is finished.