- Joined
- Jun 19, 2019
- Messages
- 55
- Purraise
- 41
Prefacing this with I know she needs an ECG for us to know for sure. I’m calling them first thing in the morning to try to get one scheduled.
She woke me up around 2:30am with another coughing fit. Once I start petting her it doesn’t last long, and usually ends with a few swallows as I’m petting her and she’s purring.
She’s 17. We’ve suspected asthma for a while and have been monitoring as I’ve attempted to clean the house more. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not great with the housework - ADHD here.
Her most recent blood panel, though, shows the proBNP at 130, where she was 78 about 5 or 6 months ago.
the plan right now is to start her with 14 days of oral steroids and then also get aFlucticasone inhaler. Ideally I’ll also get her the ECG.
The only concern here is the closest place that does the ECG is 40 miles away, and she’s awful in the car. In fact, her normal vet is house calls. It looks like they do travel to other vet offices but I’m not sure how that works if her “normal vet office” is at home.
She’s had allergies before, indicating possible asthma. She’s also once been labeled with a heart murmur, but got an ECG then (about 3 years ago) that came back normal.
my concern is about next steps. I don’t think she will survive another long drive for the ECG since she gets so stressed in the car and just going anywhere. But, I’m reading that starting steroids could make heart problems worse.
However, our vet thinks we’re in a spot where we need to start them whatever the issue is - coughing can cause more scar tissue which is not good. If she has heart disease and there’s a clot somewhere, coughing could dislodge it causing a massive clot.
has anyone been in a similar spot before? The ideal option here is that we can do an ECG at home, but if I can’t I’m going to have to decide to go with the steroid or not without more info, which worries me, but the vet is convinced it’s necessary at this point. Frankly, I do trust this vet.
thanks in advance. I’m just worried sick about here and I’m worried each coughing fit will cause the worst to happen.
She woke me up around 2:30am with another coughing fit. Once I start petting her it doesn’t last long, and usually ends with a few swallows as I’m petting her and she’s purring.
She’s 17. We’ve suspected asthma for a while and have been monitoring as I’ve attempted to clean the house more. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not great with the housework - ADHD here.
Her most recent blood panel, though, shows the proBNP at 130, where she was 78 about 5 or 6 months ago.
the plan right now is to start her with 14 days of oral steroids and then also get aFlucticasone inhaler. Ideally I’ll also get her the ECG.
The only concern here is the closest place that does the ECG is 40 miles away, and she’s awful in the car. In fact, her normal vet is house calls. It looks like they do travel to other vet offices but I’m not sure how that works if her “normal vet office” is at home.
She’s had allergies before, indicating possible asthma. She’s also once been labeled with a heart murmur, but got an ECG then (about 3 years ago) that came back normal.
my concern is about next steps. I don’t think she will survive another long drive for the ECG since she gets so stressed in the car and just going anywhere. But, I’m reading that starting steroids could make heart problems worse.
However, our vet thinks we’re in a spot where we need to start them whatever the issue is - coughing can cause more scar tissue which is not good. If she has heart disease and there’s a clot somewhere, coughing could dislodge it causing a massive clot.
has anyone been in a similar spot before? The ideal option here is that we can do an ECG at home, but if I can’t I’m going to have to decide to go with the steroid or not without more info, which worries me, but the vet is convinced it’s necessary at this point. Frankly, I do trust this vet.
thanks in advance. I’m just worried sick about here and I’m worried each coughing fit will cause the worst to happen.