Hi All
Hope you’re all doing well.
I just wanted to post my recent experience with my baby fur Mitzi. He is a 12 yr old long hair tabby cat who has lead a generally healthy life both indoors and outdoors. I’m 2019 he developed an occasional cough and we discussed this with the vet. They assured us this is nothing to worry about but we kept it under review and discussed it virtually at every appointment quarterly. They continued to reassure us they were not concerned. No treatment was recommended.
In November 2022 we made the decision for Mitzi to have a dental treatment and I asked the vet to perform X- rays to check his lungs. The scans showed “fluffy lungs” the term referred to by the vet which they said is asthma bronchitis. Mitz was prescribed prednisone 5 mg daily for one week followed by 2.5mg daily for one week following which a steroid injection was going to be given to get him covered for time spent at cattery while we traveled to see family abroad for Christmas.
On prednisone Mitzi became a shadow of its old self. He became distant, appeared confused at times, scared of us, hiding, not playing or interested in us anymore. He improved slightly on 2.5 mg. On day of steroid injection he appeared well… the next morning after 45 minutes outdoors he came in and collapsed. He looked drunk and confused. He curled on the floor and wanted to go to sleep. We panicked and took him to hospital. They put him on fluids, did blood tests. They could not identify the cause. They discharged Mitz and recommended we take him to vet for further investigations. He looked better and no longer an emergency. The vet admitted him for the day and we called for updates in the afternoon. Then they gave us the heartbreaking news that Mitz is very poorly, he has lung cancer and displaced trachea and should be put to sleep.
We went to speak to them. We were in shock, our poorly fur baby wasn’t coming home anymore. They asked us what our decision was and if we still wanted to see him. We said yes and took him home to look after him. At home he improved. The next day we took him back to remove the catheter from his leg, they left it in in case he needed to be PTS…
Mitz continued to eat, drink and go to toilet while still being spaced out. Today he almost looked normal. We are happy to see a glimpse of its old self. We wonder if the steroid injection is wearing off. On Friday we are seeing an oncologist to see if there is anything that we can do to help Mitz.
I just wanted to post here in case someone wanted offer any advice or in case it helps anyone. For the last 2 weeks I have been obsessively tried to find posts on steroid side effects and whether they can cause collapse.
Thank you for taking time to read and apologies for the long story.
M
xx
Hope you’re all doing well.
I just wanted to post my recent experience with my baby fur Mitzi. He is a 12 yr old long hair tabby cat who has lead a generally healthy life both indoors and outdoors. I’m 2019 he developed an occasional cough and we discussed this with the vet. They assured us this is nothing to worry about but we kept it under review and discussed it virtually at every appointment quarterly. They continued to reassure us they were not concerned. No treatment was recommended.
In November 2022 we made the decision for Mitzi to have a dental treatment and I asked the vet to perform X- rays to check his lungs. The scans showed “fluffy lungs” the term referred to by the vet which they said is asthma bronchitis. Mitz was prescribed prednisone 5 mg daily for one week followed by 2.5mg daily for one week following which a steroid injection was going to be given to get him covered for time spent at cattery while we traveled to see family abroad for Christmas.
On prednisone Mitzi became a shadow of its old self. He became distant, appeared confused at times, scared of us, hiding, not playing or interested in us anymore. He improved slightly on 2.5 mg. On day of steroid injection he appeared well… the next morning after 45 minutes outdoors he came in and collapsed. He looked drunk and confused. He curled on the floor and wanted to go to sleep. We panicked and took him to hospital. They put him on fluids, did blood tests. They could not identify the cause. They discharged Mitz and recommended we take him to vet for further investigations. He looked better and no longer an emergency. The vet admitted him for the day and we called for updates in the afternoon. Then they gave us the heartbreaking news that Mitz is very poorly, he has lung cancer and displaced trachea and should be put to sleep.
We went to speak to them. We were in shock, our poorly fur baby wasn’t coming home anymore. They asked us what our decision was and if we still wanted to see him. We said yes and took him home to look after him. At home he improved. The next day we took him back to remove the catheter from his leg, they left it in in case he needed to be PTS…
Mitz continued to eat, drink and go to toilet while still being spaced out. Today he almost looked normal. We are happy to see a glimpse of its old self. We wonder if the steroid injection is wearing off. On Friday we are seeing an oncologist to see if there is anything that we can do to help Mitz.
I just wanted to post here in case someone wanted offer any advice or in case it helps anyone. For the last 2 weeks I have been obsessively tried to find posts on steroid side effects and whether they can cause collapse.
Thank you for taking time to read and apologies for the long story.
M
xx
Best wishes to Mitz and you for good results of all the tests. 
