Hi everyone - last week I posted about miso's x-ray which showed a shadow on her heart. There's good news about a possible mass or tumor - there isn't one. And there's good news about her heart - it's fine. The bad news is that miso has asthma, with a lot of mucous in the lungs. The equipment at my vet's must have blurred the radiograph, or showed muscle tissue as a shadow. Her symptoms could of course have been anything, but the fine radiograph at the vet college showed no mass, and the ultra-sound showed a good strong heart. The bronchoscopy showed a lot of mucous, which they tested. There are things called eosinophils in feline lungs, but asthmatic cats have more, and she has lots. They also found huge amounts of allergic response cells (think they're called gobelet or something) and worryingly, a blue pigmentation in the lung tissue, which may mean she inhaled something blue, or that turned to blue, which is causing this extreme allergic asthma/bronchitis.
Miso is on steroids, anti-inflammatories and an anti-parasite drug, in case the asthma is caused by heart or lung worm. She starts on an inhaler now - I have to train her to use it comfortably. She doesn't know she's sick, but it's breaking my heart to hear her burbling, rattling breathing, because of all the mucous, and every time she coughs it's like a knife through my heart. All her symptoms are worse since the bronchoscopy, 2 days ago, which is very invasive. She will improve again, specially on the steroids. Her appetite is second to none and she's in great form, still wanting her 3 garden walks a day on her harness. One symptom she hasn't had lately is the panting, though she isn't playing as much, so I reckon she's limiting herself. I'm not stimulating her to play at the moment.
I'm stripping the house of anything I think could be either to blame or could make it worse. I've changed her cat litter (she was using that expensive corn litter and the dust is horrible from it) and I vacuumed from top to bottom today. What I'm hoping from the bottom of my heart is that this is a reaction to something she inhaled, which is now gone, and that she will recover, and be free from asthma eventually. She's only 8 months old - it's just so hard for her. But it's better than a tumor or a heart problem, so I'm looking on the good side.
