topic Re: Nebulizing a cat in Pet Lovers

Nebulizing a cat

Icegoddess — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 02:14:53 GMT

Sambo has feline asthma. Normally, he is well controlled on his prednisolone, but it seems all this pollen in the air is giving him problems. Usually, I only have to give him a nebulizer treatment about once every 3 or 4 months, but he's already had to have 2 in the last week. Luckily, he tolerates it well.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Lucky Charm — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 02:18:58 GMT

AWW, is Sambo in some sort of a tank? That right there would be a problem with my cats. You can't put them anywhere enclosed. Was your cat wheezing or snoring or sneezing a lot?

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Sammycat1 — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 02:21:23 GMT

@Icegoddesswe have a kitty prone to upper respiratory infections and have to do nebulizer treatments for her too.

Do you keep your house closed up during these first blasts of pollen? Ours is coming out in record force in our area and we have to keep the windows closed.

Also, try talking to your vet about alternating the pred with just saline....it's sort of like a neti pot for human sinuses. Our kitty became a diabetic and could do antibiotic in her nebulizer but no pred anymore -- and we've had great success with saline on off days. Just a thought.

Your kitty is adorable, by the way!

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Icegoddess — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 02:25:19 GMT

@Lucky Charm , it's a Rubbermaid container. They showed me at the ER Vet how to turn one into a nebulizer, but you do have to have a prescription for the nebulizer, the albuterol, and even the saline solution.

He gets wheezy and I can see that even when he's resting he's breathing harder than the other guys. Today, he jumped on the chair to sit behind me and I noticed he was also open-mouth breathing. That was one of the symptoms they asked me about when we took him into the ER. At that time he had to have his chest tapped a couple of times. My local vet didn't give him much of a chance, but he's been doing quite well.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Icegoddess — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 02:29:37 GMT

@Sammycat1 , we use albuterol in the nebulizer, not pred, but he does get a daily dose of prednisolone that I squirt in his mouth with a syringe. It's chicken/beef flavored so he seems to be ok with it. I am concerned though that he will eventually develop diabetes from the long-term use of prednisolone. A lot of people use Flovent with a little mask and inhaler, but I can't get him to accept the mask. He's not treat-oriented which is whay most use to get their cats to accept the mask.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Icegoddess — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 02:31:19 GMT

@Sammycat1 , forgot to add, we do keep the house closed pretty much year-round. I also have an air filter next to the litter boxes.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

blackhole99 — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 03:19:26 GMT

Your Sambo looks like my cat Moe.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Drythe — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 03:44:42 GMT

@Icegoddess

Sending Good Wishes to Sambo.

What a sweetie he is. I’m so glad you can do this for him. 💕

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Icegoddess — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 03:55:54 GMT

@Drythe, he's a very good boy. I have to wonder if he recognizes that it makes him feel better almost immediately. He's always extra loving and hungry when the treatment is done.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Icegoddess — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 03:58:45 GMT

@blackhole99 wrote:
Your Sambo looks like my cat Moe.

@blackhole99, the first litter of kittens we ever had had a Moe in it. A stray showed up and my sister started feeding it. Pretty soon we had a litter of kittens. there were 4 of them and we named them Eenie, Meenie, Miney, and Moe.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

NickNack — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 09:39:06 GMT

I'm sorry you have to do this, but glad that he tolerates it well. I'm so glad it helps him so much.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

hayseed00 — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 14:54:47 GMT

Sambo has a kind, caring and loving Mom with you, hope he continues to improve.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

ScenicMaine — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 01:41:35 GMT

@Icegoddess

I'm so sorry Sambo has to deal with the asthma. I know it's not good at this time of year, the fall season also. I hope he can grow out of it. You're taking good, loving care of him. He's so handsome Thank you,

Re: Nebulizing a cat

lynne6was7 — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 15:38:27 GMT

Your set-up for giving Sambo nebulizer treatments has me intrigued. Kitters is my second rescue kitty with asthma. She takes the Flovent inhaler twice per day - boy that stuff is ridiculously expensive. She does pretty well - not as great as my Kaity - but she will sometimes stubbornly hold her breath. Kitters' asthma also gets worse during allergy season (even though windows stay shut and I have a filter system on my furnace/air conditioner). Then she usually develops bronchitis, so now she is on preventive doxycycline in spring and fall. Kitters has her annual check-up in May so I am going to ask her vet if this nebulizer set-up would be beneficial.

Re: Nebulizing a cat

Icegoddess — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 16:03:06 GMT

@lynne6was7 , I have one of those inhalers, but I could never get Sambo to accept it. He's not particularly interested in food, so putting treats in it has no effect on him. So, his maintenance meds is prednisolone which also means the possiblility of diabetes from the long-term use. We use an albuterol and saline solution in his nebulizer setup. We use .25 mL of albuterol to 3 mL of saline for inhalation. We only resort to this when I can tell he's struggling with his breathing.

Feel free to reach out if your vet approves and you need any advice on making the setup. You will need prescriptions for everything besides, of course, the container, including the saline solution. I say this because the ER Vet thought you could get nebulizers off the shelf and apparently my Vet didn't realize the saline also required a prescripton. So, I was totally stressed out trying to get it all together at a time that I felt like Sambo really needed it. That's all probably thanks to the ACA and the medical devices tax. Things that used to be OTC are now considered a medical device so the gov't can get the tax money.