Wellness

[Icegoddess]

Anybody here use a nebulizer?  Looking for a recommendation for one with a reasonably high delivery rate.  The one I am currently using claims at least 0.15 mL/min but it is not giving me near that amount.  I'm currently having to mix meds which ends up being 6.25 mL to deliver and after a good 45 minutes about half that liquid is still in the cup.  I really don't want to subject my cat to that much time in the chamber on a daily basis.  I noticed the one at the vet puts out a lot more smoke than mine and I'll be asking about it when I go today, but I can tell it's a cutesy pediatric unit.  

I'm looking at Phillips Respironics Innospire Essence unit which claims a high rate, but they don't give the specific medicine flow rate the way some others do.  There's a Pediatric unit by Drive that promises 0.2 mL/min which is more than is promised by their non-pediatric unit which is 0.18 mL/min.  But, it is on backorder.

[hckynut]

I used nebulizer treatments on myself for close to a year after my 1st heart attack, which included aspiration pneumonia. That was in 2003 and I really don't remember the flow or delivery rate. I still use my Spirometer every day to help keep my lung volume percentage as high as possible.

Since we have been owned by well over 30 cats, currently 6, curious as to what medical issue your cat has that requires this type of treatment. We have had a wide range of illnesses with many of our older cats(mostly kidneys/clots and feline leukemia. Given IV fluids to 2 right now, but never had 1 with a respiratory illness.

hckynut

[Icegoddess]

@hckynut feline asthma which has progressed to COPD.  Many people use a device called an Aerokat which is basically an infant spacer with an inhaler like Flovent, but mine won't accept the mask on his face which is required to get the flap to open to administer the medicine.  Therefore, I have to give him a steroid which increases his chance of diabetes and albuterol treatments in a nebulizer chamber as a rescue inhaler.  For the last two years he was well controlled and only needed a nebulizer treatment once every 3 or 4 months, but this year he suddenly started needing them several times a week and last week they added in more medicines, so now instead of 3 mL of liquid I'm having to give him more like 6 mL.  They did it at the vet's office the other day and it only took 20 minutes to empty the chamber, so mine obviously isn't up to the task.

[hckynut]

@Icegoddess 

Thank you for your response. We have never had to deal with a cat(all ours have been Indoor only) with asthma, fortunately. Diabetic, yes. For several years we gave insulin shots and fluids to 1 of ours. He lived to almost 18 even though be had the diabetes when he was still young.

I understand any procedure with a feline is "the less time the better". When we first started giving IV fluids many years ago we wondered how our vet could do it so quickly. He showed us how he did it and just a couple hours ago we gave put fluids in 1 of our female felines in less than 5 minutes.

Wish you the best with your furry one, you are a great mother to your precious guy. All but 1 of our 6 are 14 years or older. At my age of 80 and my wife's mobility issues, we are not going to add anymore little kittens to our feline household.

Thanks again for giving me a learning experience. 

 =^..^=

hckynut

[Icegoddess]

@hckynut all 3 of my cats are indoor-only also.  They are all rescues.  Queso was born in foster care, so he got the best care of the 3.  Houdini and his brother Sambo both had terrible health issues when rescued as kittens.  Houdini is now blind and Sambo, the COPD kitty, had pneumonia which may have contributed to the asthma in the first place.  The Ninja kitties, as I like to call the pair, are about 4 yrs old while Queso is the old man of the bunch, but he got a clean bill of health today at the vet.  He's now avoiding me.  

[hckynut]

@Icegoddess 

Hmmm! Avoiding you after a trip to the vets? Sounds like a typical feline. All of our cats are rescues, in 1 form or another. Our present 6 were all born on our property by mama's that were probably dumped on the highway above our home.

We have a mother/son, 2 sisters and the other 2 boys were brought in as little guys that seemed lost without their mom. Wasn't long ago when that number was 13. One by one as they got older we had to make "the decision" that was best for them. We had 3 in less than 4 months, all from different medical issues.

Thanks again for rescuing these precious fur babies and taking such good care of them.

hckynut(john)

[sfnative]

@Icegoddess 

@hckynut 

Though I'm experienced working with patients being delivered meds via nebulizer, I've personal experience with my sable Burmese cat who developed pretty severe asthma, after I purchased an electronic scent delivery system from the Q, the output of which was minimal.  However, that "minimal" was enough to put my sweet "Shasta" female Burmese into asthma attacks and I knew right away, so turned it off.

Long story short, the vet knew exactly what to do.  She wrote an rx for a nebulizer and meds.  Both were purchased at Walgreens.  The nebulizer came from behind the pharmacy counter and was not something one could purchase as an item on an aisle.  The vet had me placing Shasta in a see-through storage box from WalMart, with 75 holes drilled in one end, with nebulizer access in the other end.  I'd place Shasta into the box, close the top and start the nebulizer (treatment cycle for her was 19 minutes).  The storage box would fill with a medicated fog, with some of it passing out through the 75 holes I had drilled in the other end.  That nebulizer was fantastic and we still have it, though it's in storage and I can't get at it right now to pass along the brand name.

If I were you, I'd go to Walgreens and ask to speak to the pharmacist, then request the name of the best nebulizer.  Believe me, I personally know 2 pharmacists and they won't give you bad advice when it comes to "hardware" or meds.

Good luck!

[Icegoddess]

@sfnative, my original nebulizer came from the only pharmacy in town that had one at the time and I did have to have a prescription for it.  It advertises on the spec sheet that it should deliver at least .15 mL/minute, but it obviously isn't since it takes a full 30 minutes for 3.25 mL of medication.  I have a similar setup as shown to us by the ER vet.  I asked them about holes and they said not necessary.  Plus, you can see smoke escaping around the top since it is not an airtight seal.  I noticed the one at the vet's office the other day did have 2 holes in it so we went ahead and drilled a couple of small holes although it made no difference in the flow rate.  

The nebulizer the vet uses is obviously a pediatric unit because it looks like a cat (it's a cat-only clinic).  That's what I meant by cutesy, not that it is not a real nebulizer.  I have another prescription to get a new one, but I will probably go online rather than accept the only model available locally.

I know fragrances are an issue, so we don't use them in the house.  I even gave up perfume years ago because a friend at church was allergic.  I even find the new laundry pods to be too fragranced for me, so use the fragrance-free ones although I can use the fragranced liquid detergent.