Help for Cat with Chronic Respitory Illness

[EveL]

I have answered the questions pertinent to a cat on the questionaire. He is currently on Phos 6C, as I am, but three times a day. He is currently having a bad flare up with lots of wheezing.


First Name: Joker
Age: 7 years
Height:
Weight: 11 lbs. 4 oz.

CHIEF COMPLAINT:

1. What is your chief complaint (CC)? Tell as much about it as you can, including what is the worst part of it and why it's the worst: the sensations, the kind of pain, the location, how your energy has been affected (for example, has the complaint made you restless, weak, nervous, anxious, irritable, hypersensitive, effected your thirst and appetite, your body temperature, and so on).

Joker is an OSH colorpoint cat.
Joker's "Illnesses" began a little over a year ago. It began as a typical URI, but only with the one symptom of congested, wheezy breathing. We took him in to vet, & he treated him with a Depro Medrol shot, a penicillin shot & sent him home with antibiotics to take for another week. This began a pattern. Every six to 8 weeks, it would re-occur & we would return to the vet, for the same treatment.In the past few months the freqency of these attacks has increased. The last one was only three weeks. At that time, he was only given a course of antibiotic in the form of Zenniquin & a also Prednisolone for his breathing. After 5 days, he started vomiting, & he went through an entire weekend of not being able to keep anything down. He was then taken in & received a shot to stop the vomiting & another Depro Medrol shot & another penicilling shot. He was fine for the next day & he then threw up again the next day, but has not repeated it to present.
Tests were run. Blood work, including a test for FIP was run. It was positive with a titre of 1:6000. He also had x-rays, chest & adominal. All it showed was a small area on one side of his lung,a greyish nature. Vet said, most likely bacterial infection. Throat culture was done, but failed because of recent use of antibiotics. He was put on Inteferon to strengthen his immune system & at present, that is all that he is on. At no time was he running a fever or having any other symptoms, other than the congested breathing. Vet said that at those times, his throat was red & his tonsils were inflamed.

2. When did this problem begin? What happened in
your life around that time? What do you think
caused it? Nothing in particular happened in his life that I would attribute to bringing this on.

3. What aggravates the CC and what brings it on?(for example, certain types of food or weather, movement, light, noise, company, talking,
heat/cold, or anything else that you can think
of; please be specific) and what makes the CC better (for example hot or cold, massage, eating, lying still, music, company...)? What does it make you do to try to feel better?

Nothing brings it on, it just occurs on a regular basis. The only thing to make it better so far has been the steroid shots. It does seem that the congestion is worse at night.

4. At what time of the day or night is the CC the
worst? Specify an hour if you can.

N/A

5. What symptoms can you identify that accompany
the CC (whether directly related or not; for example, headache with nausea; or menstrual cramps with diarrhea; a cold with irritability and anger)?

One symptom, congestion, wheezy breathing.

GENERAL QUESTIONS
6. Environment: With regard to the seasons, weather, outdoor temperature, indoor temperature, drafts, air quality, airconditioning, ocean air, mountain air, humidity, the sun/rain/thunderstorms/clouds/fog, etc.: what environmental factors give you comfort and relief, and which ones cause discomfort and distress? Try to give examples.

N/A

7. What position is most uncomfortable for you?

N/A

8. a)Do you tend to be chilly or warm? Are there parts of your body that are colder or warmer than the rest of you? Is there a special time of day or night when they are colder or warmer? b) Do you perspire a great deal? If so, when? And where on the body? (feet, head, hair, chest, armpits, etc) Does it leave a stain of a particular color? Is there a particular odor?
9. Describe what your tongue looks like.

N/A

MENTAL/EMOTIONAL
10. What do you worry about? How do you deal with
worries?
11. How do you keep your house/your desk/your room/your study/your bathroom?
12. How easily do you cry? In what situations?
13. When you are upset, what do you do to help yourself feel better?
14. What makes you angry? What do you do when you're angry?
15. Do you have an emotion that predominates; such as anger, depression, irritability, anxiety, jealousy, joy...or possibly two emotions that tend to alternate predictably?
16. What fears do you have?
17. What have been the most difficult circumstances in your life? How did you cope?
18. What are the greatest joys you have had in
your life?
19. What was your childhood like?
20. What bothers you most in other people? How,
if at all, do you express it?
21. What causes the most problems in your relationships?
22. Do you have any recurring dreams? What are they about?
23. What would you need to feel happy?
24. What do you do for work? Ideally, what would
you like to do?
25. If you were made President for a day, what would you change?
26. When people have criticized you, what were they complaining about? Similarly, when people have praised you, what did you receive praise for?
27. What would you like to change most about
yourself?

N/A

FOOD
28. How do you feel before, during and after
meals? How do you feel if you go without a
meal?
29. What would you most like to eat (if you did
not have to consider calories, fat, anything
you've read about the right way to eat)?
30. What foods do you dislike and refuse to eat?
What foods do you react badly to, and in what
way?
31. How much do you drink in a day? Include
sodas, juice, coffee, tea, milk, and
alcoholic beverages as well as water. How
thirsty do you tend to get? What temperature would you like your drinks to be?

SLEEP
32. How is your sleep?
33. Do you do anything during sleep? (speak,
laugh, shriek, toss about, grind your teeth, drool, snore, walk, talk, etc.)
34. Do you have trouble falling asleep? What keeps you awake? Do you wake always at a certain time? What causes you to wake up? What position do you sleep in?

WOMEN
35. Number of pregnancies, number of children,
number of miscarriages, number of abortions
36. At what age did your menses begin? If you
have gone through menopause, at what age?
37. How frequently do they (or did they) come?
38. What about their duration, abundance, colour,
time of day when flow is greatest; any odour
or clots?
39. How do you (did you) feel before, during and
after menses?

HEALTH HISTORY
40. What medications are you taking at present? Inteferon
41. How frequently do you get colds and flus?
42. Have you had any childhood illnesses twice,
or in a very severe form, or after puberty?
43. Have you had any vaccinations since the : Has all the standard vaccinations for cats
standard childhood ones? Have you ever had an
adverse or unusual reaction to a vaccination?
44. Have you had any surgery? What and when? Neutering
45. Have you had at any time (mention year):
warts, cysts, Polyps, or tumors? Where were they located? How were they treated?

46. Do you tend to have any discharges (nasal,
vaginal, etc.)? What is the color, consistency? No nasal discharge.

SENSITIVITY
47. a) Do you tend to need a smaller dose of
medications than most other people?
b) Do you need less anaesthesia than others,
or have a hard time coming out of it?
c) Do you tend to react to vitamins and herbs
and/or need hypoallergenic vitamins?
d) Are you sensitive to paint fumes, exhuast,
dry cleaning fluid, fragrances etc.?

48. Family history: Mention diseases, causes
and ages of deaths of father, mother,
sisters, brothers and grandparents on both
sides.

49. Construct a time line: Mention from birth
on to the present day, all IMPORTANT events
(emotional and physical traumas,
heartbreaks, divorces, work-related events,
diseases or traumas your mother had while
being pregnant with you, family stress,
death in the family or of friends,
disappointment, etc.) Mention the symptoms
experienced at those moments or which you
can date to those traumas.
50. When you stand in line at the bank or supermarket, how do you feel?
51. When your family member was last sick, what did you do?
52. How is your sexual energy?
53. How do you react to consolation
54. What part of your life do you have the most difficulty coping with.
55. What are your hobbies? Where would you go if you could go anywhere?


N/A

[kkrista]

Ask you vet why he continually gave the cat steriods (depo no less) to further deplete his immune system and then follows up with interferon to boast it? This is crazy, slap dash prescribing that will have long lasting and I fear devastating effects in your cat! Its crazy to treat an initial URI with steriods (dangerous, if he had a fever). The wheezing was probably (and xray suggests) pnemonia (probably developed from clamydia infection) that could have been treated allopathically with generally specific antibiotics (tetracycline or baytril/Orbax) not steriods (totally inappropriate!). Now everything is all snowballed together, its tough to say what the heck is going on.

You need to make a very impostant choice here. Either keep on going the allopathic route OR attempt homeopathic treatment, you can not do both. The first thing I would suggest it total detox, so the true symptoms can actually manifest (right now they are probably suppressed and so there would be nothing to prescribe upon or you would be guessing at symptoms).

Whatever you do, don't allow any more depo shots, those shots very often kill cats after a year of monthly shots. I've seen cancer, liver failure and diabetis to renal failure; result from these dangerous regimes (what really annoys me is that the treatments are continued even though they clearly are not helping the situation at all!!!)

[LisaAnnan]

kkrista,
How do you do a detox for cats?

[kkrista]

Lisa, I wasn't really referring to any procedure, rather suggesting to stop the drugs (including vaccines -another of my pet-peeves is vaccinating obviously ill animals; why some vets feel chronic illness doesn't apply is beyond me!), feed a good quality (preferred natural diet) and let the animal be for a month or two, making note of any symptoms that start to surface. One could also look at the so-called "clearing" remedies, but I don't think they should be given "just because" rather because the symptoms (albeit, possibly masking ones) fit.

We have I think a bad habit of intolerance to any illness in our society today. Particularily when it involves our pets. If symptoms are serious one has to act, but generally a runny nose is not going to kill anybody, so let it drain instead of trying to stop it right away (rush in with steriods). If it goes on for 3-4 weeks, take a full case.

[EveL]

Originally Posted by kkrista

Ask you vet why he continually gave the cat steriods (depo no less) to further deplete his immune system and then follows up with interferon to boast it? This is crazy, slap dash prescribing that will have long lasting and I fear devastating effects in your cat! Its crazy to treat an initial URI with steriods (dangerous, if he had a fever). The wheezing was probably (and xray suggests) pnemonia (probably developed from clamydia infection) that could have been treated allopathically with generally specific antibiotics (tetracycline or baytril/Orbax) not steriods (totally inappropriate!). Now everything is all snowballed together, its tough to say what the heck is going on.

You need to make a very impostant choice here. Either keep on going the allopathic route OR attempt homeopathic treatment, you can not do both. The first thing I would suggest it total detox, so the true symptoms can actually manifest (right now they are probably suppressed and so there would be nothing to prescribe upon or you would be guessing at symptoms).

Whatever you do, don't allow any more depo shots, those shots very often kill cats after a year of monthly shots. I've seen cancer, liver failure and diabetis to renal failure; result from these dangerous regimes (what really annoys me is that the treatments are continued even though they clearly are not helping the situation at all!!!)

I have made a decision to treat him homeopthically. He has not been back to the vet since February. When this condition started over a year ago, he did use antibiotics, but they failed to get rid of it, it just kept coming back, that is when he started using Depro Medrol shots along with the antibiotics, & even then he only stayed clear for two months at most, usually shorter. If he just had a runny nose, I would be able to go along with what your suggesting fine, but from past experience with him, & his trouble being with his breathing, if it goes on for too long, it develops into an infection, with fever & inflamed tonsils & throat & then he really acts & is sick. I know that homeopathy approaches things differently & I gave allopathic medicine a year to help him & he has ended up with a very weak immune system & these chonic breathing problems, so I don't want to go back to that, but I have to admit that I am a bit uneasy doing nothing, & just let him get worse.
Thanks,
Eve

[sreischman]

If all he has is wheezing, it's very difficult to find a remedy. In Joker's case there is more than that. But in general, homeopaths need some very clear cut symptoms in order to find the remedy. It's actually easier to find a remedy for someone who is very ill than for someone who is just slightly ill. If he follows the same pattern each time, then kowing exactly what it is should be enough to find the right remedy.

Watching a loved one be sick and do nothing about it can be a very scary experience, but the more I use homeopathy, the more comfortable I've become in waiting to see how things unfold. I remember early on, before I was trained and was taking my family to a homeopath. He used to tell me not to treat my som when he became ill. It used to terrify me, especially when he had a high fever. But as he developed symptoms, my homeopath would then easily find a remedy. Now I hardly worry at all when a family member gets sick. But it's really hard at first, especially when you know there is a pattern that developes. This means that we (you and members of the board who are helping) have to stay in touch with each other very frequently as things develop, even every half hour or so, if things develope quickly.

[kkrista]

When was the last xray taken? Is there crackling in the chest? If the initial problem was pnemonia, this is difficult to get rid of. As mentioned, allopathically, specific antibiotics must be used, but most importantly, treatment must be elongated to a minimum of 4 weeks, otherwise the condition will return. I know this is a very stressful and difficult condition. This past fall, we discovered that one of our cats was FIV positive and we needed to intensively treat him, no less than 4 times for his pnemonia.

Actual respiratory ailments can be difficult to treat as Shirley points out, but I think you need to reveal the actual nature of the complaint (cause) if you can, as well as the symptoms of the cat, keeping in mind that many cats will have a lot of symptoms in common, you need to notice the uncommon ones as well.

[EveL]

Joker's last x-ray was in February. It showed a very small gray area on one side of the lung. The vet did not say it was pnemonia, but said that it might possibly be a bacterial infecion. He could never get a good throat culture, so that was not determined. There is not a "crackling" in his chest, but I can feel "something" when I hold him & sometimes, it sounds like a gurgling noise & sometimes when he wakes up from nap, after having his head tucked underneath him, he wakes up sounding like he is choked up.

Eve

[redelle]

I'm a new member so I dont know if product names can be mentioned but there is another site that has mentioned great things about something called Transfer Factor and Transfactor Plus. There is a Transfer Factor for pets but the vets who discussed it said that the ones for people were better. This is the dosage they gave:
human formula Transfer Factor to animals, as suggested by veterinarians at the 4Life Company:


Transfer Factor™ Canine Dosages Transfer Factor™

1 to 25 lb. 1-4 daily
26 to 50 lb. 2-3 daily
51 to 100 lb. 3-4 daily
100+ lb. 4-6 daily

Feline Dosage Transfer Factor ™ 1-3 daily

Transfer Factor Plus™ Canine Dosages Transfer Factor Plus™

1 to 25 lb. 1-2 daily
26 to 50 lb. 2-3 daily
51 to 100 lb. 3-4 daily
100+ lb. 4-6 daily

Feline Dosage Transfer Factor Plus™ 1-3 daily

Note: Some veterinarians start animals on a small amount of Transfer Factor Plus for 3 consecutive days and increase the dose gradually. The content of the capsule can be mixed with pet food or treats (sardines, cheese, etc.) Some pet owners find it easier to shove a capsule in the pet's throat or to mix the content in a little broth and use a syringe to inject the product into the animal's mouth. Although Transfer Factor and Transfer Factor Plus™ are best given throughout the day, satisfactory results have been obtained by giving the dose once a day. The 4Life company recommends to double or triple these amounts if the animal is ill in order to increase the efficiency of the immune system further. There is no report of overdosing on TF or TF Plus even when consuming massive amounts.

Five years ago, when Dr. Burlingame started using Transfer Factor and Transfer Factor Plus™ in his veterinary practice, he didn’t always get the results he hoped for. Since then, he says, he’s discovered that for maximum benefit, Transfer Factor needs to be started early and at high enough doses. “It’s a numbers game when you’re dealing with bacteria and viruses,” he says. It is crucial to get high enough numbers of transfer factors into the system to combat the high levels of bacteria or viruses. Recently, Dr. Burlingame had a four-month-old puppy come into to his clinic. The puppy had bloody diarrhea and all the symptoms of parvovirus. In addition to the typical antibiotics, antiemetics, and IV fluids, he gave the puppy 1,400 mgs per day of Transfer Factor (supplement facts). The puppy was home in three days. “I wish I had this a long time ago,” he says. According to Dr. Burlingame, Transfer Factor usually takes about 48 to 72 hours to educate the immune system. He looks for a regression in symptoms, particularly in the case of infections, within the first 48 to 72 hours. He says he will often see an improvement or increase in white blood cell counts in that time frame as well. And, overall, the patient will begin to feel and therefore act better. Excerpt from the the Whole Dog Journal These products have absolutely no toxicity or side effects even at mega doses. You may increase the amounts even further to achieve the desired level of immune efficiency

[kkrista]

pnemonia is a bacterial infection, the crackling is a sound vets will describe when they listen to the chest using a stethescope. When the cat get croupy, does he have a temperature (are you able to take rectally?), does he lose appetite, any vomiting (I had a cat with asthma, during an attack she would vomit -ipec worked wonders for her acute attacks, still treating the chronic) Its really important to know if his resp broblems are due to viral componant or a type of asthma.