Stomach Spasms

Had a cat in today that hadn't been to the clinic in a couple of years. The owner reported that 'Felix' had been having these weird muscle spasms the last month or so, but had still been eating and drinking up until yesterday, so she wasn't too concerned.

As soon I saw the cat on the table, it's sides heaving while it tried vainly to suck in enough air to breathe, I knew the problem was more serious than she'd predicted. He was a lovely boy, good to work with even though he was obviously uncomfortable. He'd lost a lot of weight and he had increased lung sounds on both sides. Instead of a soft rubbing noise, it sounded like a crew of lung cells were working away with sandpaper.

Luckily he was stable enough to take a couple quick pictures of his chest. There it was, the classic 'Christmas tree' pattern of the lungs, caused by the thickened walls of the bronchi. (See radiograph above..you can also see this cat's microchip between it's shoulder blades!) This poor guy had bronchitis; likely feline asthma. More questioning of the owner revealed that someone did smoke in the house which can make these cats much worse. We've started him on corticosteroids, the cornerstone of treatment in many of these cats. Relatively new inhalant therapies, with special kitty face masks, can help too.


2 young rabbits arrived later in the day for 'new bunny' checkups with complaints of not eating well. When I quizzed the owner, their diet for the 3 days he'd owned them included: lasagna, raspberries, 2 lbs of potato peelings, 1 bag of carrots and pasta! I'd be gassy too! I betcha that 80% of the sick bunnies I see are ill because they're not being fed the right diet. The pet store sends the bunny home with a bag of pellets and informs the owner that it's all the bunny needs. Pellets were originally meant for meat rabbits that were destined to gain weight quickly and then grace someone's dinner table. We want our pet bunnies to live a lot longer! That means lots of long-stem hay such as Timothy, fresh green leafies and a SMALL amount of pellet. The hay is so important to keep the bunny's guts in good working order. I'm sure there will be another post on gastric stasis in bunnies at some point!

As for Molly, she's doing well. Her water consumption is slowly returning to normal. If she continues to do well, we'll repeat her ACTH stim test in a few days to see how her adrenals are faring.