Sick Little Emma

Sometimes I ask myself why I seem to often end up with the animals that have issues. :( Don't get me wrong, I don't love them any less but I always seem to wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Last night I had to bring Emma to the emergency vet at 9:30 p.m. She had been coughing/hacking as if she was trying to cough up a hairball so I gave her Petromalt and waited the day out, ran some errands, etc. Later that evening she seemed to be breathing heavier, more of a labored breathing and I thought that's it, we're going in. So off we went to the emergency vet. I explained to the vet what had been going on. He explained that if we had to pull something out of her that she ingested they would have to put her under. To be safe, however, he wanted to check her lungs and make sure her lungs were healthy enough to be anesthetized. Well, a few minutes later he came back into the room and showed me the x-rays. He told me if he looked at this x-ray and someone asked him how old this cat was he said he would have guessed 11 or 12. Emma is only a year old! He then told me he showed the x-ray to another colleague and they both concluded that she has all the signs, even clinical signs of asthma. :( Apparently hacking like she was doing earlier is also a sign of asthma but may mimic a hairball sort of hack. So.....they kept her overnight with a shot of cortisone and a few shots of an inhaler. YES, an inhaler!

After a restless night and a very worried Quincy, I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and called to see how she was doing. They said her breathing got better but was still a little faster than normal but that I could take her home with cortisone pills. I'll follow-up Monday with her regular doctor. If it is asthma I will be meeting with the naturopath at her regular doctor's office to see how we can avoid an attack. The emergency vet suggested if I vacuumed to keep her outside. *sigh* I'm also going to start using "greener" products and organic products to clean with so my cats aren't affected by all those harmful chemicals!

So....that was my evening. Emma is home now and I've never seen her so affectionate in all my life. Lol! Quincy was very happy to see her home. :) I treated her to albacore tuna in water this morning. She was SO hungry. Home sweet home for Emma. :)