A Black Heart's Romance

Zissou went the the vet last night and we returned home almost as in the dark as when we arrived there. The coughing can be a number of different things, but the vet seemed to think that my cat is showing signs of asthma. I don't know how I feel about this decision, seeing as how I've had him for about a year now, and he's NEVER coughed in the past. His symptoms seemed to come out of nowhere, so it's hard for me to go along with the diagnosis of asthma. So Alec and I prodded her more questions to see what else could be possibly going on. This is what we came away with:

• Asthma


• Possible food allergy (the only change in his diet recently had been a little piece of turkey that I gave him last weekend which seems to be when the coughing began)


• Possible bacterial infection


• Possible heart problems, though unlikely

She basically told us there's nothing we can do about the asthma aside from adding a nutritional supplement to his food to help strengthen his immune system and to possibly invest in an air filter for our home. Our only other option was to pay about $300.00 for a chest scan and blood-work which would either confirm the asthma or not. It seemed pretty pointless to take that route, since there's nothing we can do for him if it IS asthma. So we bought the supplement and she wrote us a prescription for an antibiotic which we can pick up if his coughing gets worse (and we won't be charged for another office visit, thank God).

I'm hoping the coughing will just go away on its own. I'm hoping that I can just attribute it to the random bits of turkey that I fed him. The vet said that if he had an issue with the turkey, it could have caused inflammation in his tummy, which may have led to his dry heaving.

In any case, we will be monitoring him over the next few days to make sure he's not getting worse. If he remains the same or gets worse, then we will pick up the antibiotics and hope that those do the trick. If that doesn't help, then I guess we are living with a cat who has asthma.

Poor Zeez hates being in his carrier. He isn't typically a very talkative kitty, but as soon as he was put in the carrier and taken to the car he wouldn't stop meowing. I worried because this was his first trip to the vet as long as I've had him, but he did surprisingly well. He came out of the carrier immediately and let the nurse and the vet inspect him without trying to escape. He then wandered around the exam room while we talked to the vet. But as soon as he was put back in the carrier and put in the car for the ride home, the sad/terrified meowing began again. Alec decided to experiment and let him out of the carrier to wander the car. He stopped meowing and seemed to actually enjoy the car ride. He wedged himself between Alec's shoulders and the back of his seat and just looked out the window for the ride home. I kind of wish I had thought to take a picture. When we got home, he didn't run and hide, but hung around until I gave him a treat. He was such a good boy.