i I have a 2 year old male neutered cat that has had ongoing respiratory issues. My vet suspects he may have a polyp in the back of his airway and referred me to a specialist. The specialist wanted to rule out any other diseases so treated him for heart worm, upper respiratory infection and asthma. His symptoms only mildly improved with the asthma pump but has recently been getting worst. He seems to only has breathing issues when he purrs. I saw Dr. Krista Magnifico on YouTube doing polyp removals and I am interested in her opinion. I am willing to travel and book an appointment as soon as possible. I called the Doctors office but was told this was the only method of consultation for Dr. Krista.

Hi Krista,

I hope you’re doing well! I came across some of your videos on social media and noticed that you’ve handled a similar situation to what I’m currently facing with my cat. My cat has been experiencing some breathing issues, and her vet mentioned the possibility of a polyp in her sinus area.

I saw that you’ve dealt with similar cases before, and I was wondering if you could provide me with a general quote based on your experience. I should mention that I don’t live in Maryland, but I’m definitely willing to travel if it means getting the best care for her. Vet prices are pretty high where I am, and I’ve been dealing with a lot of unexpected expenses for my other pets, so any help or insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time and help!

Best regards,
Roxanne

I posted seeking advice about my 4 yo hound mix on Sunday night and Dr. Magnifico responded. She asked that I keep her posted and with that, I’m hoping for some more advice. Roscoe had his follow up with our regular vet this afternoon and while his ALT levels have come down some (it was 786 on Sunday, 660 today and he started on Denamarin on Sunday night) his platelets have also dropped more (they were 114 on Sunday, 93 today) which is obviously concerning.

Some additional bloodwork levels to note –

RBC Sunday 8.99, today 9.46

Hematocrit Sunday 63.6, today 66.0

Hemoglobin Sunday 22.2, today 23.1

MPV Sunday 14.9, today 14.8

Reticulocytes on Sunday were 44.1 (within normal range) today they are high 127.7

Lymphocytes on Sunday were 1.20 (within normal range) today they are low 0.96

At our regular vet today, they tested him for Heartworm, Erlichia, Lyme & Anaplasma – all were negative. He is vaccinated for Leptosporosis, which is why I’m assuming they didn’t test for it today? The vet did say today that tick born infections can take awhile to show up, so he is proactively prescribing doxycycline which we are starting today.

Physical examination was normal at both the ER on Sunday night and our regular vet today. Regular vet suggested that he needs an abdominal ultrasound to look at his liver and spleen; they have someone that comes to the office every 2 weeks to provide this service, they will be in office on Thursday and are going to try to fit us in. I did call Jarrettsville Vet as well as Airpark Animal Hospital (we live in Northern Carroll County) to see about the possibility of getting an ultrasound sooner than Thursday (assuming that our regular vet is even able to get him in then) – neither had any availability sooner.

I’m just trying to wrap my head around this and prepare myself for what to expect next. Roscoe has been completely healthy up until this point. Other than a little more tired than usual, he is still behaving normally right now. Is there anything I should be asking for, or doing?

This boy is so incredibly special to us and has always been so full of life and love, I’m really struggling right now.

I apologize in advance for the long post… I have a 4 year old hound mix “Roscoe” who has been seemingly healthy since we adopted him at 14 weeks old. He is neutered, receives regular vet care, is up to date on all vaccines, and is on a monthly oral heartworm and flea/tick preventative. He is a grazer and eats Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula dog food, and he takes Vet-IQ brand Hip & Joint and Pet Honesty “Super Pooper” probiotic supplements daily. He gets dog treats and basically no table food unless something small is dropped. We do not have a fenced yard and he does not listen well (hound dog… follows his nose) so he is leash-walked twice daily and is never outside off-leash. This evening my husband was walking him and on their walk they encountered two dogs that we were unfamiliar with; Roscoe became upset and was acting like a lunatic and pulling very badly on his slip knot leash. After the dogs passed, Roscoe laid down in a neighbor’s yard and vomited. After a few minutes, they crossed the street and he vomited again in the middle of the street. Once they got to the other side, he vomited again (all vomit appeared to be undigested food) and laid down, refusing to move any further. My husband called me to come pick them up because Roscoe would not get up and walk any further. I arrived with the car (Roscoe is an anxious dog and hates cars and car rides) my husband had to pick him up to put him in the backseat and he sort of collapsed. His gums were pale, his breathing was weird (shallow and alternating between rapid and very slow) ordinarily I would’ve called it panting but his mouth was closed the whole time and the breaths were coming out of his nose. He had a very distant stare and I honestly thought he was dying right in front of my eyes.

We rushed him to the emergency vet and once inside he was wagging his tail and perked up quite a bit from what he had been, but was still not himself. He was able to walk from the lobby into the back, and from the back into a room. We spent about 3 hrs just waiting to be seen, they checked his vitals and everything looked normal but he did vomit 4 different times, which was partially digested food mixed with foamy bile. Abdominal X-rays were normal (3 different views) no masses or foreign bodies were observed (someone is always home with him and we did not believe he could’ve gotten ahold of anything anyway) – we did bloodwork and this resulted in several concerning levels:

His red blood cells, hemoglobin & hematocrit, bilirubin & ALT are all elevated. The ALT is what they consider severely elevated, normal is 10-125, his is 786. Bilirubin normal is 0.0-0.9, his is 2.2.

Red blood cell normal is 5.65-8.87, his is 8.99.

Hematocrit normal is 37.3-61.7, his is 63.6.

Hemoglobin normal is 13.1-20.5, his is 22.2.

His platelets are also a little low, normal is 148-484, his are 114. They visualized them under the microscope and said he does have some large cells present, whatever that means?

The emergency vet gave him sub-Q fluids, an anti-nausea medicine and sent us home with a liver support medication (Denamarin) that we started tonight. We are to follow up with our regular vet on Tuesday for repeat bloodwork to make sure his platelets haven’t dropped any lower but I’m just curious as to what your thoughts are? He was completely fine all day before this happened this evening, he was his usual self. We are worried sick. 😭💔

My 15 year old cat was diagnosed with Cryptosporidium delis. He’s only indoors with no other animal coming in. Can’t understand how he got it. Flies? His treatment is Tyrosine 3x’s a day for 21 days. I have tried pills, liquid, tyrosine treats and I can’t get anything down him. He’s tough! I tried to hide in tuna… Any other option? Help
Thank you

Hi, We have a unofficial cat rescue. One of our younger cats broke her back right femur bone. Amputation is an option but more than we can afford. She is on pain medication but not showing signs of pain just precautionary, as well as antibiotics. She is being kept in a small area with no climbing or likewise. It’s a clean break. Straight and slightly parallels right next to each other. Here is my question. There is no possibility for her to live a good life unless I do surgery or Amputation? There is no way it could slowly calcify and heal and her to enjoy her life?? We just simply can’t afford the surgery but have so much love for her and her well-being.

Gigi is 17 y/o indoor kitty. Her stomach is larger than it used to be and very firm. This is a change in the last few months. She eats and urinates and poops normally. She occasionally gets constipated, and we use pumpkin and palpitation successfully.
In addition, her breathing is sometimes heavy, and she has noises in her nasal area especially after she eating. Sometimes her breathing is totally quiet. She is not overweight, 10 pounds as she has always been as an adult kitty. It is nearly impossible for me to take her to the vet for examination, she was a bottle fed rescue and does not tolerate other people well. I wonder what can cause the breathing issue and also this firm belly. Thank you for your kindness and all that you do for our beautiful animals.

1 year old dalmation
Last evening she was laying down and just shaking , I covered her with a blanket and just layed with her and the shaking stopped. Fast forward to this morning, she won’t get out of bed to go to the bathroom and then when my other dog walked near her she growled which she has never done. I’m not sure what can be wrong but she seems like she doesn’t feel well. She also usually wakes me up at night to go out and she didn’t do that either last night.

My cat has been having audible breathing noises for a few months. No open mouth breathing, just audible through the nose, on and off throughout the day. She’s developed some weird other noises especially while sleeping or falling asleep some snoring, random sneezing as well. She isn’t overweight or old.
We’ve tried antibiotics but it didn’t help. The vets are quoting between $2-10k for just imaging for polyps, not even removal, if they see any. It’s impossible to afford it. She’s eating and playing and acting normal otherwise. I’m wondering what it can be, is it likely polyps and if I don’t go into debt to see, am I going to make her like unliveable?
I’m wondering if I can even rent a car and come down to a cheaper clinic in the US (I’m in Canada) which may be cheaper than doing it locally. There are very few low cost vets here and they only work with people on welfare so it wouldn’t apply. There’s a huge gap between people who are on assistance and people who aren’t but still can’t a afford $10k in imaging.

I have a 7 month old French Bulldog and she has developed a growth on her lower lip. It is not bothering her that we can tell but it doesn’t look very nice. Her vet said that it could be surgically removed but that is pretty pricey and we are just not in a position to be able to do that at this time. Please help are there other options for this to go away or be taken off.