#aers

avengers assemble v3 #2

i thought we were all just gonna pretend that never happened

my question is: i know with things like dental care you usually get antibiotics beforehand to stop accidental infections from setting in like this, why isnt that more common when going on immunosuppressants? is there a reason why they dont prescribe a round before heavy treatment to prevent whats happening to my kitty? thanks ahead of time! im a bit shaken up by the whole thing and just want to understand a bit better.

gettingvetted here.

Asthma in cats is very common, as are viral upper respiratory infections, especially herpes. The vast majority of viral upper respiratory infections are self-limiting, meaning they come and go on their own, similar to a cold. They don't typically cause changes in lung x-rays or sounds, because again, they are upper respiratory focused (nose/throat). Meanwhile, asthma happens on the level of the lungs. There can certainly be infectious bronchitis cases due to bacteria or viruses that causes asthma symptoms, but 99% of the time asthma symptoms are due to allergic bronchitis (which is the technical term for asthma) which causes thickening and inflammation of the airways on radiographs and result in a wheezing or crackling noise. Thus, in most cases, radiographs and a good stethoscope are all that are necessary to differentiate asthma from an upper respiratory infection. Unless you performed a nasal swab and/or a tracheal swab, which is invasive, difficult, and very expensive, you would never be 100% sure of the origin of airway inflammation. This is not a test we tend to reach for unless we have unsuccessfully treated asthma and/or upper respiratory infections and are attempting to find a more targeted therapy. If it looks and sounds like a run-of-the-mill asthma case, and there is no pneumonia present, there is no need for antibiotics alongside the steroids. Even if it looks and sounds like a run-of-the-mill upper respiratory infection, there is still usually no need for antibiotics, because they will not shorten the course or even relieve the symptoms of a viral disease process and would be considered poor stewardship of antibiotics. We typically only prescribe antibiotics for upper respiratory infections if the animal is at risk for pneumonia and we are trying to prevent that, for example very young kittens, cats with FIV, etc., or in cases where we know for a fact that the infection is due to mycoplasma bacteria, which we would find out via one of those nasal swab tests. In these cases, antibiotics still won't help shorten the course or relieve symptoms; they are simply to prevent pneumonia (or anemia, in the case of mycoplasma).

All of this is to say that your vet was justified in using a steroid to treat asthma, and an underlying condition may have been exacerbated by it. It is very common for cats with URI's to hide and not want to eat. It is also pretty common for cats to get URI's after a stressful scenario such as having an asthma flare and/or going to the vet. They are typically not life threatening unless the cat has one of the immune conditions discussed above. I hope your kitty is feeling better - it’s been a few days since this ask was submitted!

in regards to the polar opposites of my parents anyway, being a friend to your child pretty much boiled down to...

being involved in their life. showing interest in what they like, allowing yourself to be a little “childish”. when i think about it even i’m kinda puzzled trying to figure out all he meant when he would say that. i feel like he was mostly jealous she got along with us better and our relationships with him were incredibly strained due to his detachment and ‘‘buy our love’‘ tendencies.

like he just wanted to sit in front of the tv or workout. he’d take us on motorcycle rides now n then but there was a reason i never came to him with my problems and random stories about my day but did with my mom.