Cat cough-advice please

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
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Felinophile
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Cat cough-advice please

Post by Felinophile »

Dear all
I would be extremely grateful for your opinions/ advice on a matter.
I have just returned from the vets with one of my cats who has had an intermittent cough for a while which has grown more frequent and has recently been accompanied by mucus production on occasion. Having done quite a lot of reading online I thought it would be best to get a veterinary opinion. I have been with my vets for 20 odd years but have noticed more recently a tendency to advocate the most costly investigative treatment as a matter of course. I have just taken 2 of my other cats to a different vet for dental work as my usual vets would have charged me considerably more for the same procedure (with bloods, fluid therapy etc; these cats are insured but there is an £1000 limit for dental work ). I really started to question my vets' ethics when they recommended an unnecessary and potential life threatening in-house MRA procedure for another of our cats (uninsured) with a heart murmur and suspected squamous cell carcinoma. We sought a second opinion and found a vet who would x-ray him without the life-threatening anaesthetic but unfortunately he had a severe stroke before the appointment so we decided it was kinder to euthanize him.
The vet I saw today examined my cat and didn't seem unduly worried. His heart and lungs sounded fine. He said steroids might be a solution but that it would be best first to pinpoint the cause of the cough (it could be heart or respiratory related). For this it would be necessary to take him to their heart specialist at their hospital branch (whom I know) , where they would perform a heart scan, x-rays and possible extraction of fluid from the lungs which implies "some risk". I am really unsure whether or not to trust this vet anymore. As I said, I have a long standing relationship with both practices and, knowing they're not the cheapest, have always been willing to spend a bit more for the excellent 24 hr service they provide. However, the reading I have done suggests that a heart scan would not be the first diagnostic test performed ordinarily- that respiratory tests would be done first, as the most likely cause is respiratory/ asthma. I am starting to doubt whether my vet is "pushing" the extra services provided at the hospital branch.
I would be very grateful for your opinions on this, especially from anyone who has already gone through similar investigative tests for potential asthma.
I apologize for the length of the post but I felt I needed to put everything into context. This is a question of principle and whether or not I can continue to trust my vet as much as cost. This cat is insured - there is an £8000 limit per condition and I estimate that the tests proposed would come to at least £1,500. The heart scan with the specialist alone would be around £800.
Many thanks.
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Mollycat
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Re: Cat cough-advice please

Post by Mollycat »

Over the past three years I have spent sums to a total well into five figures for two cats and one dog, none of them insured. So the whole thing of tests and costs and treatment options is very much at the front of my mind, with half a dozen different illnesses, situations and characters.

For me the key questions are -

What will these tests tell us?
What do we suspect we might find? What are we actually looking for?
If we find it, what can we do about it? What options are open to us?
For each option, what is the cost financially to me and what is the cost to the animal, ie how intrusive is it etc and how stressful?
What happens if we do nothing?

I do think vets tune in to us though. If we're prepared to do everything regardless of cost, and bring them in for the slightest thing, I think they are more likely to offer us ever more expensive and intrusive options. If on the other hand we come in with "I don't know how much more I want to do to this cat at his age and given his other conditions, what's the benefit for him?" then I think we get a different attitude in return.

It must be tempting for some businesses still on the tail end of covid to hike up their prices and generate some extra business, you'd hope a vet would not be that sort though. I am always uncomfortable when they ask if mine are insured. No, they're not, but that's because I can find the money if I need to and above a certain cost it's likely to be too intrusive for my cats for too little gain. I think my vets have understood a lot about me in the past 3 years with the way I have spent the money, if that makes sense.
Felinophile
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Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:04 am
No. of cats in household: 6

Re: Cat cough-advice please

Post by Felinophile »

Thank you for your response. It's really hard to know what to do for the best as potentially this may be an expensive condition to treat long term if inhalers (which seem to be the least harmful option) are used. Maybe I should get a second opinion like I did before and if they recommend the heart scan I can be reassured and go ahead with everything recommended.
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