Endless saga of cat meds

I did a post on the boys' blog late this afternoon, so apologies for repeating here.

Nicki's Flovent dose of 125 mcg (110 mcg US) just isn't working, he's been having several bouts of asthma (that I'm home for) daily, and today was particularly bad, with three severe bouts so far, all about 4 hours apart. All the reading I've done seems to indicate that for moderately and severely asthmatic cats, that dose is too low, and that 250 mcg (220 mcg US) twice a day is needed.

So I popped into my vet clinic this AM on the way home, after checking that Nicki's vet would be there and be in-between appointments, and spoke to him. He consulted their new feline health text (seriously, they don't know anything about feline asthma), and while the current protocol does recommend 125 (110) mcg, it also states that doubling is fine in difficult cases. There's also a new med (which might or might not be available here) that combines both the inhaled steroid with a bronchodialator, so that the cat's airways are opened and s/he can actually fully inhale the steroid. I might have to look into this (or other options to add a bronchodialator) if this doesn't work.

I don't want to join the Yahoo group for feline inhaled meds, but I've read anecdotal reports that the higher dose is better, at least to start.

And this site has awesome info for anyone else who might need it:

http://www.thepawsitter.com/blog/new-adventures-with-old-cat-charlie-has-asthma-video/

I was nervous about giving Nicki two doses in a row (about 20 minutes ago), but he did fine. What a good boy. Surely he's the best cat on the planet.  :-)  Leigh at thepawsitter.com said, in a reply to my question this afternoon, that I should see positive results in a week, so fingers crossed. She had to go this same route with her cat Charlie while he was alive: the higher dose, twice a day. And like me, her vet (who didn't know anything about inhaled meds either) prescribed too low a dose, initially.

If this higher dose works, I'll get a new prescription from the vet (or I hope to). It would be easier on Nicki to give only 1 puff at 250 mcg twice a day, than to give 2 puffs at a time.

So we'll see.

Right now it seems never-ending.

I just want him to be able to breathe easily and to be healthy.

On the plus side, as you've no doubt already seen on the other blog, they got an awesome catnip mat. (I bought it at the vet clinic, a local vet tech makes them.) That kept them well occupied most of the afternoon!

Purrs to you from them and peace from me.