Purrs and Prayers for Milita

Jewel's Journey will be posted tomorrow.

Thank you, Glogirly, for the beautiful badge for Milita! 

I took Milita and Carmine to the vet on Tuesday.  I had noticed that Milita sounded crackly when she purred again, and D told me that she even had a crackly meow the other day.  I hadn't heard the crackly meow, but on the way out the door, Milita began to sing the song of her people, and her meow sounded terrible!  Milita was also coughing at least once a day - sometimes a few times a day.

The vet weighed Milita before she began the exam, and she weighs 13 pounds, 6 ounces.  After her exam, the vet told us that this respiratory stuff with Lita is probably due to her herpes and that this would likely be a chronic issue.

However, her tune changed after Milita had a chest x-ray.  She brought the x-ray into the room to show us.  She pointed out a few spots and told us that these spots indicated that Lita has pneumonia.  She said that the pneumonia could have transitioned from asthma or from bronchitis, but we won't know until Milita's pneumonia is gone.  Now I'm wondering if all the crackly purring and breathing we've noticed over the past few months was misdiagnosed as upper respiratory infections when in fact it was asthma or bronchitis?

In any case, we have a treatment plan to help Lita get better.  Milita is taking Clavamox (which she absolutely detests!), Baytril, and Prednisolone for the next two weeks.  She is quite unhappy about all the medication.  The Baytril is so big that we are having to break it into four pieces to get it down her.  The vet said we might be able to crush it and put it in wet food, but we want to make sure she's getting all of it, so we will likely continue to pill her with it.

Milita has to go back to the vet next Tuesday for another chest x-ray.  What happens after that will depend on what the x-ray shows and whether her current treatment is working.

I am keeping a close eye on her.  I feel so badly for her.  I've had walking pneumonia in the past, and it is pretty miserable.  I am giving her extra love and spoiling while she recovers.

We appreciate the purrs and prayers all of you have given us on Facebook.  I really hope that Milita starts feeling better very soon and that we've finally gotten to the root cause of her respiratory issues as of late.