Based on his history, physical examination, and X-ray, Scruffy has received a Dx (diagnosis) of bronchitis. While this is far better than the asthma I feared he had, it's nothing to celebrate. For his part - well, he's sick. He's coughing. He's uncomfortable. He has a fever. What's more, he now gets chased down twice a day, and when he's caught (as he invariably is), no amount of scratching, biting, or yowling can save him from having yucky-tasting stuff rudely shoved down his throat. (His appetite is poor, so hiding the meds in his food isn't successful.)
For my part, I now have to terrorize him twice a day in order to ensure that he gets his meds, and I have a collection of fresh cat-scratch scars to prove it.
All of this occurs just as he was really starting to trust me, to sometimes allow me to approach and pet him, and to even enjoy being petted from time to time. Every time he progresses a bit, something happens that I have to chase him down again. If this cat ever comes to really trust me, it will be a miracle. If I manage to pill him for two weeks and don't give him an aspiration pneumonia, that will be another miracle.
On the other side of things, he has grown - he weighed 5.5 pounds on his visit to the vet on the 3rd, up from 4.3 pounds less than a month before. So it's not all bad.
* Aspiration pneumonia @ Wikipedia; @ eMedicine.
* Asthma @ Wikipedia.
* Bronchitis @ Wikipedia.
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