The Moira Saga

See that adorable, tiny, orange, sweet little nose? Yeah, it’s an enigma. And not in a good way.

Months ago, before we even moved from Petaluma, Moira started making snorting/squeaking noise when she breathed. “Don’t worry,” said her previous vet, “it happens sometimes when cats get old.”

We move back to the East Bay and return to our previous vet clinic so we could get her pain killers to help with her arthritis. In reference to the snorting/squeaking, her new vet had this to say: “Don’t worry. Well, don’t worry much. It’s probably nothing but let us know if it gets worse.”

It got worse. Moira was working just to breathe and her snorting was keeping me awake at night. “Screw them,” thought I, “this can’t be right.” So I got us a reference to a specialist on the other side of the hills.

Two visits, many lab tests, two CT scans, one rhinoscopy, one biopsy, one bacterial culture and about $2800 later…? “Nothing,” says the inimitable Dr. B, the kick-ass cat nose specialist who refers to felines as “kitties.”

The good news is Moira doesn’t have a tumor. Nor does she have any other abnormal growth. There’s nothing odd on the CT scans. The biopsy came back completely clean. Yes, she has a slight inflammation of her nasal cavity but that’s nothing with which to be concerned. The culture results are still pending (need time to grow the little bacterial buggie boos) but they’re not expecting to find anything.

Le Sigh. Yes, I’m glad Moira doesn’t have a tumor. But these non-results don’t help since she’s still not breathing well. Dr. B suggests we try giving her Prednizone, so I guess that’s next.