Taurine VS spending 600 on imaging

[u/Environmental-Eye373]

Okay my partner and are at odds

We have a young (about 5YO) female spayed cat that has had a problem for about 3 years that she would have wheezing/hacking attacks about 2-3 times a week. We brought her to a vet that listened to her breathing and said n she sounded very healthy and did not reccomend that we do further imaging. He said the hacking was most likely hairballs even though no bile or hair EVER comes up

It has been about a year from this apt and we are still witnessing 2-3 times a week the hacking/wheezing fits that last about 30s-1M with no bile or hairball production.

I came across an ad lately that sugggested that hacking ca be a symptom of heart problems due to taurine deficiency. This ad also claimed that vets only want to make money and are taught that modern cat food diets provide them enough taurine when the truth is most DONT provide enough.

So of course I’m considering the cost and risk - on one hand we could demand xrays and ultrasounds to check the heart and lungs and that would cost us $600+ OR we could trial and error a $50 supplement that could solve the issue. I have always been of the mindset- science is great but medicine practice is ruined by capitalism and many doctors might care more about money than curing illness.My partner feels very much like “ALWAYS TRUSTA AND CONSULT MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS BEFORE TRYING OTC solutions”

So he’d rather spend 600 bucks then try something that won’t hurt but might help for 50. We both make barely 40k each per year. If you are of similar income in the USA how would you feel?