Just read your OP and it does sound like Marcel got a bug or something lodged in his nasal passage or airway until all the adrenaline of the stress he was under unable to breathe and your rushing him to the vet allowed enough of the swelling around the area to subside and permit it to pass.
Something like that happened to my little Jilly when she got the bitten off, knotted end of a tiny rawhide chewie stuck in her throat, blocking her airway, which began to swell and close around the knot. She literally was taking the tiniest, grasping of breaths, scratching crazily at her head, nose turning in circles, going wild for breath and then, getting very tired and still as I spoke to the vet to fine out what to do. Finally, on the way to the vet, Jilly stopped breathing, went limp and I held her in one arm and breathed for her and drove, crying and praying out loud, knowing she could die any second.
By the time we pulled up to the vet's office, she was breathing on her own again. The knot had dislodged and passed on through her. She was monitored, treated with anti-swelling meds, given an IV mostly TKO I imagine, kept under observance and we went home that next day with her just fine and on Benadryl. No more chewies for her except very occasionally and unless I was holding them for her, watching everything.
Life with these little ones is very scary at times and it helps to live very close to an OPEN vet, with the driving instructions committed to memory or a map at hand because you never know when you might desperately need one.
__________________  Jeanie and Tibbe One must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very imperfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone. C. S. Lewis |