Chronic sinus infection

Hi all, I need some opinions from some of you that may have some
experience with a similar situation.

A little background info:
My girlfriend got a cat from petsmart about 3 years ago, and within
about a week she noticed it had a runny nose. She took it to a local
vet who told her it had rhinotracheitis and there was nothing they could
do, they also said it would eventually kill the cat. A few weeks later,
the cat starts stumbling around. I tell my GF I think the cat has an
inner ear infection. She calls the vet, the vet tells her it's probably
the final stages of the feline herpes, but to bring the cat in. Vet
looks at the cat, determines it's an inner ear infection, puts the cat
on an antibiotic. Ear infection clears up, and the runny nose clears up
until about a week after the antibiotics stop.

My girlfriend had always assumed the cat's runny nose was caused by the
feline herpes virus and was incurable so she never pursued treatment.
Finally this year, she changes vets to one that specializes in cats.
The vet does extensive testing, flushes the cat's sinus, and determines
she's suffering from a chronic staph infection. The new vet gives the
cat a 6 week run of oral and nasal antibiotics. The cat cleared up
about 2 weeks into the run and everything looked great. Then a week
after the antibiotics stop, we're back to the sneezing and runny nose.
The new vet says that the infection in incurable and we'll just have to
treat it (I'm assuming with antibiotics).

Here are my questions:
Is this infection really incurable? It seems to me that there should be
some sort of therapy available out there that would enable antibiotics
get to the damaged areas of the cat's sinus. Maybe treat it as a bone
infection and dose the antibiotics as such.

If this is treated as chronic, I'm concerned about the staph becoming
resistant to antibiotics. How is this normally treated?

Has anyone had a similar experience? How were you able to treat/cure
the infection?

Does anyone know of any vets that specialize in this sort of thing?

Thanks

"fatron" wrote in message
...
Hi all, I need some opinions from some of you that may have some
experience with a similar situation.

Here are my questions:
Is this infection really incurable? It seems to me that there should be
some sort of therapy available out there that would enable antibiotics
get to the damaged areas of the cat's sinus. Maybe treat it as a bone
infection and dose the antibiotics as such.


I'm not sure that this is much help but I know a few people who have chronic
sinus problems, they will be on meds forever or move to another climate.
I'm not so sure there is a way to get to the infected part if its chronic
other than surgery. As for the antibiotics, new ones are developed often,
so if her cat develops an immunity to one, another can replace it, at least
in people I've seen that.

"fatron" wrote in message
...
Hi all, I need some opinions from some of you that may have some
experience with a similar situation.

snip

I'm no vet, but I would imagine *something* could be done for the poor cat.
Maybe a hospital stay on IV antibiotics, I don't know.
I don't know what area you are in, but find out if there are any veterinary
colleges in your area. They may be able to help.

-Kelly

Staph infection can be awful to get rid of once it takes hold. The vet is
probably right a cure won't happen and it would involve a lot of sinus
surgery for the cat. I would treat with antibiotics when needed and
possibly look into a natural diet to help with the cats immune system.
Often times resistanct infections and cronic diseases can be dealt with and
more managable by feeding the right diets.

Celeste

"fatron" wrote in message
...
Hi all, I need some opinions from some of you that may have some
experience with a similar situation.

A little background info:
My girlfriend got a cat from petsmart about 3 years ago, and within
about a week she noticed it had a runny nose. She took it to a local
vet who told her it had rhinotracheitis and there was nothing they could
do, they also said it would eventually kill the cat. A few weeks later,
the cat starts stumbling around. I tell my GF I think the cat has an
inner ear infection. She calls the vet, the vet tells her it's probably
the final stages of the feline herpes, but to bring the cat in. Vet
looks at the cat, determines it's an inner ear infection, puts the cat
on an antibiotic. Ear infection clears up, and the runny nose clears up
until about a week after the antibiotics stop.

My girlfriend had always assumed the cat's runny nose was caused by the
feline herpes virus and was incurable so she never pursued treatment.
Finally this year, she changes vets to one that specializes in cats.
The vet does extensive testing, flushes the cat's sinus, and determines
she's suffering from a chronic staph infection. The new vet gives the
cat a 6 week run of oral and nasal antibiotics. The cat cleared up
about 2 weeks into the run and everything looked great. Then a week
after the antibiotics stop, we're back to the sneezing and runny nose.
The new vet says that the infection in incurable and we'll just have to
treat it (I'm assuming with antibiotics).

Here are my questions:
Is this infection really incurable? It seems to me that there should be
some sort of therapy available out there that would enable antibiotics
get to the damaged areas of the cat's sinus. Maybe treat it as a bone
infection and dose the antibiotics as such.

If this is treated as chronic, I'm concerned about the staph becoming
resistant to antibiotics. How is this normally treated?

Has anyone had a similar experience? How were you able to treat/cure
the infection?

Does anyone know of any vets that specialize in this sort of thing?

Thanks