Cat colds--is urgent care needed?

My cat has been making sneezing sounds for a few days. At first it
was infrequent (a few times a day), and it sounded a bit like she was
clearing her throat, so I thought she had hairballs. I added
Petromalt to her food to help with that, although she doesn't have a
history of hairballs.

Since yesterday, she has been sneezing more frequently, and has been
sleeping more than usual. She doesn't even want to go outside (she's
allowed out with a harness and leash), which is very unusual for her.
Today I noticed her right eye is a little watery (it wasn't
yesterday). She's still eating and drinking (though not as quickly)
and is using her litter box normally.

At this point, I think she has a cold or respiratory tract infection,
not hairballs. I'm going to call the vet on Monday to take her in
asap (they're pretty good about getting us in last minute), but my
question is--can it wait that long?

I know if it's a cold there's not much a vet can do about it, but if
it's a bacterial infection, she'll need to have antibiotics. Is 48
hours too long to wait see the vet if it is a bacterial infection?
I'm a little worried that if it's an infection, it might develop into
pneumonia, but I do have a tendency to worry too much. I just took
her in for a last minute appointment last week (turned out to be a
minor skin irritation), so I'm trying to avoid another $200 vet bill,
but of course I'll take her to the emergency vet if she needs
immediate care.

"Rona Y." wrote in message
...
My cat has been making sneezing sounds for a few days. At first it
was infrequent (a few times a day), and it sounded a bit like she was
clearing her throat, so I thought she had hairballs. I added
Petromalt to her food to help with that, although she doesn't have a
history of hairballs.

Since yesterday, she has been sneezing more frequently, and has been
sleeping more than usual. She doesn't even want to go outside (she's
allowed out with a harness and leash), which is very unusual for her.
Today I noticed her right eye is a little watery (it wasn't
yesterday). She's still eating and drinking (though not as quickly)
and is using her litter box normally.

At this point, I think she has a cold or respiratory tract infection,
not hairballs. I'm going to call the vet on Monday to take her in
asap (they're pretty good about getting us in last minute), but my
question is--can it wait that long?

I know if it's a cold there's not much a vet can do about it, but if
it's a bacterial infection, she'll need to have antibiotics. Is 48
hours too long to wait see the vet if it is a bacterial infection?
I'm a little worried that if it's an infection, it might develop into
pneumonia, but I do have a tendency to worry too much. I just took
her in for a last minute appointment last week (turned out to be a
minor skin irritation), so I'm trying to avoid another $200 vet bill,
but of course I'll take her to the emergency vet if she needs
immediate care.

Hi Rona. I know you'll hear answers to the contrary but I have a lot of
experience with one of my cats and URIs. She has both calicivirus and
herpes history and is now almost 4 years old.

My rule of thumb is not eating, try forcing or enticing. Always have luck
with her with people food like chicken or ham. Enough to get her eating. I
always start her on lysine at first sign of watery eyes though with her
history she should probably have it daily every day for life. She's just
hard to pill and detects it in food so that fails.

Continued not eating, vet time. If she's drinking and its the weekend I
would still wait until Monday.

Eye/eyes that are so bad they are swollen shut, vet time. Usually I can
treat her eyes with warm compresses made with sterile gauze which I always
keep on hand for her. If they get worse rather than better with the
compresses and lysine treatment, vet, but I still would wait until Monday
because being viral there's not much they can do, and my vet won't even
prescribe antibiotics without a fever going on. Eye drops are sometimes
necessary but I still feel it can wait until Monday.

Before I knew she also had calicivirus flare-ups along with the herpes, I
took her to the ER vet when I found a nasty sore on her mouth. All 4 of my
cats are fairly young and they still play hard and sometimes there are
injuries no matter how much I try to keep up with keeping claws trimmed.
Every one of them has been taken to the vet for injuries and I thought this
was another one. ER vet diagnosed calicivirus flare-up and I took her home
without any prescriptions and no treatment other than making sure she eats
and keep up the lysine.

Good luck and I know how worrisome it can be!

Cheryl

Thanks, Cheryl!

She's still drinking and eating, but drinking more than eating (we
have to add water to her food, so she has to drink in order to eat,
anyway). I guess that's good, though, because if she does have an
infection, she needs to keep hydrated. She's sleeping now, and still
isn't interested in going outside. During summer she always wants to
go outside (if she's not eating or using the litter box, she's
outside), so it's very unusual behaviour for her.

Other than being a natural worry-wart, I'm also worried because when
we got her from the Humane Society, we were told that she had some
kind of URI when she was found (some dumb-asses got rid of her during
one of the coldest winters in decades--like -40C temperatures plus
windchill and her poor ears were frostbitten, too!). I think I read
that once a cat has had a URI, they're more likely to have a
recurrence. When we adopted her (she was found in February or March,
and we adopted her in July), they gave her some kind of vaccination to
help prevent recurrences, but we were told it may not be 100%
effective.

I'll just keep an eye on her, and if I see that she's not eating or
drinking anymore, she'll go to the emergency vet. We don't free feed
her, so it's pretty easy to see if she's eating or drinking.

Thanks, again! (BTW, I hope all your kitties are fine! How many do
you have now?)

rona

I think you have a good plan. If she continues to eat and drink, you
probably can wait until Monday. If she stops eating totally, you may want
to consider the emergency vet.

I hope she's feeling better soon.

S.
--
**Visit me and my cats at http://www.island-cats.com/ **
---
"Rona Y." wrote in message
...
Thanks, Cheryl!

She's still drinking and eating, but drinking more than eating (we
have to add water to her food, so she has to drink in order to eat,
anyway). I guess that's good, though, because if she does have an
infection, she needs to keep hydrated. She's sleeping now, and still
isn't interested in going outside. During summer she always wants to
go outside (if she's not eating or using the litter box, she's
outside), so it's very unusual behaviour for her.

Other than being a natural worry-wart, I'm also worried because when
we got her from the Humane Society, we were told that she had some
kind of URI when she was found (some dumb-asses got rid of her during
one of the coldest winters in decades--like -40C temperatures plus
windchill and her poor ears were frostbitten, too!). I think I read
that once a cat has had a URI, they're more likely to have a
recurrence. When we adopted her (she was found in February or March,
and we adopted her in July), they gave her some kind of vaccination to
help prevent recurrences, but we were told it may not be 100%
effective.

I'll just keep an eye on her, and if I see that she's not eating or
drinking anymore, she'll go to the emergency vet. We don't free feed
her, so it's pretty easy to see if she's eating or drinking.

Thanks, again! (BTW, I hope all your kitties are fine! How many do
you have now?)

rona

"Rona Y." wrote in message
...
Thanks, Cheryl!

She's still drinking and eating, but drinking more than eating (we
have to add water to her food, so she has to drink in order to eat,
anyway). I guess that's good, though, because if she does have an
infection, she needs to keep hydrated. She's sleeping now, and still
isn't interested in going outside. During summer she always wants to
go outside (if she's not eating or using the litter box, she's
outside), so it's very unusual behaviour for her.

Scarlett doesn't go out, but she definitely sleeps more when she has a
flare-up. I'm glad she's drinking. For the few days before you can get to a
vet if you need to, the drinking really is more important than eating. I
know all about hepatic lipidosis with Shadow's problem, but I think a couple
of days isn't going to hurt her if she isn't overweight and as long as she's
drinking. Of course still try to entice with food if she goes off.

Other than being a natural worry-wart, I'm also worried because when
we got her from the Humane Society, we were told that she had some
kind of URI when she was found (some dumb-asses got rid of her during
one of the coldest winters in decades--like -40C temperatures plus
windchill and her poor ears were frostbitten, too!). I think I read
that once a cat has had a URI, they're more likely to have a
recurrence. When we adopted her (she was found in February or March,
and we adopted her in July), they gave her some kind of vaccination to
help prevent recurrences, but we were told it may not be 100%
effective.

Dumbasses is right!! Grrr.... I'm glad you have her now. Don't worry too
much. These viral infections unfortunately are very common in cats.
Scarlett was one of a litter of 4 (I have one of her male littermates, too)
and all 4 were very sick when found. They were abandoned by their mom under
someone's shed, or she died and left them, which is also likely given where
they were found. All 4 kept reinfecting each other and the people who found
them could no longer keep them healthy together as much as they wanted to
keep them all together for 9-12 weeks, so I got Scarlett and Rhett earlier
than they planned. It took a while to get them both healthy. Rhett never
has flare-ups anymore, but Scarlett has frequent ones.

I'll just keep an eye on her, and if I see that she's not eating or
drinking anymore, she'll go to the emergency vet. We don't free feed
her, so it's pretty easy to see if she's eating or drinking.

Good plan and good luck and purrs for kitty!

Thanks, again! (BTW, I hope all your kitties are fine! How many do
you have now?)

I have Shamrock, Bonnie, Scarlett and Rhett. And two pet mice, Annie and
Madison.

Thanks blkcatgal and Cheryl.

I can't figure out if she's better or worse today. She seems to be
less lethargic, and even wanted to go outside a couple of times
today. She also seems to be hungry and asks for food, but when I give
it to her, she doesn't want to eat it. She just looks at it for a
bit, then looks at me as if to say, "What the heck is this? I want
food!" She eventually drinks all the water, but doesn't eat much of
the actual food. I think maybe she's congested and can't smell her
food, so she doesn't want to eat.

She's definitey off to the vet tomorrow.

I just realized I may have been a bit misleading about how long I've
had her. We actually adopted her July 2000, so she has been URI-free
for 8 years! Yay Kitty!

Cheryl--wow! 4 cats and two mice! I remember when Bonnie was a
scared little cat. I hope she's more relaxed now, and not bullying
any of the other cats! ;-) Or those two mice!

rona

"Cheryl" wrote in message
. ..

with her with people food like chicken or ham. Enough to get her eating.
I always start her on lysine at first sign of watery eyes though with her
history she should probably have it daily every day for life. She's just
hard to pill and detects it in food so that fails.

Hi Cheryl. I remember you writing about this before and I found a method I
thought I'd pass along so you can see if it works for you...

Remember I told you that we crush the pills and stir it into their canned
food? Well that got a bit tedious, especially in the mornings when I was
rushing to get ready for work. Ben got the bright idea to "pre-crush" the
pills - then his eye drifted over to our electric coffee bean grinder (we
got this at Wal-Mart for about $15) and I could almost see the lightbulb
going off on top of his head! ;

We take the whole bottle of L-Lysine, dump it in the coffee bean grinder
(after washing it really well) and grind the tablets into a fine powder that
we keep tightly sealed in a small Tupperwear bowl. We use a tiny measuring
spoon to get the right amount and then sprinkle it into their Fancy Feast
(which is smelly/tasty enough to cover the taste of the L-Lysine). With it
being so finely ground (to a powder-like granularity), it is easy to stir it
into the food well enough to be undetectable by my clowder.

The problem with using the L-Lysine only at outbreaks is that the Herpes
virus has already reproduced and the outbreak will still last 7 - 10 days,
just like a cold, although the L-Lysine will keep the outbreak from being
too severe. Using the L-Lysine prophylactically keeps the Herpes virus from
reproducing at all and prevents outbreaks.

So, just thought I'd pass this along and see if it helps.

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote
So, just thought I'd pass this along and see if it helps.


Great idea! They sell powdered Lysine too.

"cybercat" wrote in message
...

"CatNipped" wrote
So, just thought I'd pass this along and see if it helps.


Great idea! They sell powdered Lysine too.

I did not know that! Thanks!

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote
I did not know that! Thanks!



I only know it because the shelter send me home with a baggy with a bit of
it when I adopted Gracie, isn't that a great idea? They said stress causes
Herpes to surface, so to use it as a preventive measure. They said they got
it at a health food store.