Sick, icky cat

We stayed with a friend on the weekend who had a very sick cat. She reckons the cat is probably 17 years old. The cat sneezes constantly - and it's the sort of sneezes that cover the place with green snot. It's skin is covered in scabs of some sort, and it's entire body is just scaly and scabby and is losing its fur. Its breathing is a little labored, and it's generally in a bad way. I had to move it once because it was sneezing all over us while were trying to sleep (ewww!!!), and it was just a bag of bones.

She says it's had a bunch of blood tests and has had a fortune spent on it trying to diagnose a problem (but couldn't tell me exactly what had been done).

Does anyone know of any problem that would cause all those symptoms? Is it just old age?

I told her that if the vet diagnose anything, she should go seek a second opinion, but she didn't want to do that in case the vet said it was time to put the cat down. I wonder how hard she has tried..... But anyway I digress! I said I'd ask around and see if anyone knew of anything that could be useful.

Thanks

Oh and yes - we washed all of our clothes, our pillow cases and doona cover and everything the cat came in contact with the second we got home...

That green snot is an indication that antibiotics are needed. The rest is probably from poor diet and fever. Poor little thing.

I've had those problems but not in the same cat at the same time. As my Shep aged, we had a lot of skin problems with her and it turned out to be food allergy related. We went thru a lot of tests on her and we found the allergy by chance - we were desperate and simply started changing out things in her environment until we hit on the food.

Bogart sneezed his entire life (damaged respiratory tract when he was a kitten) and it got worse as he aged. He was on antibiotics most of his late life and we had to change out the type he was on so that he wouldn't build up an immunity to any of them.

Poor baby!

Originally Posted by gayef

That green snot is an indication that antibiotics are needed. The rest is probably from poor diet and fever. Poor little thing.

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Yeah I figured green snot meant an infection as well. The cats seemed to get tins of Friskies cat food and that was it. Not a good diet for a kitty

aww that is a shame, bless the little mite It all sounds a bit strange, if she has been to the vets, then surely they would have prescibed something and/or advised about diet, skin care etc..........? ? Did she mentioned what the vet had said at all. I do know its heartbreaking if the vet mention PTS, but this little kit might be suffering life more than enjoying it
aww....I do hope that your advice is taken !

That's so sad

I do have to say though that my stubborn parents have fed our family cat ChiChi Friskies for 18 years and she's still alive and healthy (although she is living with CRF). Yeah I never thought I'd defend Friskies