Sneezing?

I've had my 4 month old Russian Blue baby, Shinya, for 2 and a half months now and she's always been a bit of a sneezer. Friends with lots of cats would tell me,

"Yes, kittens DO SNEEZE! You're being an overprotective first time kitty mother!"

Perhaps that's all this is... but, she still does it and it's not just the odd sneeze here and there. They're frequent enough for me to be a little concerned.

I have a new kitten now, an 11 week old Abyssinian.. and she has yet to sneeze once! (Granted, I've only had her for 2 days but.. )
When I hear a kitten plodding around, I can always tell which one it is based on if I hear a sneeze or not!!!!

So.. AM I being an overprotective mother here and she's just a kitty that likes to sneeze? Or is this abnormal and she should have it checked out?

Thanks in advance!

If she is sneezing that frequently,and doesn't have runny eyes or congestion,I would say it may be fleas. Those little critters just love running over and into kitty noses. There are just so many things that can cause sneezing....fleas,colds,allergies or worse. If she were mine,I'd take her on to the vet,just to make sure.

Thanks for your reply! Well, my friend's cat had fleas so I'm a little familiar with some of the other things they do when they have them... and I haven't noticed her twitching or scratching or anything like that. And she's literally ALWAYS been a sneezer, from day 1. She was also in a pet hotel for a few weeks while I had to go back to England for a visa renewal and, they were monitoring her basic health so if she had something like fleas, or even a cold, they'd have noticed and told me about it.

That makes me wonder, did she even sneeze at the pet hotel? Is there something in my house that's making her sneeze? Perhaps dust (because I fail at dusting xD), or something I use to clean with or even my perfume?

I live on the 34th floor so, my kitties are indoor only cats (meh, they'd be indoor only cats even if I lived on the 1st floor and had a garden! xD).. so it's got to be something IN the house... or something wrong with her.

Either way, the pet hotel are due to call me today to check in on my new baby (I got her from the same place) so I'll mention the sneezing to them and see if they noticed it...

Sounds like a good idea! If she didn't sneeze there,then you may at least have a clue! Good luck!

I just signed up to this forum because of reading this very thread. Actually, I wanted to sign up a while ago, but never got around to it. Now I am very happy that I finally did.

Anyways, what I wanted to write was a problem my cats have been having that started about two weeks ago. My one male cat started sneezing and then after about 3 days of constant sneezing he got a very large fever. I kept him hydrated and watched him the best I could. After about a day or two the fever broke and he is now fine. Then, a couple days after his recovery, my female cat started sneezing. At first it was just a couple times an hour. Then, after a few days it got to the point she was persistantly sneezing and continuing for minutes at a time. Then I started to notice a wheezing and gurgling sound in her lungs when she breathed and she was obviously having trouble. I knew it was an upper respitory infection and now it had moved down into her lungs. The other cat recovered fine and I hoped the same for her. When she started having trouble breathing I knew it was serious and she wasn't going to be as lucky as my male cat. For the last year I have been inbetween jobs and money is tight to say the least, so the vet was out of the question. It was obvious I had to do something.

I recently had penacillian perscribed to me, so I took a caplet and opened it up, divided each pill into six doses and gave it to her three times a day with her food. Unbelievably she was still eating regulariliy. Thank god I had the penecillian because it worked wonders. After the first 24 hours I noticed improvement, and now it has been five days and she seems completely fine. I am wondering how long I should continue because I know it can come back if not completely gone and isn't that how super bugs form?

I just wanted to post my experience so that people can see that a mere sneeze can sometimes be serious. Keep an eye on it and if it gets worse go to a vet immediately. I believe my cats had an upper respitory virus and it went down into the lungs and finally formed the beginnings of pneumonia. When she sneezed I didn't notice any spray or runny nose, so at first I thought it was just hay fever or a mild cold. Her nose was dry through the whole sickness, so I believe that is not a good indication of it being something to not worry about. If the sneezing gets more consistant with time, it's time to bring him/her to a vet.

I know I am going to get scolded by many for not bringing my cats to a vet, but in my situation right now it is not possible. Either I took care of it the way I did, or she would have died. I know it's my responsibility to take care of my animals and all that, but when we first adopted them we never thought we would be in this bad of a situation. Tuff times, what ever - so please be easy on us. We had a ruff go the past year and we do love our pets.

Anyways, I am glad to be part of this forum and I hope to be around for quite a bit longer. I got a lot of reading to do and have always been interested in cats and animals in general. Thanks!

Tommaso

Chevy sneezed a lot the first week we got him. He was 4 months old. I took him to the vet, and he had a URI. Luckily it wasn't bad. He just had the sneezing and heavy breathing (when pressing your ear on him). It could also be allergies. I believe a vet check is in order.