One cat giving cold to others

Well my boy Toby apparently had a sore throat for a few days before he started showing symptoms. Now that he is diagnosed and has his voice back, I am trying to figure out what to do to stop it from spreading .

He and my other 3 cats plus 2 fosters (who are going in and out of the foster room where there are 2 more fosters) have shared community food bowls, water bowls, toys, kitty grass, and other saliva-based items- is there anything I can do to lessen the odds of all these other cats getting sick too?

The two foster kittens just got their second shots yesterday plus a second de-worming just in case (they don't have worms but the vet was anal), and now one of the two has runny eyes and a sore throat also. And they are supposed to go to their forever home Sunday (tomorrow).

Are there kitty zinc pills!? If anyone has any ideas, let me know .

I give mine L-Lysine whenever a URI starts to flare up in the household. The one with herpes gets it year round, and the others get dosed up as needed. You can get it in powder form from iherb.com. I just bought a 1 pound jug and with shipping it came to about $16. Some folks here have mixed it in water without the cats noticing it.

I've never found a quick fix for a URI. When one hits my household, it sometimes takes months to cycle through everyone. It seems like the cats on the tail end have it the easiest and maybe it's because I get them on the L-Lysine as soon as I notice it.

Barb,

MA (hissy) swears by GSE (grapefruit seed extract). I think it can be obtained online at a vitamin/herb place or at a healthfood store. I think she adds a few drops to the cats' water and any wet food fed them. I believe this helps boost their immune systems. I don't know if there's any interaction between L-Lysine and GSE. They both seem pretty safe to me and you may want to give both a try. A quick call to the vet to ask for an opinion on using both might not hurt just in case.

Be Well vibes to the babies!

Laurie

I'm sorry to be getting back to this wonderful advice so late with a thank-you . In between I went to visit my sister in New Jersey and the cat sitter took over the URI treatments in my kitty house .

I got back Sunday but then Monday was my first high-dose radiation treatment and now Tues-Fri I am in a class that I had scheduled way before I was laid off. I am so tired now, LOL. But this holiday weekend will be a wonderful time for R&R.

The URI seems to have stopped with the 2 fosters and the 2 older of my 4 kitties, but that could just be wishful thinking and I will doubtless see the other 2 succumb in due course!

I am going to get the products you suggest, both the GSE and L-Lysene. The 2 foster kittens each have 1 goopy eye and I'm sure we wouldn't be dealing with that if I had been able to get these treatments before I had to leave.