Kitten coughing and runny nose

Hello

I have a young female cat who recently developed a nasty hacking cough and a runny nose. She sneezes often and the snot that comes out is usually brown or yellow. The coughing scares me the most...

I don't believe she is ill. She has the same level of energy, and she has been eating and drinking like a healthy cat. I had taken her to the vet about 2 weeks ago and they gave me some medicine, assuming she had an upper respiratory infection. After giving her the medication for 10 days, I saw little to no improvement (it may have helped with the cough) and I don't know if I can pay for another pet bill this month. I'm thinking she may be allergic to her litter?

A friend of mine had some old litter and gave it to me to use. She seemed to develop all these symptoms around the same time I began to use it. Tonight I went to the store and bought the litter I used when I first had her (tidy cats) and I hope to see some improvement within the next few days.

I was wondering if anyone else had an opinion on what should be done or what could be happening here? Any response will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Your idea that she could have problems with the new litter sounds reasonable to me. Keep us posted.

I know those vet bills can really pile up but if you're cat needs to go back to the vet, there's not really any other choice. It's completely possible that the antibiotic prescribed was not enough to get rid of the infection.
Maybe ask if they can let you pay it in two payments?

I think you probably have a combination of things going on. She probably is responding adversely to the new litter AND she's still got an infection, evidenced by the yellow snot. If the snot was clear, I'd say no infection, but like with humans, colored snot (green or yellow) indicates infection. It's common for an URI to take more than one round of antibiotics to completely knock it out. My Hannah ran around like a healthy cat for 3 weeks as her URI cleared up...finally!

Perhaps you can call the vet and tell them that you don't think the infection is gone because your kitty is still sneezing and has yellow nasal discharge (fancy term for snot) and can you come pick up more meds. Since they've seen the kitty recently, a vet visit may not be needed.

Stephanie

Hi There,

My kitten has also been sick with a Upper respiratory tract infection with a chest infection, i would wake up at night and he would be gasping for breath. As we got him from the breeder when he was ill, i am not sure for how long he had been sick but it went on for two weeks after we got him home. If your cat is sick with a respiriatory tract infection just keep on with the antibiotics and your cat should be fine it can take up to 2 weeks to clear it, although i understand if you need a repeat prescription its difficult as vets can be so expensive.

I am not sure about the litter i do know that if it is extra dusty then it can irritate the cats sinuses which would then explain the discharge from his nose and coughing. Try to get a litter with a low dust content. However if the person who gave you the litter had a sick cat some of the germs could have been carried on the litter and therefore your cat may have picked something up from their cat, its worth asking if their cat was ill with anything.

I am sure all these things you already know, hope i have been of some help.

Let me know how the cat gets on, its so worrying when they get sick and sometimes you can feel so helpless.

Anna