kitten with cold

I was wondering if anyone may have had any experience with a kitten with a cold, I adopted a 10 week old kitten last week with a URI. They sent home some antibiotics for him to take for 10 days, he got worse with severe congestion and I took him on in to my vet, and he was given a cortisone injection and that helped alot, and he started eating again and feeling better, and they changed his antibiotic and he seems soo much better, although he is still sneezing alot, but isnt congested and he is eating well and playing, feeling really well. I was wondering about how long this may last. I am keeping him away from the other cats I have, as suggested by my vet.
Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!!

It is good that you took him to the vet. Kittens with colds is sort of a common thing. My vet recommends keeping the kitten separate 2 weeks but if he is still sneezing he might still be infectious. Remember to wash your hands when going between the kitten and your other cats to avoid them catching it.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot...how do you tell if a cat has a cold? I've had several cats now and none of them has ever had a cold as far as I know. Our older cat, who is now 17 years old, just recently started sneezing (maybe a couple times a week) and last night was actually snoring for a bit. I mentioned it to our vet and he said to keep an eye on her - if she started sneezing a lot (of course, I'd take her in). She doesn't have any discharge or anything coming from her nose, but I wasn't sure if that would be a sign of anything or not. And as for the sneezing, would it be pretty much each day? Thanks for any info. And good luck to your kitten with the URI. Poor little one is lucky to have you to look after him. Congratulations on your new purrbaby.

Well my kitten is still sick, dont know how long this thing is supposed to last, he has been sick for 8 days now, He is on antibiotics and is eating pretty well till he gets stuffy and cant smell. Has anyone else out there had anything like this happen to their kitty. He seems to feel great till he gets really congested and then he starts to breath from his mouth and not eat. I am taking him back in to the vet tomorrow and she what they have to say. He is away from my other cats and we are very careful about washing our hands and everything when we leave the room he is in. Thanks for any information you can give me.

malynn, I would go to a really good health food store, or order over the internet GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) get the liquid- it is very thick and bitter, and start adding two drops to the wet food at every feeding- also put a few drops in the water bowl.

I have been using this for over 2 years now with all my cats, and it completely has gotten rid of URI and other nasties that the new rescues typically bring in. I swear by the stuff- it has amazing properties to kill any bacteria or fungus that is harmful to the cat.

Good luck!

I adopted a kitten who came down with a severe uri, drooling excessively, open mouth breathing, and vey conjested, took her to the vet, he gave her all sorts of stuff, she came home and still wouldn't eat. I put two drops in her food 3 time a day of GSE, and it seemed to really help! In two days she was eating and the congestion got less and less. In 5 days she was back to a normal kitty, eating playing, meowing. Now two weeks later, she only has the occasional sneeze, and sometimes some dried boogers on the end of her nose which I wipe of with warm paper towel.

BE extremely careful with handling your other cats, we kept her isolated, and we were very careful but still both my other cats got some sneezing and conjestion, I had to treat all of them, it was aweful. Now they are all much better, with only the occasional sneeze, no conjestion. I hope the sneeze goes away for all of them! Good luck with your kitty! GSE I think does really help, when I lowered the dosage they seemed to sneeze more, then upped it and they were better and more active!

You are the second person to suggest the GSE to me, I will go out and try and find some today, my kitty is due to go to the vet again this afternoon. One question though, do I discontinue the antibiotic from the vet, or is it ok to give them both at the same time. He will eat if he isnt really congested that much. Just when I think he is getting a little better,(eating, drinking and playing) he get really congested and then wont eat again. I have given him some fluids with a syringe today and he goes back to the vet this afternoon. I sure hope he gets better soon!! Thanks for your information on this.

oh yeah, also my other cats were vaccinated, and up to date, but still caught something!

Here is a link about the cat flu, it has good info I didn't know prior to getting my last kitty, and remember that the prognosis for URI's is very good!

http://www.fabcats.org/is4.html

My kitten is somewhat better, he is eating really well and drinking and playing, still has a little bit of a runny nose and still sneezing, but feeling much better. He goes back to the vet tomorrow though, my vet did a nasal swab culture on him and she called and said he had a strain that was resistant to the antibiotic he was taking so I have to bring him back in tomorrow for a different antibiotic. Hope he responds to this new antibiotic. I will be really glad when he can join the rest of the kittys in our family. We just screened in our back porch for them and they love it.

I give our cats vit. C, colostrum, and spirulina when they're not feeling well. I give them the spirulina several times a week since it's just a good thing for them and people too. They love it.

How long has your cat been being treated for, whatever antibiotics he was given make sure you FINISH all of it, or give it too him for as long as you vet told you too, even if he starts to look a lot better, keep giving it to him. Just like you would take an antibiotic for yourself.

Hissy: I have searched all the health food stores I know of in my town (I don't know anything on the outskits, and I don't get out much) and none of them have the GSE, do you know of a place online that sells it? Thanks!

My kitty took one round of amoxicillin, and it didnt help. They did a culture and found out that its a strain that wont respond to amoxicillin so they put him on Baytril for just 7 days, low dose. Also he finally has a name, his name is Griffin. He has gained a whole pound since I got him so he is doing well, I have him on nutro max kitten canned and he is eating Maximum Nutrition kitten food. He was on kitten chow before, and I looked at the ingredients and the first ingredient was chicken by product, or meat by product, something like that and figured it wasnt as good as this new one, he likes it ok. I have other cats that eat this brand and they like it. I bought him some of the nutro max kitten dry food and he wont eat that very well.

I went back and read the bag of cat food, the one I though was acceptable, and noticed it had something called animal digest. That cant be a good thing, so I think I may try the nutro max again to see if he will eat it, and look for something healthier for my others, the grown ones too. Glad I read the whole ingredient list now! They love the nutro max canned food so maybe I will stick to that. Hope to get this URI in the kitten cleared up soon. Hope the new med. works!!

This is only a partical list, and foods I would approve of save an extra special cirumstances, but it's all just IMO! They are all better then Frisky's or Wiskas, other generic grocery store brands. This is not a complete list, there are other foods out there, there is only one food excluded from my list FOR a reason and that is the Iam's, Eukanuba foods. If you would like to know why they are excluded feel free to PM me. Science Diet is also not on my list, and I can tell you why to that as well.

Food labels can be hard to interpret unless you know exactly what things are. But you are right that Nutro Max is a better food then say something like Frisky's.


Some of the high quality (and some of them are human grade) foods to consider are:

Wellness
Innova
Solid Gold
Chicken Soup for the Lovers Soul
Felidae
Natural Balance

Other acceptable and/or more easily found foods:
Royal Canin
Bil-Jac
Eagle Pack
Evolve
Holistic Blend
Natures Recipe
Natures Variety
Nutro Natural Choice
Pro Plan
Sensible Choice
Timber Wolf Organics
Wysong
Authority

Angel,
I too have been searching for GSE, but haven't found it at any health food stores and etc. The link Hissy gave me a while ago is this:
http://www.nutriteam.com/index2.html
If you happen to find it in a store somewhere, could you let me know? I really don't like buying things online, but I will is I must. Thanks!

Hi All,

you can get GSE at wallmart! It's even cheaper there than online (at least for canadians)

I did not take my cats off the antibiotics when giving them GSE, Please continue antibiotics as told.

Also note the cat flu is primarily viral and antibiotics helps the secondary infections but the pirmary cause is viral which I do believe GSE helps!

all of my cats got better in 2 days on GSE. My kitten Leo has been through sneezing periods since I got him. The last time, I just gave him the GSE when his syptoms started, (my vet said nothing you can really do unless it becomes severe, we had tried antibiotics 3 times,he said it's viral the kitten's own immune system must flush it out, and there was no colored discharge or dripping, just sneezing and a little runny eyes) and in 1 day he was so much better, active and eating, like normal again, eyes clear, and in 3 days sneezing stopped! When I had given him antibiotics he still sneezed a lot for a week before we saw improvement!

so I would definetly try the GSE, along with good home care, lots of attention, hand feeding if needed (I had to at one point), and try to get your kitten to drink as much water as you can! I also suggest wet food as this is easier to digest and give the kittens kidneys a rest, helping them fight the virus. I put the GSE in there wet food 2X a day.

Good luck and keep me posted!
Anita

Just wanted to add my 2 cents here!

When we adopted Romeo 2 weeks ago, he had a cold and was on Clavamox. Despite my precautions (and I had been very careful!), in a little more than a week we had a houseful of sneezing kitties. It was sad (and noisy!)

I went to The Vitamin Shoppe (like GNC) and bought some GSE, started adding it to their water about 5 days ago (3 drops of it in the full Drinkwell fountain reservoir). There is still some sneezing, but it has decreased dramatically. I am hopeful that it will resolve completely within the next week.

This is great stuff! But it does taste foul when undiluted, as I found out to my chagrin when I had some on my finger after adding it to the water, and without thinking, I licked my finger. EWWWWWWWWW. BITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!:tounge2: