Respiratory Infection?

This year, I took in a stray cat that wound up being pregnant and had 9 kittens. I have given 5 of them away, but apparently its harder to give away cats than I thought.

Anyways, I still have the mom and 4 "kittens."

My problem is that they all started sneezing and now my original cat who is 11 years old seems to have an upper respiratory infection. I feel bad exposing her to these cats (although they are separated for most of the day), and I am worried. It has been since Monday. On that day, she was sneezing about 20 times a minute, hanging her mouth open to breath. I took her to the emergency vet and they gave her some antiobiotics and told me to take her to her normal vet the next morning and that she had a high fever of 104.9.

I did this, and they steamed her and said they don't like the antiobiotic the clinic prescribed and gave her one that begins with a Z as well as giving her Allergen. Well, now she isn't eating and although her mouth is no longer hanging open, she is still sneezing although not nearly as much and she doesn't seem to have a fever anymore.

Should it take this long for her to get better and what about the not eating? I don't think she has eaten anything since yesterday afternoon, although it is hard to tell. Is it possible the antibiotic made her not want to eat because she was gorging herself when she first got sick - eating WAY more than normal. I am taking her back to the vet tomorrow so they can give her an IV, but do you think that she is in trouble? None of the cats have feline leukemia or aids btw. Thanks!

What concerns me is that she has not eaten in awhile. Fatty Liver Disease/Hepatic Lipidosis can set in quickly in cats. I'd give your ER vet a call.

How long has she been on anti-biotics?

I agree she can get liver problems from not eating.
The fever will make her not want to eat.
Thats what Meeko did when her fever was almost 105.
What antibiotc was she on at first?
Meeko had Clavamox but it took 4 days before she started eating.
They also gave her shot to get her to eat.
You have any baby food without onion or garlic?
My vet told me to give it to Meeko when she was like that.
You may need the er again.
Is this what she is taking? Zithromax
http://www.petplace.com/drug-library/azithromycin-zithromax/page1.aspx

Well, she took clavamax first, then the other vet wanted her to take Zithromax so I have given her that, although yesterday I accidentally gave her twice the normal dosage (I should probably read the instructions more carefully next time!!!). Anyways, she still wont eat but the allergen was working and she is hardly sneezing. I think the reason she is not eating is that all the drainage goes down when she bends her head to eat. I see her bending her head, then she starts to sneeze and leaves the food bowl.

I did squirt a bunch of water into her mouth, so she wont be dehyrdated too much. I also learned a valuable lesson - giving a 17 pound cat medicine or squirting water into her throat is DEFINITELY a two person job unless you have body armor. She got me good on my arm. Anyways, I am taking her to the vet tomorrow to get her steamed again and possible IV'd. Its only been 24 hours since the last time I saw her eat anything, so hopefully she will be ok till tomorrow.

Originally Posted by charmaniac

...I did squirt a bunch of water into her mouth, so she wont be dehyrdated too much. I also learned a valuable lesson - giving a 17 pound cat medicine or squirting water into her throat is...

Click to expand...

It's two days later that I'm catching this, but hopefully you'll pick it up...AND, for anyone else who's following or who happens to read......

NEVER "SQUIRT" ANYTHING DOWN A CAT'S THROAT.......the cat can easily aspirate the liquid and you may thereby cause an almost always-fatal condition - aspiration pneumonia.

SLOWLY inject the liquid into the CORNER/SIDE of the mouth in small amounts, closing the mouth afterwards and massaging the throat to stimulate swallowing.

This "steaming" treatment you describe is also something you can (and probably should) do at home. Many people "steam up" the bathroom and leave kitty inside for 20 minutes or so, and do this a number of times throughout the day - quite effective, and cheap! (If you can keep her in a small room with a vaporizer, that can also be effective.)