Help! 12wk old very sick

My husband and I have a two-year-old male cat (Don Juan) and a 12-week-old female kitten (Dona Ana). Little Dona has been sick since we adopted her from the pound at 8-weeks-old. Vet diagnosed her with URI - sent us home with anti-bios and eye ointment. He assured us Don Juan could not catch the URI from her.

A week later Dona was getting better and Don Juan got the URI. He started his anti-bios and at the end of the week he was worse and she began showing severe symptoms again. They have both been on new anti-bios for a second week and she keeps getting worse. Brought her back to the vet for a third round of bios, this time 14-days treatment.

We love the little dear but we are starting to lose hope. The vet informed us during the last visit that our two lovers might continue to pass the infection back and fourth throughout their lives. We have been keeping the two apart for several days now and although his symptoms are lifting she just keeps getting worse.

The most discouraging part of this mess - Dona Ana has a severe heart murmur. Our vet says the murmur will likely cause her to be ill her entire life until the heart gives out. He says we can take her to the nearest cardiologist - five hours away $400 later we MIGHT have an answer - put her to sleep or try open heart surgery.

It is heartbreaking to be in this position. We are so afraid she is going to harm our adult cat's health severely but now we don't even want to look for someone else to adopt her on the chance they will not attend to her heart. Any advice, tips, experience, etc would be greatly appreciated. There is only one vet clinic where we live.

Illness:
Dona Ana - 1 month and getting worse
Don Juan - 2 weeks and recovering

What anti-biotic are you using?
Have you talked to your vet about the possibility of putting them both on anti-biotics at the same time?
Is there another vet in a nearby town you could go to? I've had one tell me a kitty had a heart murmur - yet I've had him to another vet dozens of times who tells me there is no way he has one - has no idea what the other vet was thinking!

My thoughts (and I'm not a vet) are that she's clearly NOT improving on the meds she is on - get her started on another ASAP!

I've had extreme URIs in cats - and with 5+ cats at a time - no one has ever gotten as bad as you are describing nor have I had such bad luck with it being passed around. To help alleviate the symptoms - you can put the kitty in the bathroom with you while you take a nice long hot/steamy shower to help "de-stuff" kitty nose.

Now, no one on the internet can substitute for a vet's advice - so please take any ideas you can gather to your vet to see what s/he thinks!

I have had cats will severe uri's before and they did not pass it around like that.
In fact Sasha never caught it at all and Oreo got it slightly.
I hope you have change the antibiotics.
My Meeko has a hear murmur and almost died at 3 months.
She weighed 1 pound.
She is now 8.5 years old and still has the murmur and she has herpes virus.
Not one of my cats gets sick from her when it flares up.
The pound should not have adopted her out at 8 weeks.
That is to young.
I would call the nearest er for advice.
I was once told coco had a tilted heart and llung cancer when it was a severe uri with asthma.
No one got it from her either.
I paid 157 for the echo.

Are your kitties eating, drinking, and using the litter box well? What are you feeding them?

A similar situation happened when we adopted Hannah. Callie, our older cat who'd never been sick a day in her life with me got her first ever URI and UTI from the stress of the new kitty in the house. Hannah was SICK with a very nasty URI & in isolation, but it took her about 6 weeks to finally kick the URI enough to come out and be in the house. It was another good month before she was totally symptom free and really and truly well. This past April, we found out she has feline herpes, which I'm sure totally aggravated her initial illness 3 years ago when she came to live with us.

Here are some things we did to help Hannah (& Callie):
1. Run a vaporizer at all times in her room. I put eucalyptus oil in the little thing where you can add something like Vick's. If you don't have a vaporizer, take her into the bathroom with you when you take your shower and "steam" her. Close the door and keep the kitty in the bathroom with you.

2. Make sure little Dona is getting a high quality food. Use wet food & add a dash of water to it. (We fed Hannah Science Diet a/d from the vet until she got well.) Warm it up in the microwave for about 8-10 seconds on high. This will enhance the aroma and help kitty smell her food better. If she's congested and can't smell the food, then she won't eat. Check out the kitten forum here and look at the stickied topics at the beginning of the forum. There's lots of good info there, along with a Kitten Glop formula you can mix up and feed to Little Dona.

3. Ask your vet about Enisyl, a cat form of L-Lysine. This will help boost kitty's immune system. It comes in a tube and is a thick paste. You just measure out the dose on your finger and the kitty can lick it off your finger.

4. Keep her warm. We got a space heater and set up in the room with Hannah, eventho we ran the central heat. You can also use a heating pad wrapped very well in a nice thick blanket. It's very important to keep that little one nice and warm. You can also put raw rice in a sock, tie it off and then warm it in the microwave. Use these to snuggle kitty against.

5. Get some Feliway diffusers. They are expensive as anything, but well worth it, IMO. Put them in each kitty's room. Initially, I ran 3 or 4 of them in my house. Now, I just use 1. The Feliway has pheromones that calm and soothe kitties.

6. Ask for a second opinion on your cat, either with another vet in the same clinic or at a different clinic. If you live in a larger city, check to see if you can find a cat only vet.

7. Give each kitty LOTS of TLC. I swear that made the biggest difference with Hannah. I know she didn't like all the pilling, drops, and stuff done to her while she was well, but I'd go in and lay on the floor and let her fall asleep on me. I'd tell her how much I already loved her, how sweet she was, and how I knew she'd get well. I think that TLC and calming, soothing words with loving touches goes a long way with kitties.

8. Keep acting as an advocate. Call the vet and discuss your concerns with him/her. Ask for a different medication or different treatment plan if what's not prescribed isn't working. You know your kitties best. Don't be afraid to express your concerns about her not getting better.

Stephanie

Thank you so much to "White Cat Lover", "Meows2much", and "Stephanietx" for all of the amazing info! I am thrilled to say Dona is finally starting to show signs of recovery! We have another vet appointment on Wednesday so I will know more then. As it turns out one of the vets at our clinic who saw Dona prescribed an anti-inflammatory eye ointment when she DID NOT need it, and THAT is what was aggravating her symptoms to the extreme. Geez! Strange how something so small can cause so much trouble.

The only vet to discourage us from worrying about her heart is the one who prescribed that awful eye ointment. Bleh... my husband and I are definitely looking for another vet in a different town. We are so isolated here!

Stephanie, the Enisyl you mention sounds wonderful. No one has mentioned that at our vet clinic so I will be sure to demand it. If they don't have it I'll just have to start searching. Do you have any suggestions as to where I could possibly buy some online?

To let everyone know, yes they have both been on different types of antibiotics. We do keep Dona in the bathroom when we take showers (even run it periodically just for her!). Her and Don Juan are both eating and drinking on their own now, we were forcing it for a while but it is getting better. Dona Ana will only eat wet food right now. We have her on MeowMix the vet said it was okay - what do you ladies think?

It is wonderful to know Meeko has lived so long with the heart murmur and that the other cats have not contracted any illness! Everything you ladies had to say is just so encouraging I cannot thank you enough!!!