First Levi, now Samantha!!! HELP

OK, you all know how it's been with Levi,

NOW SAMANTHA is sick!! She is about 8 years old, I have been giving her Levi's antibiotics, along with Levi. That is the Gentamicin and Doxycycline.

I am VERY worried about her today.... She has her mouth open and is primarily breathing out of that. I am feeling above her eyes and ears, it's a little warm, not feverish that I can tell.

Levi seems to be responding to the meds. He actually purred today!! He hasn't done that in DAYS!!!

Samantha is just GRUMPY!! I go to hold her and she starts growling like a DOG!! She is kinda ALWAYS a bit grumpy, but this is different.

I don't want to sound mean, but I have had to spend alot of money this month on vet bills!! I really DON'T have any more to take her to the vet too!!

I am scared that she is not responding to meds, She has been on them 4 days, to LEvi's 5.

Could her age be a factor??

I am so mad at this STUPID clinic that did Levi's neutering. Had he not been forced to stay there for 3 days, he might not have gotten sick and then gotten Samantha sick!!!

HELP any advice?? I am trying Lamb baby food and forcing water to both. Levi is eating and drinking more on his own. Samantha isn't today...

to my babies

Did you consult with the vet about starting Sam on the antibiotics, or this was a self medication? In the case of URI, if the kitty starts breathing by the mouth, that is a reason to be concerned, and to take her to the vet. Bugsy got an URI, and got better on his own... Lucky started sneezing and had a running nose for a little while, but nothing serious, and it has also gotten better... Antibiotics are only to be used when the develop a bacterial infection due to the low immune system caused by the URI. URI does not automatically equals bacterial infections...
Please please call the vet - breathing by the mouth is a bad sign... Do not stop the antibiotics without talking to the vet.

I figured that since Levi is the one that got Samantha sick, as she is an indoor kitty, and NEVER been sick until now. I FIGURED that she has the same thing as Levi.

This is self medication. I am giving her the same antibiotics that the vet ordered for Levi.

The mouth breathing is bothering me too... It is hard because this month I have already spent hundreds of dollars that I DON'T have...

I have to figure out something to do.. The other hard thing is that I don't have a car and believe it or not it has been SNOWING here... I live on the face of the sun so when it SNOWS, the whole town freaks out!!! LOL Today it is just really cold, no snow on the ground... I will call the vet tomorrow, SHEESH, it's a HOLIDAY!! GRRRRRR

Ok - no more self medication for kitties, ok? Especially when it comes to antibiotics... Big no no...
Now, you've got to get on hold of somebody tomorrow about this - breathing through the mouth can be bad, really bad...
Try to do a steam bath tonight - go to the bathroom, close the doors, and let the hottest water run... Hold her in your arms, as the steam tends to go towards the ceiling, and will likely not reach the floor before getting cold. Stay there for a while - it should help with her congestion. Can you go to the pharmacy and get some L-Lysine and vitamin c? Crush one of each pill (vitamin C as ascorbic acid, otherwise the taste is awful), and add it to their wet food. If you can't, see if you have some vitamin C at home... Any CVS, Walgreens, target, walmart will have both. I was only able to give L-Lysine to my kitties once like this, but it helped like you wouldn't believe!
Good Luck!
Do you have good credit? You can apply to Care Credit; a credit card that can be used for medical bills only; it can also be used for Vet bills. Check it out - you might be able to get it, and it will help you quite a bit...

Originally posted by Luv Furbabies

This is self medication. I am giving her the same antibiotics that the vet ordered for Levi.

Click to expand...

You may not have thought of this, but with any antibiotic it is absolutely necessary to take the complete course of the prescribed medication because that's the only way the medication can successfully kill the bacteria that is causing the disease.

If you give cat number 2 the medication that was prescribed for cat number 1, neither cat is getting the necessary full course of medication it needs to get well.

Please tell your vet what you did so your vet can prescribe the amount of medication for a complete course for both kitties.

Care Credit, I think has a offer going on where you can get 2 months without interest. I used it to get a root canal earlier last month and it might help make those vet bills more manageable. Gotta pay them off on time though otherwise they slap you with massive interest.

Mixing crushed vitamin C in tuna fish or sardines or something smelly like that also helps make it more tolerable for the cats.

Lots of for you and the little ones!

Just so you know, this is the consensus in several sites, in regards to URI:

WHEN TO BE CONCERNED
SIGNS A CAT REQUIRES HOSPITALIZATION

+ Loss of Appetite

+ Congestion with open mouth breathing

+ High fever or the extreme listlessness that implies a high fever
(if one cannot take the catâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s temperature.

Please, please don't wait to take your kitty to the Vet... Also please consider
taking her elsewhere... Tell them exactly what you have been giving her...
Also, make sure Levi has enough meds to get the full course of treatment - since you are giving Sam his prescription, make sure to get more from the vet... Like in humans, you should never stop antibiotics treatment before you are supposed to...
Good luck once again...

Originally Posted by carolinalima

Just so you know, this is the consensus in several sites, in regards to URI:

WHEN TO BE CONCERNED
SIGNS A CAT REQUIRES HOSPITALIZATION

+ Loss of Appetite

+ Congestion with open mouth breathing

+ High fever or the extreme listlessness that implies a high fever
(if one cannot take the catâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s temperature.

Please, please don't wait to take your kitty to the Vet... Also please consider
taking her elsewhere... Tell them exactly what you have been giving her...

Click to expand...

I am taking her to our USUAL vet tomorrow, (If he is open on a holiday) I ill TELL him that I have given her Levi's meds and get more for him...

Tonight has been difficult. I know she has a fever, she is still mouth breathing, I took her into the bathroom for a steam, per the ER vets suggestion. I also put alcohol rub on her paws and a wet sock on her paws to try and keep her from going too high, I made sure to not let her go too low also...

I am so scared that I will lose her.... We just lost our Tom in Sept. This would hurt our family something fierce...

This vet that we go to has worked with me in the past, I paid him over 350.00 in 1 visit before we lost Tom. So I know that he will take good care of Samantha. I should have taken Levi there to begin with. I am really kicking myself because they both got sick.

NEVER GO THE CHEAP WAY< IT WILL COST MORE IN THE LONG RUN, MAYBE EVEN YOUR PETS LIFE!!

I will DEFINATELY be calling that place tomorrow that is so infested to get my 2 HEALTHY cats sick.

They did cover themselves... I looked at my paperwork and it says that when I signed Levi in for surgery, I take ALL future liability for him OR OTHERS that get sick because of his stay there!! AND I am responsible for medications because of future sickness as a result of his stay???

Doesn't that look like they have a history of sick animals comming out of there?? I don't see how that is right?

My main concern is getting Samantha better, then I will tackle their treatment of our pets in this community. I am NOT the type to let this go unnoticed...

Vibes for Samantha

Many many Prayers and that both will get well soon.

I just went through this with Skunki
[/IMG] He got really bad and we thought we were going to lose him. We did take him to the vet but he wanted $700 to keep him in the Hospital over the weekend but being Disabled we couldn't afford that. The Vet showed us how to give him the IV and gave us two bags of it to take home. Finally today he is up and about, eating and drinking a little after a week. We rescued Skunki as a semi feral cat on Dec 25th 2001. He had the URI back then and was at the Vet for a week. He pulled through then and it looks like he is gonna pull through again. Good thing he is a little on the Heavy side (15 Pounds) The hardest part was keeping him a way from the New kitten, Munchi as she wanted to play with him. I'm going to keep him isolated for a day or two more to make sure the Virus is gone then let him into the rest of the house. I don't know if you believe in Jesus but if you do then Pray for your baby's recovery. Skunki was so bad that his nose was crusted shut and he was drolling like heck. After three days of IV fluid and a lot of praying he looks a lot better.

We went to the vet today!!

Samantha has a 105.0 fever! The vet gave her sub-q fluids, antibiotic shot, and a vitamin shot because she has not ate for at least 2 days.

I bought some Hills prescription diet a/d food to get her going again.

The worst part to me is that I have to go BACK to the humane place that I got Levi done at to get the same strength antibiotics. It is also cheaper there then the place I went to today!!!

Thank you everyone for your I can't find Sam right now, but I am sure she would say "Mowww"

Whew! Thank goodness you got to go today!!! I was getting really worried about her...
Please keep us posted about her, ok?? Many vibes!!!

Originally Posted by carolinalima

Whew! Thank goodness you got to go today!!! I was getting really worried about her...
Please keep us posted about her, ok?? Many vibes!!!

Click to expand...

Thank you so much. I was really worried too.

When she wasn't holding her head up or complaining like she usually does, I KNEW she was REALLY sick!

Tonight she is holding her head up, sneezing and complaining a BIT when I give her water. She still won't eat.

I tried heating the a/d food, she didn't want any part of it. I will let her rest up tonight and try again tomorrow.

My son is going out to pick up the antibiotics for me tomorrow.

So sorry that your cat got sick!

If she hasn't eaten for a while you really need to force feed her, cats can easily develop hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) if they don't eat for a couple of days which could increase her problems massively, and they can also lose their appetite completely when ill and not easily regain it - I have never had to do it so can't advise, but your best bet is to post a thread on the health forum titled "how to force feed a sick cat" or similar, plenty of people here have experience and will help you. It is very important that she eats, even if you have to make her do it. Good luck.

You can try to blend some wet food with water to make it liquid, and feed her with a syringe... She might not like it, but she needs to eat something...
Good luck!

Thank you. I didn't know it was serious like that. The vet didn't tell me anything like that today.

She did say something that concerns me. She said that her kidney seemed a little large and tender, but said it would be ok to watch for now until she gets better....

Just the kinda comment that makes you go, "Hmm..."

Please be careful when trying to force feed or water a cat with URI as it can get into their lungs and cause more problems. If you do use a syringe give it to them slowly so they have time to swallow. I used pedialyte on Skunki when he was sick and it seemed to work well.

Do you have a vaporizer? If so run it where she's spending most of her time. If you don't, then put a huge pot of water on the stove and let it simmer. Refill as needed. Also, take her into the bathroom with you and get it nice and steamy while you shower. Close her in the bathroom with you and let her breathe in the steamy air. Do this several times a day. This will help clear up the congestion. She's got to be able to smell the food, or she won't eat.

You HAVE to get some nutrition in her!! She can't continue to not eat. Boil some chicken in plain water, shred it & mix in a bit of the broth to make it the consistency of chicken or tuna salad. Offer that to her. Try tuna, meat only baby food (no onions or garlic), and/or a mixture of the above. As a last resort, try plain Pedialyte.

If she doesn't eat, she'll go into liver failure, so you've got to get something in her.

Stephanie

The meat only baby food has worked for my Jordan in the past when his herpes has flare up. I also find the meat baby food easier to force feed than watered down wet food. As others have said, it is important to feed her whatever she will eat at this point. Jordan actually lived off chicken baby food for 2 weeks when he was really sick. His coat looked terrible, but that got better as soon as he started eating again.

I hope your babies get better soon. I know how scarry it is.

Someone could contradict me here, but my Tigger had this terrible URI last week, and I was under the impression that the sub-q fluids could be a meal replacement for the day. So the day I got her fluids, I didn't have to worry that she wasn't eating.