HELP! Reoccuring stuffy nose

I adopted my 2 year old cat, CJ, last July, and he had a runny nose. The vet put him on Baytril for 2 weeks, it went away, then came back a month later. The vet then put CJ and my other cat, Ava (who I have had 4 years) on Baytril for another 2 weeks. Neither had chest congestion, just stuffy noses, CJ with a thick, white discharge. They were both fine after the antibotics, then it came back in Jan. or so. The vet gave me 2 more weeks of Baytril. Same scenario AGAIN, it was back in March! By this point, a 6month old kitten, Oliver, adopted me. Back to the vet with all three, and all three went on Baytril for 30 days. Great results, but after a 2 months or so off Baytril, CJ's nose is stuffy again. Does anyone have any idea on what I need to do? The other two are fine at this point. None have ever lost appetite, but CJ and Ava do play a little bit less when their nose is stuff.

What is baytril? An anti-biotic I assume?

My Fiona has the feline herpes virus which causes congestion and runny eyes and nose etc. She can sneeze on a regular basis. As long as the discharge isn't a funky color I don't worry about an infection. I would be in the vets office every week for sniffles!

Look into Lysine, it is a supplement that helps keep the immune system supported so the likelihood of an infection is lessened. lots of info here about it if you are interested.

Because we cannot know everything about your cats health and history it is important to get a second opinion from another vet if you feel that the way your vet is treating isn't working. We cannot give online advice here about treatment for your pets, its a rule.

But to me it sounds a little strange (and an unnessecary expense) to keep giving these cats meds like you've been doing. Many of us live with cats that have the feline herpes virus and can do things to help lessen the instance of infections developing. Fiona has had one infection in the 3 years I had her and I knew right away that something was wrong as her discharge was not looking right and she was acting funny.

I always ask a ton of questions at the vets office. I want to know WHY they give something to my cats and what can be done to PREVENT things from getting to the point that I have to bring them to the vets.

Welcome to TCS! Hope your kitties feel better. Can we see pics?????

Thanks for the information. I have been going to the same vet for about 20 years, and I do have all the faith in them. My previous kids were Dancer, age 12, and BC, age 26 (YES, 26!) I lost Dancer 7 years ago, and BC 6 six years ago. So it has been awhile since I have had soooo much lively hood in my house with these youngsters!
I am going to check and see even if CJ has been tested for the herpes, I am actually not sure, I think he has. I have used the Baytril antibotic on all my cats, it has always worked well for infections until this episode. I do thank you for the reply, and I would love to post pictures, I just can't figure out how.

All three of my cats have feline herpes and one has the more severe chronic Rhinitis which is like a sinus cold that never goes away. I would ask your Vet about Herpes. Most of us just wait it out, sort of like a mild cold in humans, sometimes we make it easier on them with humidifiers (Warning on the humidifier. It doesn’t always work, I tried it once on my rhinitis girl and since she has wet boogers, and the humidified made it even wetter… without getting into detail, lets just say our wall…. it turned green LOL… omg my cat is nasty lol).

Lysine seems to work well. Both of my boys have not had symptoms since they were kittens. My snotty girl has never used Lysine.

For sure ask the Vet to check into Herpes.

The more I hear, the more I think it might be the herpes. Is it contagious from cat to cat? I have put a little bit of saline on CJ's nose when he is real stopped up, and it makes him sneeze it all out. It has never been green, just thick, white. He always feels better after he sneezes, because he will then start playing (I can tell when he is really stopped up because he just lays down and watchs what is going on around him). I really can't remember if he has been tested for herpes, I will look at his paperwork when I get home. Do your animals stay on the Lysine for the rest of their lives or just with symptoms?

Yes, it can be passed to the other kitties. It is quite common amongst shelter cats. The lysine I give in powder form in their food and I up the dose if she is sneezing alot and snotty as a help for her immune system. They also have a thick liquid form of the lysine you can get from the vet it is called enisyl-l which is l-lysine spelled backword. But that is a bit expensive for me to get every month so i use the powder form. My other two cats have not gotten anything from Fiona though. Some cats are not as subseptible as others i've been told. Seems true enough from my experiance.

Some info about FHV from my experiance: Stress can make it worse, that includes not just emotional stressors but environmental as well. For instance I notice when the house is drafty she gets more symptomatic. I have also heard that using a baby nose thingy to suck out the gunk can help. If it works for babies why not kitty cats? The sell suction things specifically for kitties also. dr's foster and smith online sells them if you can't locate it anywhere else. I will also rub along her nose and near her eyes as a comfort (she likes it). I know it feels good to me when I am stuffed up to rub along that area.

I am so happy you have the joy of young kitties in your home again! Nothing like it eh?

You have given me some great info! I truly appreciate it. We do have a PetSmart here in town, I am going to check on the lysine there. If he doesn't have FHV, would the lysine hurt him? I still will check his records when I get home this evening. I have been rubbing his nose, and he does like that. Can you tell me how to post pics of my "kids" to my profile?
And, by the way, CJ DID come from the pound!

I don't think petsmart carries Lysine? I got mine from dr's foster and smith online. It won't harm the kitties. In fact it makes their coats really nice and shiny.

Posting pics....hmmmm... I think i will leave that ? to someone with more experiance with that. I am a complete novice when it comes to computers and pictures. I sort of stumble my way through so having to explain it would be too much for me.

I just checked PetSmart, they don't carry it. I will use your supplier and give it a try!