Sneezing & Stuffy Nose! - Page 2

That we do!!!
And I see you are yet another one from Texas! Welcome to TCS!!! Please do stick around... this is a great place!!!!!!!!!!!!

About the diarrhea: as soon as he finishes the antibiotics, start him o a good probiotic to rebuild his flora: I like Bene-Bac... This is also great to have home for anytime your kitties have diarrhea, or to give them regularly, on their wet food...
But diarrhea during antibiotics, unfortunately is normal... If it gets to be too much, several times a day, call the vet.
As for introducing the kitty to the other kitties: The only objection I have to that is increasing the stress to him. As a herpes kitty, you want to minimize the stress, and introductions can be stressful...
You can try and play it by ear... (as long as they are all UTD on their shots and the new kitty tested for FIV and Leukemia negative, of course)... If you feel he is doing fine, the continue with the introductions... A little at time...
I would not do too much during his flare up - the least amount of stress the better. I am not concerned about the other kitties... I am more concerned bout him...

Hi Staceyloobug,
You can also try giving Butters a tablespoon of canned pumpkin (make sure you get pure pumpkin only, not the pie filling with sugar & spices) for a few days while he's on the antibiotics. The fiber in the pumpkin will help firm up his stools. This will be a good quick fix while you're waiting for the Bene-Bac to arrive.

I don't recommend just giving pumpkin for all diarrhea problems, you always want to know and fix the cause. But, since we know this is because of the antibiotics - the pumpkin should help within several hours.

ETA - I've always read that Lysine takes several weeks to be effective, but I noticed it worked faster than that with my herpes girl. And, I also notice that if I've missed a couple of doses, she starts to have a flare up. So, do stay vigilant with your Lysine dosing! Don't worry about giving too much, excess will just come out in his urine.

I also agree with Carolina that introducing them now is probably fine for the health of the other kitties, but may slow down his recovery if it's too stressful. As you now know, stress does bring on herpes flare ups. You're doing great. Please continue to keep us posted!

Lysine does take 2-3 weeks to kick in, but it can happen faster too... Keep in mind that the antibiotics are also kicking in on the secondary infections, so your boy is getting better all around. The full effects for Lysine you will see within a month - but I am saying the FULL effects, that doesn't mean you are not going to see any effects before... you will...
I say probably you will be free of these attacks very soon !!!
About the poop - make sure you are cleaning it with a good enzyme cleaner, so she doesn't keep going back to the same place... A regular carpet cleaner will not do it
And definitely scooping the box daily is a must... I never replace my litter, so... I just scoop and clean the box walls daily, but I do not drop the litter off and replace it...

I've done a lot worse than worry about herpes transmission. I brought my 2 leukemia positive kittens inside with a very leukemia negative Maude. We introduced them the day Maude had her leukemia vaccination. They lived together for months before Maude crossed the RB from liver failure. They tested her and she was still leukemia negative. They shared food and water bowls(they all had their own but they liked to eat out of each others bowls.) they also shared litter boxes(they used all of them equally.) Leukemia can be easily transmitted and is fatal, so herpes isn't anything in my mind. I will say that quite a few cats have been exposed and their immune system just fought it off, so their only lasting thing of that is a lifelong immunity to it(like chickenpox, you have it once and are immune so you never get it again.) Also as an adult cat it is very hard for them to catch it. Attitude and Nuts most likely had it transmitted to them before they were born(and they are both barely positive.) The amount of leukemia it takes to infect 100% of newborn kittens would only infect 30% or fewer adult cats.

I know Attitude most likely has herpes(she has a never ending eye infection) the vet has put her on lysine so hopefully she clears up. Nuts who is her brother and has the same compromised immune system remains herpes free as far as I can tell. They have been exposed to each other since birth and due to the leukemia have lowered immune systems(it's like human AIDS or FIV feline AIDS) and only one has it. Most cats are immune to it since Maude was fine on that as well. Like with the leukemia some cats immune systems will just fight it off so most have already been exposed and same as the leukemia they have a lifelong immunity to it.

I honestly wouldn't worry about your other cats and herpes but then again I knowingly brought in 2 kittens with a fatal contagious disease and exposed a non-infected cat to it, so I might not be one to talk.

Personally I'd introduce the cats as long as they don't really stress each other it should be fine. If he shows signs of stress separate them again until he recovers. You never know how it will turn out until you try. There was not much stress after the initial introduction in which I had to bring them into the living room(they were too afraid of the 'big kitty'(Maude was 14 lbs), but really there was some hissing and paw smacks and even Maude taking both Attitude and Nuts' entire heads in her mouth(they were fine but she was letting them know when she had had enough, Attitude kept shoving her tail in Maude's mouth so she couldn't hiss at her), but no one was stressed. They eventually just tolerated each other but were never friends but Maude would put up with Attitude more than Nuts. Like I said you never know until you try so if you want to try it, but if he starts getting stressed then separate them again.

Also, daily litter box cleaning is a must I have only had to replace litter once because if I missed a day or 2 because I was sick and Paul won't do the boxes. It's not nasty or stinky but just enough that the outside cats will get it in their litter box instead of keeping it inside. I'm doing it right now, I filled the outside box with the litter from the bathroom box. When it needs to be changed(I lose the litter when it rains it becomes a solid clump) I will empty one of the kitchen boxes in there. I haven't done a complete litter change ever and I don't really have to do one now, but like I said the litter is at the just enough stage from me not getting the box for a day or 2 that it's better served giving it to the outside cats.

Taryn

If you scoop the litter daily (or twice daily in some cases), the litter will last longer. You generally should change the boxes once a year.

Intriguing for me too...I have an extra large box for 2 cats. I scoop 2-3x daily and I change out the litter and bleach the box about every 3 weeks. More and more, I've been loading the box deep and hope this will allow me to go 4 weeks between cleaning the box.

Perhaps it depends on the litter used? I now use Swheat Scoop. When I used to use pine, I was dumping out and cleaning the box every 4-5 days. I quickly switched litter. So much easier now.