Upper Respiratory...or more?

Bailey has never been sick since I rescued him as a teeny kitten at 5 weeks. When we adopted a shelter cat a year ago (who is the sweetest baby boy) he brought home upper respiratory illness and got his two brothers sick. First time in a long time my oldest, Phoenix was sick, and first time ever that Bailey was sick.

This year when the weather changed, I got sick, and then my Riley (the shelter rescue baby) got sick. We had and gave him clavamox and he got better in 6 days. Perfect health. No eye problems. Just sneezing.

Once he was all better, Bailey got sick. He was sick in the morning and right away he got an appointment for the vet. We had no meds left, so we needed to take him in. The vet prescribed him lysine and some otc allergy meds. I wasn't of course too thrilled about the otc meds. I knew he had uri so I felt a bit down on that. 

He started to get progressively worse as the day went on, and then Thursday was Thanksgiving. Couldn't take him in. He was not only sneezing really, really hard but he seemed like it was really hard to breathe. I called the vet friday at 7am and she prescribed eye drops and clavamox liquid (never used liquid before) and so I gave it to him when I got back from picking it up. 

His eyes are still not great, but it's his breathing I'm worried about. It hasn't eased up, or anything. It has only been 1 full day (and then this morning) of medication. So he hasn't been on it long. But I MUST know if any of you have had the breathing issues just like his and what happened.

I can easily take some video of it, put it on youtube and link it here if it would help everyone understand what he's suffering though. But it just sounds like his nose is stuff up with runny (sorry for this) snot. Not dried or crusty. And he does this breathing thing like he's trying to push it out but doesn't understand how to. Ugh, I'm so upset for him. He's my sweet boy.

And yes, wet stuff is spraying out when he's doing this breathing thing..

Also: The vet recommended putting him in the bathroom while I run a hot shower for steam. Anyone think a warm steam vicks humidifier would be beneficial? 


That is the link to the video. At 1:46 is when you will hear the noise he makes best. But in the video he does it once, when I'm not recording, he does it a lot.

ckovacs said:

Also: The vet recommended putting him in the bathroom while I run a hot shower for steam. Anyone think a warm steam vicks humidifier would be beneficial? 

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Definitely do some steam therapy in the bathroom like the vet suggested (3-4 times a day, 10 minutes each time, if you can). Don't use any Vicks products though - they contain essential oils that are toxic to cats. 

How is Bailey's appetite? Is he eating enough? Many cats eat less or stop eating altogether when they lose their sense of smell, so it's important to make sure that doesn't happen. You might have to feed him something really stinky (fish-flavoured canned Fancy Feast, low sodium sardines packed in water, plain chicken baby food, etc) if his appetite does go down. Try offering food right after the steam session. 

Is he still taking the L-lysine? If so, how much?

Aww, sorry to hear your Bailey is sick. I hope the meds make him better soon, and the steam sounds like a good idea. 

My Dorothy's got some sort of cold/uri/whatever it's been going on almost a week I think, got worse in the last day or 2, so she's going to the vet in about a half hour. Sneezing much more and louder than normal kitty sneezes, and sounds snotty, has a runny nose and runny eyes, and the most worrying is that she's been hiding a lot and not acting herself. So, off to the vet we go. It's hard for me to tell how her breathing is though, because whenever I put my ear on her, she starts purring, so that's all I can hear.  I did notice on your video though that Bailey's breathing through his mouth, Dot's not doing that, so hopefully it's more of a head thing than chest thing.

Get better Bailey!!!

Sugarcatmom - will do with the vicks. I wonder if I can buy the system but not use the vicks. This way, when I'm sick, I can have the convenience of a vicks machine. I will check when I buy one today. He is still eating, thankfully. He can still breathe through his nose. But sometimes the build up gets bothersome until he blows it out. And he's okay until the build up.

Is it bad to use the humidifier more than 10 minutes at a time? Just curious. 

He is still taking the Lysine at the vets requests. She actually asked that all 3 of our boys take it. double dose for now, and then after a month, single dose. 

Darkmavis - I am sorry to hear about your little one. I do hope that the vet can help her feel better. Keep us posted.

ckovacs said:

 I wonder if I can buy the system but not use the vicks. 

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I have no idea actually. Extra humidity in the winter is nice though, for people and pets. 
 

ckovacs said:

Is it bad to use the humidifier more than 10 minutes at a time? Just curious. 

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No, you can for sure use a humidifier for longer (24/7 even, unless your windows fog up too much). I have one attached to the furnace which is awesome. The 10 minute thing is just if you're running a hot shower to get the steam going for Bailey. Longer than that and you'll be using an awful lot of water!
 

You have no idea how much I appreciate the response. My only worry is this now: Last time he had a uri he was no where near this sick, and the meds started to help day 1. He is on day two and he is as bad as he was. Only thing that has stopped is the severe sneezing. Should I be worried that by day two there is no change? Or is this normal?

I have him in his bedroom with water, brothers are locked out. Their bedroom doors have what looks like blinds, but it's actually wood. So I can hear him if anything The humidifier is set on 2 and running. I'll go in the room about ten minutes from now to see how the warm steam has changed the room. Make sure it's working.

I don't mind how much water is used, etc. 1 tank runs 12 hours. I will probably not run it that long, but I will do what I can. As long as he's comfortable.

Thanks again for all the help. It's greatly appreciated.

Yes, if the vaporizer is something like this: http://www.vicks.com/products/vaporizers/v150sg-steam-guard-vaporizer/

You can use it without the Vicks fluid. I have one of those I often run in the winter, I use it all day and/or night sometimes. It's just the bathroom steaming that they say to limit to 5-10 minutes at a time usually.

It's possible your shelter kitty may have brought in a herpes infection. These can cause recurring URIs. We think my cat Church has this because he had a bad URI when I rescued him as a kitten and he used to have recurring URIs/flare-ups. My vet had me do 500mg lysine twice a day (so 1000mg a day) when he had a flare-up and 250 mg twice a day (so 500 mg a day) as a maintenance dose the rest of the time. He stopped having the URIs though, apparently some kittens "grow out of" that.

This is all great stuff to hear. Helps a lot.

http://www.target.com/p/Vicks-Evaporative-Warm-Mist-Humidifier-V-745A/-/A-10403765

That is the one we picked up. But we didn't grab the vicks liquid. If it's okay to use, we'll pick some up. I'll have to do some research.

I was given lysine as mentioned but it doesn't seem to be working yet. Maybe it hasn't had enough time. Got it on Wednesday and I guess the virus was already spreading before we even saw symptoms. Phoenix just started sneezing today. I guess it needs more time to work.

We are also using a safe salt water saline recipe for cats. 1/2 cup water and 1/8 tsp salt. Bailey seems to enjoy it as it seems to bring him relief and he's able to sneeze a bit out. Phoenix looks at me like he wants to murder me when I use it on him.

Can anyone tell me the difference between L Lysine and F Lysine? My vet gave me F Lysine but I don't see too much info on it.

ckovacs said:

Can anyone tell me the difference between L Lysine and F Lysine? My vet gave me F Lysine but I don't see too much info on it.

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Is that Ensyl-F Lysine  by Vetoquinol that you're referring to? If so, it contains L-lysine, and a bunch of other stuff cats don't need. When you're finished this bottle, you can get some pure L-lysine powder from a health food store and mix a small amount (like 1/8th tsp twice a day) into each cat's wet food. Much cheaper too. 

Here's some more info for you on treating URIs: http://www.holisticat.com/uri.html

Thank you for that. It's funny. My vet charged $28 bucks for a bag. Looked online later and I found some for $11. I was crushed. Could have had more than 2 times the amount. 

I will look into the L lysine right when I'm done this bag.

I usually just buy Lysine capsules from the health food store, and sprinkle it in their food.

For Bailey! It can take quite a few days before you might see an improvement . I purchase my L-Lysine online from NOW. Easy to find - just google NOW L-Lysine Powder. It comes in a 1 lb. for about $14.00. Easy to use and no bitter taste. Hope your Bailey feel's better soon. It is so hard to see them so sick

My Peanut Butter has cronic upper respiratory desease, He brought it in from the shelter.

I use the Vicks warmer thingy with the pads. That helps ward off anything more advanced than a sneeze.

Cats won't eat if they cant smell and all that creates a life threatening situation. So I go with the Vicks.

I also use fish antibotics. Animxcillion. Something like that. There is a whole list in my purse, in case of an emergency.Not everyone agrees with this choice. But if I went with a Vet,  my cat would be dead by now. I heal him myself. It never goes away. I can't adopt another kitty from the pound for fear he will have another attack.This way is cheaper and managable. Which is all you can hope for with this one. In my view

MeuzettesMom said:

My Peanut Butter has cronic upper respiratory desease, He brought it in from the shelter.

I use the Vicks warmer thingy with the pads. That helps ward off anything more advanced than a sneeze.

Cats won't eat if they cant smell and all that creates a life threatening situation. So I go with the Vicks.

I also use fish antibotics. Animxcillion. Something like that. There is a whole list in my purse, in case of an emergency.Not everyone agrees with this choice. But if I went with a Vet,  my cat would be dead by now. I heal him myself. It never goes away. I can't adopt another kitty from the pound for fear he will have another attack.This way is cheaper and managable. Which is all you can hope for with this one. In my view

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MeuzettesMom that sounds like it could be feline herpes, have you tried Lysine supplements for your kitty?

Nekochan said:

MeuzettesMom that sounds like it could be feline herpes, have you tried Lysine supplements for your kitty?

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His breathing is strained and he sneezes. It went all through the pride. But nobody shows signs like Peanut. My adopted ferel cat died from the ecademic. I can control the desease with the simple remedies.

I had friends who had cats with this.