Upper Respitory Infection

I have an 8 month old kitten who I've had since she was 4 months (beginning of August). When I got her, she already had an upper respiratory infection (primarily sneezing) and was on Clavamox. A week later, I took her to the vet for her kitten check up and she was still sick so she got another round of Clavamox.

Everyone told me I should keep waiting it out as these things take time to run their course. She kept sneezing with occasional nasal discharge that ran from clear to yellow. She developed a cough in late August. It was pretty bad sounding (like mucous). There were a few weeks she was coughing so hard she was defecating. This, thankfully stopped and eventually her cough went down to maybe once or twice a week. Every time I thought about taking her back to the vet, she would get a little better so I wouldn't.

I took her to another vet for a second opinion in late September but he just told me to keep waiting.

I took her back to my original vet at the end of October and got another round of Clavamox. She told me to bring her back immediately at the end of the round if she wasn't better and we'd go straight into another round. She didn't get better. We finished the second round and she still wasn't better. I got a chest x-ray and there appeared to be a small infection in one of her lungs. The vet switched her to Zeniquin which lasted for 3 weeks (finished two weeks ago). She was still sneezing some and occasionally coughing but it seemed to be slightly improved. Now her sneezing is getting worse again and she's developed a watery eye in the last couple of days.

While on any of these antibiotics, there was never a period where all of her symptoms were gone. Improved but never gone. She has also been on lysine twice (once in August and currently).

She has no lethargy. She's the most active kitten I've ever had. Her appetite has remained mostly there (there have been a few times over these four months where it has lessened).

I was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and knows what this can be. We're all a bit stumped. I'm taking her back to the vet again on Friday but wanted to ask.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

What a hard time you and your little cat have been having.  It is amazing she is so full of energy.  I haven't had a cat with respiratory infection but my boy does get runny eyes and prone to mouth infections: he has feline herpes virus which I am wondering if you or your vet may suspect for your cat given your use of L Lysine?  Have you discussed this with them?  I am really glad you already have an appointment arranged to see your vet again.

Many members here have kittens and cats that have had severe and persistent URIs and hopefully they will see your post and give you more advice and support.

Sometimes the antibiotics do need a couple of  courses, and if they are not targeting the right bacterial infection then another one will be needed.  They will usually start with a broad spectrum one then change if necessary.  Have any of the vets taken any swabs and tested to check what the infection is yet? It may be they feel another course of the Zeniquin is all that is needed but wait and see, and ask about it.  Do ask about the FHV orf other possible viral infections as well as this could explain some residual symptoms when all secondary / bacterial infections are resolved.

Her system has had a lot of antibiotics to contend with as well as being unwell.  It is also worth thinking about other things to try and boost her immune system, like probiotics which you can add to her food.  This would help her fight the infections a little better.  If your vet thinks she does have FHV then talk with them about the pros and cons of keeping her on a maintenance dose and then increasing when she shows signs of the virus like coughing, sneezing and runny eyes.  If you are doing this it is best to know her liver and kidneys are in good health and you give the correct amount for your kitten - the dose would be less than for an adult cat.

Lots of good vibes for getting this cleared up and seeing your young kitten get back to good health.      My boy may have FHV but he is seriously bouncy and active!

I've been there, done that with my Hannah!  What worked for us was doing a culture and sensitivity test on her nasal discharge to determine what exactly we were dealing with.  The culture will tell the doctor if it's a bacterial or viral infection and what kind and the sensitivity test will tell the doctor which meds will most effectively treat the infection.  That takes about 10 days to get the results back if I remember correctly.  She ended up having a pseudomonas infection that responded to one drug best (Zenequin).  Prior to doing this test, we'd been on the get sick, get meds, get better roller coaster for about 8 months.  It took us 2 months to get her levels back down into normal range, but it was the best thing we could've done for her.

The other test you might want to consider is the PCR URD test.  She might have one of these that can be tested easily doing this test.  You can read more about it on the IDEXX website under "Canine & Feline Upper Respiratory Diseases (URD)".  http://www.idexx.com//view/xhtml/en...menu/innovative-tests/real-pcr.jsf?SSOTOKEN=0  

Some other things you can do are give her a daily antihistamine and give her twice daily doses of Lysine.  Also, switching to a grain free diet will help. 

My Matthew and Rachel both had a serious URI when I look then home as 3 month kittens from a local refuge. 3 weeks of quarantine in the front bedroom, double doses of antibiotics, multiple trips to the vet due to dehydration needing sub q fluid it was just awful, my first and last time with kittens, I'll stick to adopting older cats that most don't want. The kittens had snot coming out of eyes, nose, mouth. Now it's 4 years later and both have very sensitive stomachs, I know all those antibiotics couldn't have been good for the rest of their little bodies. When my 2 year old Virgil came home from the refuge again an URI but this time we had lots of sneezing and coughing this time we did the works on him blood, cultures, the proper antibiotics. He is now 3 1/2 and we know he has allergies so there is a cool mist humidifier in every room, air purifiers in the basement where the liter boxes are kept, once in a while he will sneeze 3 or 4 times in a row but for the most part is just fine. We have all hardwood floors thru out the house as I am sure rugs would just irritate his allergies. Good luck.

Thank you all for weighing in! The plan Friday was to do the culture test to see if we could identify what it was. I was also going to ask about feline herpes. She had the vaccinations when she was a kitten but if I understand correctly, they're not fully preventative.

I have thought about allergies as well. She fully enjoys sticking her nose in everything and it usually helps trigger a sneezing fit.

I appreciate having specific things to ask my vet about! I am very tired of taking her there! I'm sure she is as well.

Has the vet done a CBC to determine if it is infectious or viral infection?  That would be my recommendation.  If the antibiotics aren't clearing it up, I would think you could be dealing with a Virus rather than an infection.  Zeniquin is a pretty powerful antibiotic.   I also would recommend the Culture & Sensitivity to see what this is sensitive and resistant to.  As for the Lysine I would give it continuously.

Again, thank you everyone. we did the culture and I got the results back that she is positive for herpes as well as mycoplasma. On to another round of antibiotics!

I'm glad you finally know what you're dealing with. That helps a lot. Please know that herpes is a virus and antibiotics doesn't work on viruses so chances are that it will still be there even after another round of antibiotics.

Since she has herpes you should keep her on lysine twice a day indefinitely. It will help keep the virus in check and hopefully prevent new outbreaks. If the cough gets worse you can treat it with Hycodan that you get from your vet. (Get the pills, not the syrup. The syrup is impossible to give a cat and will just end up all over you or the wall )

I hope your kitty gets better soon.

Here's to this round of treatment starting to take effect and seeing your kitten improve.  If the antibiotics can get on top of the Mycoplasma infection and clear it then you should start to see just how bouncy your fur-baby is capable of.  

With the herpes virus together with a Myscoplasma bacterial infection at the moment I think you want to keep her as healthy and strong as you can.  This will help her to over come the bacterial infection together with the antibiotic.   Good nutrition and maybe thinking again about adding probiotics to her diet could really help here.   I'd definitely keep giving her the L Lysine to block the herpes virus too, as hopefully then she will have less for her system to by fighting at one time.  Check with your vet for her size and age what the maximum dose you can give her is if you haven't got this from them already as you don't want her body to have to struggle with processing the medications as well as the infection and virus.

She must be a really strong little kitty to be so playful, and having a good apetite through all this is a real positive - I don't know many people who would have a good apetite and be up for partying if they had all this to contend with:  you have a special little girl here.   

I'm so glad you got the C&S and now know what you're dealing with.  What antibiotic is she on?  For how long will she take it?

With the herpes virus, since it affects the immune system, it makes getting well more difficult.  You may need to do a 2nd c&s test once this round of antibiotics is over.  We found with Hannah, our herpes kitty, that the best thing we could do for her was to work on boosting her nutrition and helping her body be able to fight off infections.  Be sure you're adding L-Lysine to her diet.  Start now with 500mg 2x a day.  The lysine will help the herpes virus from replicating.  You can add it to wet food with a touch of water as it dissolves easily.  We use the powdered variety from NOW or VitaCost.  Switch her to a grain-free food.  The grains in food help the virus replicate, so getting rid of the grains helps.  You also might find that Feliway diffusers help.  Getting her stress level down and keeping it down (even though you don't think she's stressed, she might be) will help the virus stay in check.  Also, you might want to look into a probiotic or nutritional supplement for her to help boost her nutrition.  We give our kitties The Missing Link veterinarian blend.  I like the ingredients in it better than the regular stuff you can find at pet stores. 

Thank you for the suggestions. The antibiotic is doxycycline (she'll be on that for 3 weeks) and I have been giving her 1/4 teaspoon of Viralys twice a day.

I for one will be waiting to see how she does, and hoping this antibiotic plus the other suppliments to boost her system and hold back the herpes have the required effect that you start to see her improve. 

When I adopted my kitten at 3months old from a local animal rescue center, he had an URI as well. i treated him for two weeks on Clavamox.  He was fine after his treatment was finished but the vet did tell me that he could end up getting it again and sometimes it could cause them to have allergies so he might always have issues with these things the rest of his life. Could it be possible that your kitten has allergies?