Stroke of Luck

Or we sure hope so anyhow.  I had chronicled a bit about our newest kitten's URI adventures here.

However, after our vet visit this past Wednesday, we have gone a full 4.5 days and he has only sneezed about 5-6x in that many days. 

We are still awaiting the C & S the vet did (of course they stop sneezing the moment you drop $165 on a test for it..LOL).  We should have the results back mid next week.   She did send us home with another round of Clamavox which we continue to take.

But I'm just amazed and a little flabbergasted that he just seemingly quit.  Even these sneezes are back to a clear fluid.  I will certainly be interested in the test results and can only pray there is no underlying issues, but I'm feeling so much better that it appears we're over whatever hump was causing him such sneezing distress.

I'm almost wondering if it's possible that she actually cleared an obstruction of some sort when she swabbed his nostril for the test?!

Either way -- he has been a totally different kitten.  My DH remarked the 2nd day after the vet visit "who flipped the ON button on this little guy?" 

That's great, Bluebird Gal. Hopefully he's all better very soon! Please keep us updated.

Sounds like your kitty is finally on the mend.  That is great news.

Thanks for the votes of confidence!    We got our results back today and we're all still stumped

I didn't realize (since our vet had just seen Monty so many times now) that she ordered his C & S test STAT.  So she called today with the following info:

1.  Test results were negative & she was shocked since on Wednesday he had yellow'ish mucus coming out when sneezing at her office.

2.  Based on the results, she recruited a friend of hers who is a cat specialist to discuss.

3.  We're going to stop the Clamavox (all antibiotics is what the specialist told her) and that's the only one we're on.

4.  See what happens over the next 7 days ie., if the snots come back with any color.

5.  At that point the specialist recommends a PCR test for herpes.  Even though he hasn't exhibited all of the signs I've read about here that may or may not manifest (goopy eyes, loss of appetite, etc.)  He's had none of those symptoms.  He had a few eye boogers when we first all thought it was a URI but those went away on the first round of Clamavox.

6.  I had already discussed Lysine powder in both their foods.  At the 250mg/day for Monty and 250mg/day for Si.  She informed me at that time that, of course, that was generally used to treat cats with Herpes, but we didn't think "we" might be in that category as everything appeared to be your standard URI.

Monty does continue to sneeze, but it's clear.  And as I mentioned above, the frequency of his sneezes is practically non-existent in comparison.  Including today, he's probably sneezed 10x over a 5.5 days span, and as we've been trying to sort this out, he was sneezing up to 10-15x per day with an audibly stuffy head when you listened up close. 

So although we're happy the results were negative, that just points to something else, or so it seems.

Sometimes, those URIs are just severe and take longer to conquer, especially if the kitty is malnourished and/or in a stressful situation.  Here's hoping Monty continues to improve!

Thank you Stephanie .. I sure hope that it was just a nasty URI and we're over the hump still.

I'm sure there was probably the stress of moving into a new home, but that's been over a month now and I'm not sure - since I haven't owned cats in 20yrs - that he would have been considered malnourished since he weighed in at 6.5lbs two days after we got him home.  Or do you mean malnourished as being on less than wet/quality food?

Malnourished meaning underweight for his age/size.  It's so hard for the cat's body to fight off anything when the cat's body is malnourished. 

stephanietx said:

 
Malnourished meaning underweight for his age/size.  It's so hard for the cat's body to fight off anything when the cat's body is malnourished. 

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Ok .. good to know.  He was 3.5mos old the day we adopted him, two days later he showed signs of a URI and the vet weighed him in that day at 6.5lbs.   I'm sure it's here on the forum, but I really need to know more about approx. sizes for ages

Generally, it's one pound/per month for a kitten.  When we adopted Hannah she was 7 mos old and only weighed 4 lbs and had the nastiest URI I've ever experienced with a kitty.  That's when I got a crash course in nursing sick kitties.

Totally understand & really appreciate all the knowledge I've seen you post to so many here.

Whoa .. a pound per month is the norm?  We keep looking at Monty's feet and they are huge in comparison to what Si's looked like at 8mos old.  And he is just about to turn 5mos old on 1/19 and weighed in at 8lbs this past Wednesday.  He just feels so light picking him up in comparison to our more portly 15mo old at 13lbs.   

Pretty much, but just for kittens.  Tumbles weighed 8 lbs when he was 5 mos old!