Background first...sorry if it seems long, I do tend to overexplain. I have a total of four kitties, but due to their interpersonal problems, they hang out in sets of two. ;-)
I have a big five year old boy named Quincy who has feline herpes mostly controlled with lysine and bovine lactoferrin. "Mostly" because he does sometimes still have one watery eye. He does have some anxiety issues and I'm sure that's why we can't seem to completely control the watery eye, and also why he has a history of crystals and even one blockage.
Quincy hangs out with my almost three month old rescued barn kitten named Grace, who I got a month and a half ago. Grace was de-wormed and de-ear-mited by the vet, and is in the midst of her kitten shots (two doses of one vaccine so far...no rabies or anything else yet). They were kept separated until my vet said it was okay to begin introductions. We then did that, and now they are crazy about each other.
A few weeks after we got Grace, after they were comfortable together, Quincy became hoarse and was swallowing hard, then developed a slight fever and some congestion. The vet gave him a shot of antibiotic and a week's worth of Clavamox, and within a few days of the vet visit, Quincy was back to normal, and has been until this morning.
This morning he sounded very hoarse again, and seemed to be swallowing hard again. I'm waiting a little to see if it's a fluke, but if this continues into tomorrow after work, obviously he'll be going back to the vet.
Grace on the other hand appears to be the healthiest kitten on the planet. I'm so used to seeing kittens with lots of eye discharge, colds, etc. Of course I can't be with her every minute (sadly, have to go to work sometimes), but as far as I know she'll just have an occasional sneeze, which I understand can be a side effect of the vaccination she's been getting, and a very small amount of "sleep" as it's often called at the inner corners of her eyes. The "sleep" is dry and minimal, nothing like what I've seen in sick kittens, and the sneezing is rare. Anyway, the vet said she's too little for blood tests; that she's too young for anything to show up. She does have another booster next week, so maybe then.
But Quincy's possible second UR infection within a month is giving me all kinds of anxiety and I'm envisioning every horror a cat mommy could ever envision.
Is it possible that Quincy has caught something serious from Grace, even though she appears to be completely healthy and even though the vet gave me the go ahead to let her interact with my other cats? I was sort of under the impression that if she had anything that would be dangerous to the other kitties, it would also be apparent in her.
Or is it more likely that he's just being stressy and his herpes is acting up? His eye has been more watery the past day or two than it has been since he got on the lactoferrin at the beginning of this month.
I have a big five year old boy named Quincy who has feline herpes mostly controlled with lysine and bovine lactoferrin. "Mostly" because he does sometimes still have one watery eye. He does have some anxiety issues and I'm sure that's why we can't seem to completely control the watery eye, and also why he has a history of crystals and even one blockage.
Quincy hangs out with my almost three month old rescued barn kitten named Grace, who I got a month and a half ago. Grace was de-wormed and de-ear-mited by the vet, and is in the midst of her kitten shots (two doses of one vaccine so far...no rabies or anything else yet). They were kept separated until my vet said it was okay to begin introductions. We then did that, and now they are crazy about each other.
A few weeks after we got Grace, after they were comfortable together, Quincy became hoarse and was swallowing hard, then developed a slight fever and some congestion. The vet gave him a shot of antibiotic and a week's worth of Clavamox, and within a few days of the vet visit, Quincy was back to normal, and has been until this morning.
This morning he sounded very hoarse again, and seemed to be swallowing hard again. I'm waiting a little to see if it's a fluke, but if this continues into tomorrow after work, obviously he'll be going back to the vet.
Grace on the other hand appears to be the healthiest kitten on the planet. I'm so used to seeing kittens with lots of eye discharge, colds, etc. Of course I can't be with her every minute (sadly, have to go to work sometimes), but as far as I know she'll just have an occasional sneeze, which I understand can be a side effect of the vaccination she's been getting, and a very small amount of "sleep" as it's often called at the inner corners of her eyes. The "sleep" is dry and minimal, nothing like what I've seen in sick kittens, and the sneezing is rare. Anyway, the vet said she's too little for blood tests; that she's too young for anything to show up. She does have another booster next week, so maybe then.
But Quincy's possible second UR infection within a month is giving me all kinds of anxiety and I'm envisioning every horror a cat mommy could ever envision.
Is it possible that Quincy has caught something serious from Grace, even though she appears to be completely healthy and even though the vet gave me the go ahead to let her interact with my other cats? I was sort of under the impression that if she had anything that would be dangerous to the other kitties, it would also be apparent in her.
Or is it more likely that he's just being stressy and his herpes is acting up? His eye has been more watery the past day or two than it has been since he got on the lactoferrin at the beginning of this month.