Second Upper Respiratory Infection Within a Month?!!

beckbjj

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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.
 

silverpersian

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Sounds like stress. We had a little (human) visitor over the weekend, and the abundance of affection seems to have given our kitty runny eyes and frequent sneezes. He is on lysine and lactoferrin too, and was doing well until the visit.
 

stephanietx

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I also think it's mainly stress and even though you don't think there's stress in your home, your cat will.  Changing schedules, new people coming/going, changing food or litter, and many other things can cause your kitty to stress out.  Like in humans, when stressed, the body begins to show it.  I have a herpes kitty so I understand the need to keep to a schedule and routine to keep the outbreaks to a minimum. We give Lysine and a daily antihistamine to control her herpes, as well as keeping her on a grain-free diet.  One of the things that helps us in our home is to use Feliway diffusers.  I run at least 2 in my home at all times.  The Feliway has a synthetic pheremone in it that helps kitties destress and calm down.  Unfortunately, it doesn't help all kitties, but it does help all 3 of mine.
 

cprcheetah

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Was Gracie tested for Feline Leukemia or FIV?  A kitten can be born with either one of those and that is something she could transmit to your other kitty.  I have a cat who has a chronic respiratory infection he gets infections every 3 or 4 months.  Some cats are just more prone to them.  We had to do a sinus flush on him and now have him on 3 month course of Zithromycin to see if we can't clear it up.  (He is only going to get it every 3 days cause it has a long half life).  Stress can bring out underlying conditions as well.
 
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beckbjj

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Thank you so much for the replies!

One thing I should've mentioned originally, just for informational purposes, Quincy is not acting like he's sick at all.  He's racing around the house, eating, playing, doing all his usual cat things, just like normal.  He just sounds sick (hoarse, swallowing hard, a little audible but not visible nasal congestion).

Grace hasn't been tested for FL or FIV yet, as the first time she went in my vet said she was too small/young (I can't remember which word he used) for it to show up.  She was abandoned by her mother or orphaned and was absolutely tiny, not even 1.5 pounds.  She went in for her second shot 2.5 weeks ago and he didn't do it then.  She goes in for her third appointment on Wednesday, and I will ask if she's big/old enough now.  I'm not sure if his plan was to wait and do the test at the same time as her pre-spay bloodwork, or if she just still wasn't big enough last time, or if it just slipped his mind.  We've always got our kitties from the shelter before, where they tested and provided us the (negative) results, so I don't know a lot about FL.  I've had cats for almost forty years, and I've been fortunate not to be faced with it.  I was kind of under the impression that it transmits via sex or deep bites like from a fight, rather than through casual contact or play, but obviously when Quincy developed UR infection symptoms again so soon, I panicked, and will probably continue to fret until we get results on Grace.  (Hmm...maybe Quincy gets his anxiety problems from his "mom"! ;-) )

Anyway, I called my vet this morning and he's given me a bottle of Doxy (I think actually tablets dissolved in liquid, based on the bottle label wording) for Quincy.  I was relieved I didn't have to bring him in this time (due to having the same symptoms as when I did bring him in just a short time ago), because he really is a stressy kitty who hates car rides and such, plus it was freezing and 30-45 mph wind here today.

On the bright side, when I got home from work this afternoon, Quincy seemed somewhat improved (i.e. less hoarse), and this is without having had any of the Doxy yet.  I read somewhere last night (not here but some other cat site I found via a web search) that if a herpes kitty gets an upper respiratory infection, it is okay to essentially double the maintenance dose of lysine to 1,000 mg (500 mg 2x a day instead of 1x a day) and of lactoferrin to 250 mg (125 mg 2x a day instead of 1x a day) for a while, so I did that last night and this morning, and will continue doing so for the time being.

So anyway, I'm crossing my fingers that Quincy will continue to improve AND that when Grace does get tested she'll be negative! 
 

catspaw66

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On the bright side, when I got home from work this afternoon, Quincy seemed somewhat improved (i.e. less hoarse), and this is without having had any of the Doxy yet.  I read somewhere last night (not here but some other cat site I found via a web search) that if a herpes kitty gets an upper respiratory infection, it is okay to essentially double the maintenance dose of lysine to 1,000 mg (500 mg 2x a day instead of 1x a day) and of lactoferrin to 250 mg (125 mg 2x a day instead of 1x a day) for a while, so I did that last night and this morning, and will continue doing so for the time being.
Right. From what I understand, to keep a level of Lysine in the blood, a herpes kitty needs the 2X a day dose. They metabolize it in 12 hours. I give Silly and Julie 500mg twice a day when they are having flare-ups, and 250mg twice a day for maintenance dosage. It seems that they are having more flare-ups this winter, due to the bad weather.  I think most meds for cats is a twice a day thing. Right now, Silly was having a bad enough flare-up that she is getting Clindamycin.
 
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