Congested Kitten

I adopted my 7 month old kitten 2 1/2 months ago. She has been treated for an URI 4 times already and I am about to start another round of antibiotics in the next few days. She was treated once before I got, when she was first brought to her foster home, and 3 times since I've had her. The congestion clears up, but keeps coming back. Plus, she has this horrible hacking cough with no hairballs. I've read on this site that it could be asthma. That certainly sounds a lot like her problem. I've had her dewormed. Her ears have been washed out 3 times by the vet and she's been treated for ear mites, but yet they continue to collect debris. I have to clean them daily! Other than these problems, she's absolutely fabulous! She acts, eats and voids normally. She runs around like a maniac! She's very curious and wants to watch everything I do! Does anyone have any insight on her health issues? Any input would be appreciated!

I am glad you are continuing to follow-up with your vet.  Have you discussed asthma as being a possible issue with your vet?  If not that would be a great next step. Ear mites can be very stubborn.  Has the vet given you anything to use for follow-up care at home regarding the ear mites.  One of my cats had ear mites and an ear infection when she was a kitten and we were given ear drops for the infection and a wash to clean her ears out with daily at home.  This may be something else to communicate with your vet about.

One thing you can try that may help with the URI in addition to the antibiotics is to create a steam room in your bathroom for her.  Turn on the shower and get the water as hot as you can.  Sit with you kitten in the steamy bathroom for about 20 minutes 2-3 times a day.  This may help clear out the congestion and may even help with her cough.  One of my adult cats had a really bad URI with the same cough you are describing.  I came home from work to her being sick out of nowhere and coughing/sneezing her head off.  I called the vet's office and made an appointment to take her in that night but could not get there right away.  She sounded so bad she scared the receptionist when I was making the appointment and since I had to wait a few hours for transportation the vet actually talked to me on the phone.  I asked the vet if I could go ahead and put her in the steam room to help make her more comfortable and the vet agreed with me. I stayed in the bathroom with my cat for 20 minutes and the coughing/sneezing actually stopped.  They still treated her for a URI because one of other cats was currently being treated for a URI.  This may help you figure out if this is actually asthma or just a symptom of a bad URI.  My cat's cough never came back after the steam treatment. 

Kittens tend to hide illness really well  it is great that you are following up with your vet as needed.  I adopted a 7 week old kitten last year that came home with a URI and did not even have symptoms for a week.  By the time I knew he had the URI he had shared it with my other 3 cats.  Him and my oldest cat required vet care and antibiotics.  My other two cats had a very mild case and I was able to clear up their URI's in a few days with the steam treatments.  When my oldest cat was six weeks old she had a bad URI  and ear mites with an ear infection.  The ear infection and the URI required multiple rounds of different antibiotics.  If your vet is only trying one antibiotic it may be a good idea to ask if there is another antibiotic you should try.  I don't remember what we used for Starbuck since that was almost 9 years ago.

Thank you! This is GREAT advice! My vet is going to try a different antibiotic for this round I will starting soon. I have not tried steaming her, but I will go ahead and try that. Hopefully it will help her as much as it helped your cat!

As for the ear mites, I've had ear drops in the past. I ran out and didn't ask for more because I thought the mites were actually cleared up. After the last time the vet washed out her ears they looked great for a couple of weeks! But now I've noticed they've started to collect gunk again. So I will be contacting the vet for more drops. Poor thing has had problems pretty much all her life. She's only 7 months and she's been on antibiotics and ear drops since she came to foster care!

I would suggest that before you try another antibiotic, that you first ask the vet to do a culture and sensitivity test.  The culture will tell the vet what's going on (viral or bacterial) and the sensitivity test will tell him which med will best treat it.  Many years ago, I went through an 8 month roller coaster with my kitty where she would develop an URI, get meds, get better, stop meds, and then get sick again.  We went through all kinds of antibiotics, but the runny eyes, stuffy nose, excessive and repetitive sneezing with dischage kept coming back and each time was worse than the time before. Finally a new vet suggested the C&S test and we figured out what was going on.  Two rounds of antibiotics and she's been doing great ever since!

I would also ask the vet to run a PCR URD test to check for herpes as well as a few other upper respiratory issues (hence the URD part of the name of the test).  That will help you know if she's got feline herpes or some other secondary infection/condition.  If she does have herpes, it's not the end of the world and extremely easy to manage.

To help with the stuffiness, run a vaporizer 24/7 near where she spends most of her time napping.  Or, as another poster suggested, do the spa treatments.  I've had great success with both.  One other thing you can try is to do plain saline drops in her nose.  I use the plain saline Little Remedies for Little Noses saline drops.  Since she's so stuffy, I'd do one drop in each nostril twice a day.  The other thing you could do is ask the vet for eye drops such as Gentamicin or Terramicin and use those in her nose.  We do this for our herpes girl when her sneezes get really bad.  Works great for her.