kitties with nasal and lung congestion

I am so scared.  I took a cat to the vet several weeks ago for some dental work and she must have brought home something and now 2 of my 4 year old males are really sick.  I took them to the vet today and she gave them both injections of something called Convenia.  I believe she said it was an antibiotic that lasts 2 weeks.  I think the one kitty looks so listless and today he didnt eat much although did eat a little and I put a bunch of warm water on the wet food so it would be like soup. Does anybody have any suggestions of what I could do to help them?  I have a cool mist humidifier going.  Tried putting them in the bathroom with the shower going.  I guess if worst comes to worst I could try my asthma nebulizer on them.  I am so scared they are going to die.  Please pray that Twizzy nd Fuzzles get better soon.  Thanks!! 

Don't use any human medication on them without speaking to a vet first.  

You may need to syringe feed them food and fluid with a needleless syringe.  Did your vet give you nutrical?  You can also try pedialite for fluids.

talkingpeanut said:

 
Don't use any human medication on them without speaking to a vet first.  

You may need to syringe feed them food and fluid with a needleless syringe.  Did your vet give you nutrical?  You can also try pedialite for fluids.

Click to expand...

so far I think they are eating and drinking OK-Today is the first day they have eaten poorly.  They do take warm water mixed with wet food so it is like soup.  I am more worried about their airways staying open.  They just seem so congested.  The one kitty seems really bad.  I do know how to force feed them though if I have to with a syringe.  They are just having so much trouble breathing I am worried they will plug up during the night and quit breathing.  So scary.

I think that's unlikely.  They'll more likely continue to breath out of their mouths rather than their noses, etc.  Continue pushing food and fluids though!

dmk129 said:

 
I am so scared.  I took a cat to the vet several weeks ago for some dental work and she must have brought home something and now 2 of my 4 year old males are really sick.  I took them to the vet today and she gave them both injections of something called Convenia.  I believe she said it was an antibiotic that lasts 2 weeks.  I think the one kitty looks so listless and today he didnt eat much although did eat a little and I put a bunch of warm water on the wet food so it would be like soup. Does anybody have any suggestions of what I could do to help them?  I have a cool mist humidifier going.  Tried putting them in the bathroom with the shower going.  I guess if worst comes to worst I could try my asthma nebulizer on them.  I am so scared they are going to die.  Please pray that Twizzy nd Fuzzles get better soon.  Thanks!! 

Click to expand...

Just to clarify, does the kitty seem to have more breathing difficulty after the shot of convenia received today? 

Convenia can have some side effects, if you think he is reacting adversely to it, please get him to the vet right away. I know of one kitty who had an allergic reaction to it; I'm not trying to scare you, just want you to be aware it can happen. Sending healing vines to your guys.

dmk129 said:

 
I am so scared.  I took a cat to the vet several weeks ago for some dental work and she must have brought home something and now 2 of my 4 year old males are really sick.  I took them to the vet today and she gave them both injections of something called Convenia.  I believe she said it was an antibiotic that lasts 2 weeks.  I think the one kitty looks so listless and today he didnt eat much although did eat a little and I put a bunch of warm water on the wet food so it would be like soup. Does anybody have any suggestions of what I could do to help them?  I have a cool mist humidifier going.  Tried putting them in the bathroom with the shower going.  I guess if worst comes to worst I could try my asthma nebulizer on them.  I am so scared they are going to die.  Please pray that Twizzy nd Fuzzles get better soon.  Thanks!! 

Click to expand...

How long and how often are you doing the steam treatment in the bathroom for and how many times a day?

When I have been through URI's with my cats I was doing the steam treatment for 15-20 minutes 3x a day.  It is good that your kitty's were given antibiotics.  One of my cats does not like to be picked up and carried around so he fought me when I was bringing him into the bathroom.  After the first time he demanded steam treatments on his own until he felt better by going and sitting in the bathroom and meowing at me loudly until I steamed up the bathroom and hung out with him.

catlover73 said:

 
How long and how often are you doing the steam treatment in the bathroom for and how many times a day?

When I have been through URI's with my cats I was doing the steam treatment for 15-20 minutes 3x a day.  It is good that your kitty's were given antibiotics.  One of my cats does not like to be picked up and carried around so he fought me when I was bringing him into the bathroom.  After the first time he demanded steam treatments on his own until he felt better by going and sitting in the bathroom and meowing at me loudly until I steamed up the bathroom and hung out with him.

Click to expand...

I did a steam treatment at about 6 PM tonight and now I have them in the living room with a cool mist humidifier going full blast.  It seems like the smallest boy is having so much trouble.  He goes to sleep for a half hour or so and sounds like he is just bubbling with secretions.  I am so scared the little guy wont make it through the night.  He seems so listless and sick.  I know I have to give the antibiotics a chance but I worry he wont make it until morning.  My husband and I are going to sleep in shifts tonight to watch the sick kitties.  I hope Twizzy makes it.  Fuzzles isnt quite as sick.  Twizzy has had this for 1.5 weeks already and has had ups and downs but today is definitely a down.  My husband keeps insisting it is a virus and has to run its course.  I didnt agree and wanted to get that kitty to the vet on Wednesday already.  So sad.  I am just so worried.  Thanks for the suggestion catlover 73.  I will take him in the bathroom for a steam treatment one more time tonight.  Maybe even twice. 

RuthM said:

 
Just to clarify, does the kitty seem to have more breathing difficulty after the shot of convenia received today? 

Convenia can have some side effects, if you think he is reacting adversely to it, please get him to the vet right away. I know of one kitty who had an allergic reaction to it; I'm not trying to scare you, just want you to be aware it can happen. Sending healing vines to your guys.

Click to expand...

RuthM=No he didnt get the worsened breathing after the Convenia injection today.  He just has had this illness longer than his brother.  On Wed I had a vet appt made for him and he seemed better so I cancelled it and now today he was so very much worse.  I do not think he is having an allergic reaction.  He is just so much sicker than his brother.  I hope both of my boys get better soon.  I am worried Twizzy wont make it through the night.  I am so worried.  Thanks my babies need all the healing vibes they can get right now.  I feel so sad. 

Update: Twizzy seemed to improve through the night.  Today he is up and about and eyes are not so red and he looks "brighter".  He still has nasal congestion but lungs seem less congested.  He is getting the mucus out of his nose better and is not having the bubbling respirations like he did yesterday.  Fuzzles is still coughing and a little congested but doesnt seem as feverish and eyes still look somewhat red but he has had this illness less time than Twizzy has.  I think they are on the mend.  The kitties ate good this am when I gave them a can of wet food mixed with warm water.  Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone and I am hoping the dumpling brothers are through the worst of this illness.  I am so happy I found The Cat Site.  There is so much knowlwdge out there and everyone is so helpful here.  Thanks again!

dmk129 said:

 
Update: Twizzy seemed to improve through the night.  Today he is up and about and eyes are not so red and he looks "brighter".  He still has nasal congestion but lungs seem less congested.  He is getting the mucus out of his nose better and is not having the bubbling respirations like he did yesterday.  Fuzzles is still coughing and a little congested but doesnt seem as feverish and eyes still look somewhat red but he has had this illness less time than Twizzy has.  I think they are on the mend.  The kitties ate good this am when I gave them a can of wet food mixed with warm water.  Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone and I am hoping the dumpling brothers are through the worst of this illness.  I am so happy I found The Cat Site.  There is so much knowlwdge out there and everyone is so helpful here.  Thanks again!

Click to expand...

Oh Thank God for your update on your two guys; I didn't sleep very well I was so worried!  Continuing to send healing vibes for them to completely feel better. And I am so glad it wasn't a reaction to Convenia. I hope you feel better, I bet you didn't sleep well either.

Are you cats eyes a different color than normal? When you mentioned the eyes are red it makes me wonder if they also have an eye infection.  Is their any crust or discharge coming from their eyes?

If they also have an eye infection along with the URI that may require an antibiotic ointment for their eyes.  You may want to call and talk to your vet if you have any concerns about an eye infection.  My cats have had URI's and eye infections at the same time and were always treated with both an eye ointment and an antibiotic.

I am glad to hear your babies are getting better. A bad URI can be really scary to deal with because your babies sound awful when they are sneezing and coughing.

RuthM said:

 
Oh Thank God for your update on your two guys; I didn't sleep very well I was so worried!  Continuing to send healing vibes for them to completely feel better. And I am so glad it wasn't a reaction to Convenia. I hope you feel better, I bet you didn't sleep well either.

Click to expand...

RuthM=Thanks for your kind comments!  I actually didnt sleep very well=but it seemed like Twizzy turned the corner to being quite a bit better around midnight or so.  By 2 am we were able to sleep and brought him into bed with us and he slept on hubbys lap.  Yes-I have heard of bad reactions to Convenia.  It doesnt seem like any sort of bad reaction to the Convenia.  Twizzy was just that sick.  Now I hope Fuzzles wont get so bad because he has had medication too and will start getting better.  Both boys seem to be able to rest more comfortably today.  Twizzy blew out a big string of yellow mucus from his nose so I think he may well have had a secondary infection.  I have learned my lesson-I think with these respiratory illnesses=I think it is better to go to the vet sooner than later.  My husband never thinks they should go to the vet and firmly insists if it is a viral illness it just needs to run its course=but I think kitties do better with treatment earlier rather than waiting it out.  Thats just my opinion on that!!  I think I will go to bed early tonight and sleep a lot better hopefully!

catlover73 said:

 
Are you cats eyes a different color than normal? When you mentioned the eyes are red it makes me wonder if they also have an eye infection.  Is their any crust or discharge coming from their eyes?

If they also have an eye infection along with the URI that may require an antibiotic ointment for their eyes.  You may want to call and talk to your vet if you have any concerns about an eye infection.  My cats have had URI's and eye infections at the same time and were always treated with both an eye ointment and an antibiotic.

I am glad to hear your babies are getting better. A bad URI can be really scary to deal with because your babies sound awful when they are sneezing and coughing.

Click to expand...

Just the rims of their eyes were red.  (They are white cats so pretty noticeable) No-they didnt have any drainage from their eyes.  They just looked like they didnt feel good.  I will keep an eye on it and if the eyes seem to get more irritated and all=then I will have them looked at if they maybe need antibiotic ointment.  So far I guess their eyes just look tired.  Yes=this URI was definitely a bad one and I sure had 2 sick kitties on my hands.  I hope my old 15 year old guy doesnt get this=he is pretty frail.  Twizzies eyes look much brighter today.  He is always the kitty that is always up to something...  I will be glad to have that back!!  I am glad the boys seem somewhat better today.  This whole thing was really frightening. 

I understand when my Casey was a kitten he had a URI and did not show symptoms right away so all 4 of my cats caught it.  My oldest is 9 and she scared the hell out of me when she got sick.  She went from a few sneezes overnight to sounding like she had asthma by the time I got home from work. I had a vet appointment for her later in the evening because I had to wait for hubby to get home from work with the car.  Everyone I knew was not home from work yet and I would not have been able to catch a cab.  Starbuck started coughing so violently I was afraid I was going to lose her before I could get her to the vet.  I had to make an appointment with a new vet's office because my regular vet closed too early.  I called the vet's office back and asked if I should try steaming her.  She was coughing so badly and loudly that the receptionist actually put the vet on the phone with me so she could hear what was going on. The vet agreed with that she needed a steam treatment immediately.  I sat with her in the bathroom for the 35 minutes because she was so badly congested. The steam treatment worked so well that when we actually got to the vets she sounded much better.  The vet still gave her an antibiotic shot based on what she heard earlier and advised me to continue the steam treatment.  It took about a week for her to get better.  Casey's URI was actually pretty mild the main reason I noticed he was sick was the eye discharge that went along with his on and off sneezing.  I knew he had an eye infection to from dealing with the same issue with Starbuck when she was a baby.  Only Casey and Starbuck required vet care.  Sonny and Apollo never got seriously ill so I was able to use the steam treatment to just treat the mild congestion.

Starbuck also put me through the this when she was a kitten.  She was undergoing treatment for ear mites already and got a nasty URI I got woken up by her sneezing and weezing in my face at 3am the day before Christmas Eve.  I did not know anything about URI's back then.  Hubby took her to the vet in the morning while I was at work.  She had a URI, ear infections in both ears and an eye infection in both eyes plus the ear mites we were already treating were not gone yet.  It took two of us to hold down a tiny six week old kitten 2x day for all her medicines.  She hated being medicated.  When she got sick the last time I asked the vet for an injection for the antibiotic.