Managing Chronic Upper Respiratory Infections in senior cat: currently has a bad URI, on antibiotics

My 16 year old cat has been plagued by respiratory issues since he was a kitten.  It started with what the vet deemed "seasonal allergies"(which he does indeed have), he's been diagnosed with very mild asthma, specialists/vets have theorized that he has "chronic rhinitis, with a viral component - most likely calicivirus," and previous symptoms cleared up on their own/did not ever respond to antibiotics.  The last roughly 3 years, however, he's had much worse URIs, some that clearly involved a secondary bacterial infection(yellow mucus discharge).  The ones he had last year actually responded to antibiotics.  He was on Clavamox for about 7 weeks straight several months ago.  He was then(this last time, a few months ago) on Clavamox again for three weeks before Doxycycline was added.  His last round of Doxycycline ended on Thanksgiving.  The congestion has slowly returned and last night it turned into a full blow URI(very congested, coughing).

We are in the process of relocating and I had his Doxycycline script sent to his new location(11+ hours from here) as it needs to be kept refrigerated.  Late last night, his symptoms worsened greatly so I started him on Clavamox(I had an unmixed bottle leftover).  I'm waiting to hear from his local vet.  I'm running a humidifier for him but he wants to be in front of the heat vent, where dry, hot air is blowing on his face.  I'm very concerned about moving him in this state & won't until he's shown improvement.  He IS eating still, and has drank water(not usual for him as he's fed canned/raw) at least once.

In between the last Clavamox doses, I requested a culture/sensitivity test.  He's unable to go under anesthesia so other forms of testing(rhinoscopy, bronchial wash) are not possible.  The vet swabbed his throat, nose, gums, and so on.  The results were negative for everything but Mycoplasma, which I thought explained why it had responded to Clavamox only to return.  That's when Doxycycline was brought into the mix.  He did well on it, save for diarrhea(he's still had bouts of it despite probiotics:/), but his symptoms returned even after having been on it for 6 weeks.

So he's on Clavamox as of late last night and the Doxycycline will be added once we've relocated.  I'm very concerned about things like antibiotic resistance and the general toll that antibiotics take on a cats immune system/overall health.  I've tried various supplements(everything under the sun) to try and prevent these infections.  This last time around I was trying Olive Leaf Extract and Colloidal Silver, then things got much worse yesterday. 

Any advice or information is greatly appreciated.  I'm worried sick(literally) about him right now, and worried about his future with all of the antibiotic usage.

I'm very sorry your kitty is having URI problems.  My cat had what we thought was calicivirus but it turned out to be Herpes virus and now he has a chronic URI.  He sneezes but it's being managed.  I use a homeopathic remedy called Sinu-Rite (from Pet Alive) but I've heard that L-lysine is great for managing chronic URI.  I haven't used it, though, so maybe you can do some research here on other threads.  You can buy L-lysine at a health food store like Sprouts or Whole Foods.

Does anyone else have experience with URIs and has tried L-lysine?

Poor thing! You must be so stressed. The only small suggestion I have is to try L-Lysine if you haven't already? At the very least it doesn't hurt. It's just an amino acid that reduces replication of the Herpes virus, which often causes URI's, although that's not what he's been diagnosed with. But it's possible he has that in his system too, just because many cats do and a daily dose (I believe you can safely add anywhere from 250 - 1000 mg to his food a day) can help reduce the symptoms if the virus is currently active or keep the virus latent if it is not.

Hey Molly92, 

Looks like we posted at the same time! :-)   I, too, suggested L-lysine.

Josiegirl said:

 
Hey Molly92, 

Looks like we posted at the same time! :-)   I, too, suggested L-lysine.

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Yep! I have used it just for daily maintenance, but I've heard from lots of cat owners that it helps with URI's. The herpes virus usually L-arginine when building new viruses to infect other cells, but L-lysine is very similar to arginine and if there is a lot more lysine floating around than arginine, lysine is used to build the virus, which cripples it. It's also used to reduce cold sores in people because they're caused by the same virus, so you can buy an identical version for people and it's usually much cheaper than cat brands.

Glad you posted that.  I used to get really bad cold sores around my mouth and took prescription Valtrex but it wasn't effective for very long.  I started taking L-lysine for it a few years ago and, wow, it really works.  I rarely get cold sores now and when I do feel a tingle on my lips I take it right away.  NO cold sore.

But I've never tried it with my kitty.  Maybe I should.  I have the 500mg powder capsules so I suppose I could give 1/2 twice a day.  Can they taste it in their food?

Josiegirl said:

 
Glad you posted that.  I used to get really bad cold sores around my mouth and took prescription Valtrex but it wasn't effective for very long.  I started taking L-lysine for it a few years ago and, wow, it really works.  I rarely get cold sores now and when I do feel a tingle on my lips I take it right away.  NO cold sore.

But I've never tried it with my kitty.  Maybe I should.  I have the 500mg powder capsules so I suppose I could give 1/2 twice a day.  Can they taste it in their food?

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No, I don't think they can. At the shelter I used to work at we sprinkled some on everyone's dry food and they all ate it just fine!