About a year ago, 12-ish-year old Albus and 9-year-old Luna started having watery eyes (always clear, slightly brown-tinted fluid), sneezing fits, and were sounding generally congested. Albus was worse than Luna, and as this point, her symptoms are mostly gone. Albus's symptoms persist, though. Watery eyes, sneezing (including that hacking sneeze where it's almost a "reverse" sneeze, inhaling instead of exhaling), occasionally congested sounding breathing.
The vet diagnosed them with feline herpes, told us to try giving them lysine. We got some of the powdered stuff and were sprinkling it on their wet food for awhile, but we weren't able to tell if either of them was getting enough because they'd switch bowls back and forth and sometimes wouldn't finish. By this time, Luna's symptoms were basically gone, so we switched to treats with lysine and I think I was giving Albus enough treats to equal 800-1000mg of lysine. That helped a little, but now he's mostly uninterested in the treats.
His eyes aren't as bad as they used to be and the sneezing is about 50% better, but many times his breathing and even purring sound congested. It also seems like he's coughing a lot, like he's trying to get up a hairball. Sometimes he gets it up, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes I give him some hairball goo and then he gets it up.
Something I've noticed that I'm very concerned with is that Albus has gotten grouchier over the past few months. He's always been the sweetest cat to everyone. Never aggressive to anyone, always friendly to Luna and to most humans. But for the past 3-4 months, he's growling at Luna once in awhile, he growls at us sometimes when we're petting him. A couple weeks ago, he growled at and bit (!!!- not hard, but still!!!) a friend who'd never met him. I wasn't home at the time, but my husband was there and he thought it was a possibility that, due to the friend's inexperience with cats, that she wasn't reading his cues and she may have been petting him too long. In the past, I think he would have just gotten up and left before it got to that point, though.
I'm wondering if he might be a little arthritic or something because the other time he's been growling is when I try to bring him upstairs and put him on our bed when I'm going to bed. In fact, for the most part, he's stopped sleeping in bed with us all the time. This is really unusual. He used to LOVE sleeping on our bed.
Either way, unless it's just normal old man grumpiness setting in, I'm just worried that he's in pain from something. Other than the bed thing, he doesn't seem to be arthritic or anything. A little slower, but can still move pretty fast when he wants to and get up where he wants to go.
The vet diagnosed them with feline herpes, told us to try giving them lysine. We got some of the powdered stuff and were sprinkling it on their wet food for awhile, but we weren't able to tell if either of them was getting enough because they'd switch bowls back and forth and sometimes wouldn't finish. By this time, Luna's symptoms were basically gone, so we switched to treats with lysine and I think I was giving Albus enough treats to equal 800-1000mg of lysine. That helped a little, but now he's mostly uninterested in the treats.
His eyes aren't as bad as they used to be and the sneezing is about 50% better, but many times his breathing and even purring sound congested. It also seems like he's coughing a lot, like he's trying to get up a hairball. Sometimes he gets it up, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes I give him some hairball goo and then he gets it up.
Something I've noticed that I'm very concerned with is that Albus has gotten grouchier over the past few months. He's always been the sweetest cat to everyone. Never aggressive to anyone, always friendly to Luna and to most humans. But for the past 3-4 months, he's growling at Luna once in awhile, he growls at us sometimes when we're petting him. A couple weeks ago, he growled at and bit (!!!- not hard, but still!!!) a friend who'd never met him. I wasn't home at the time, but my husband was there and he thought it was a possibility that, due to the friend's inexperience with cats, that she wasn't reading his cues and she may have been petting him too long. In the past, I think he would have just gotten up and left before it got to that point, though.
I'm wondering if he might be a little arthritic or something because the other time he's been growling is when I try to bring him upstairs and put him on our bed when I'm going to bed. In fact, for the most part, he's stopped sleeping in bed with us all the time. This is really unusual. He used to LOVE sleeping on our bed.
Either way, unless it's just normal old man grumpiness setting in, I'm just worried that he's in pain from something. Other than the bed thing, he doesn't seem to be arthritic or anything. A little slower, but can still move pretty fast when he wants to and get up where he wants to go.
