URI help?

Hey guys! I've never had to nurse a cat with a URI, so I thought I'd turn to the boards for help.

Finn came down with a URI shortly after I adopted him, so he's had it for almost three weeks now. He's only seven months and I understand that URIs can take up to a month to go away, but I'm getting concerned. The first vet I took him too was not great. They prescribed him antibiotic eye drops and told me to come back in a little over a week for his vaccine. I brought him back in, expressed that he was still showing symptoms, and the vet gave him his distemper and said it might "boost his immune system." It did not. Finn had to be rushed to the hospital with a 105 fever, which went down overnight. I've since contacted my former vet about my disappointment, so hopefully he'll be more cautious about this in the future. I have also switched Finn to the animal hospital's vet. They gave him an antibiotic shot and said to keep using the eye ointment. I'm giving it to him 3x a day, but honestly I'm not seeing much improvement. He sneezes from time to time but there's no drainage from his nose. He's energetic and still eats and drinks plenty. Both of his eyes are affected however, and when he's playing they'll be wide open, but otherwise they get squinty and have discharge. The discharge is usually clear, but sometimes there'll be a little bit of green.

Can someone advise me on URIs? I was worried and called the vet this evening and they said that 3 weeks is a little atypical, so I'm bringing him in, but the next opening they have is two weeks from now. They said to call if things become an emergency, but if he's still energetic and eating/drinking, he should be fine waiting. I just will be really worried if his URI hasn't cleared up in 5 weeks since he first got it. Has anyone else had a cat that's had a URI this long? Is there anything else I can do besides the eye ointment and wiping the discharge away?

Thanks so much!

@littlecatt While you're waiting for some first-hand information, there is some basic information in this article:

 [article="29716"]Identifying Common Ailments In Cats Adopted From Animal Shelters And Rescue Groups​[/article]  

and some good into in this thread.

 [thread="311826"]Are Meds Necessary For Uri​[/thread]  

Thank you so much for the links! Great to hear another story -- I know URIs are viral, but I just wish there was something else I could do to help him get better besides help him stay strong to fight it off!

Yes unfortunately it takes time to pass. maybe call the vet you feel comfy with and ask for a different ointment. sometimes one doesn't work then they switch to another one.

you can add more water to drink-add water to wet food and make like a pudding/slurry. you can sit in the bathroom with hot water shower door closed with your cat for 15 min several times a day as we call this a steam job. sometimes the steam helps break up the mucus especially if you are in an area where we are running our air conditioners 24/7 which dries the air but its been dangerously hot that we have no choice.

the injection shot may or may not help. if its virus then it has to run its course and be sure to be on the lookout for bacteria opportunistic infection: yellow/green discharge from nose/eyes etc. is there wheezing or other noisy breathing? Sometimes a course of Zithromax or Doxycycline is needed for stubborn infections.

you can look up lysine. L-Lysine is an amino acid used to stop feline herpes from running rampant. Some people see a big difference. I do. its on amazon from the brand called NOW! and its a 1lb jar-its a powder that is coarse texture-you will want to dissolve it in water before adding to wet food.

the dose is 500mg  a day which is roughly 1/4 teaspoon. some vets recommend 1000mg a day during acute infections of herpes. Herpes is cat cold basically. Sneezing/runny eyes/runny nose type of thing. I use 1/4 teaspoon and add to water then add to tuna-as my senior girl HATES all wet food so this helps keep her sneeze free. Also its water soluble and the body doesn't store it so its needed daily. The mechanism is it scrambles the RNA of the virus so it cant replicate. It doesn't kill the virus just allows it to not be reproduced if this makes sense.

you can try lysine treats-there's a company in Vermont that makes them but none of mine will eat them. I felt its easier to mix in tuna or baby food and feed it this way. A girlfriend of mine uses baby food and syringes it to her cats.

Thank you so much for your advice!

I'll talk to the vet when I go in about getting him on a different antibiotic. His eyes looked a lot clearer this morning before I gave him his ointment -- they might just be watery from having stuff put in them and then I think that's renewed discharge. I'll add more water to his wet food. He drinks a lot of water per day but I'm sure there's no harm in making sure he has extra fluids. He does sometimes gets spots of green discharge from the eyes but none from the nose, I'll keep on the lookout for it and be vigilant with his ointment even after it clears up. No wheezing or noisy breathing or anything! The sneezes are intermittent and not frequent, and there's no mucus when he sneezes. He's still so energetic! Will chase after toys and run from one side of the apartment to the other, loves playing until he's panting. He doesn't understand what it means to be sick!

That's a great idea!! I'm willing to try anything. It also sounds like a great thing to have around in case his URI flares back up. He loves his wet food so I'll try the powder first. Thank you so much, I'd never heard of lysine and I'm excited for anything that'll give him a boost in recovery!

You could ask your vet to prescribe eye drops rather than eye ointment, too. We generally have a lot more luck with the drops than ointment at the shelter, though eye infections can take weeks to clear up.

Definitely, I think this eye ointment isn't doing it for him. I really trust this new vet and I'll ask about changing his medication if his URI is still sticking around when I go in.

I had a cat who got a very stubborn infection in her eye. we were using that triple antibiotic ointment and she still got an eye ulcer. they sent us home with two different eye drops. one for pain-it also dialates the eye-but has pain relieving properties and the other was a different type- was more for stubborn eye infections. her eye looked a bit swollen underneath-the vet showed me how to pull the eyelid down under the eye to check for redness-its kind of like pink eye. they also did a fluorescent stain and that's how they found the ulcer so you may ask for this stain to be done-most vets do this anyways but sometimes if we don't speak up then we don't know it can be done.

is it hot where you are? today in NH its disgusting. very humid and nasty out. AC is RUNNING!

I have a kitty from a kill shelter that gets herpes flare-ups every once in awhile. The lysine works wonders as far as keeping the virus at bay and boosting their immune system. There's a site I use called chewy.com that sells the Duralactin paste. It's in a large syringe-like tube with a dial on it. My cat Blaze doesn't seem to mind me administering that one to him. I think he actually likes the taste which makes it easier to give to cats...,because cats+medicine=big pain for humans. Hope this helps!

I also use L-lysine to great effect - I use it in sardine-flavoured paste form (Enicyil - made in Canada) for my herpes kitty. My Wellington suffers a lot from flare-ups partly because he also has no tear-drop canals, which means that any discharge from his eyes has no place to go except down his face. Being as it appears your cat has no nasal discharge, it might be worth asking your vet to check his tear ducts - it only take a moment to pop some coloured liquid in his eye and see if it comes out through his nose. The ducts may just be blocked, or non-existent, as in my case. They can be unblocked if that is the problem, but at least you will know that part of the discharge is normal fluid and not an infection.

Amazing karma from this site! Today Finn's eyes were completely clear of discharge and were hardly squinty. He's still sneezing from time to time, but those eyes finally clearing up has made me so relieved. I'm guessing he was set back after that awful vaccine reaction and just needed a little more time and TLC to get back on his feet. Thank you all so much for alleviating my concerns, I'm going to have some L-Lysine on hand in case this flares back up.