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- Jun 11, 2016
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Hi everyone, I am looking for some advice on what to do for my 7 yo male cat. Unfortunately, when he was a kitten, he caught something from my roommate's cat and got very sick. The vet said he had "cat herpes" and gave him a month of antibiotics. Unfortunately, he developed litter box problems during that time, probably due to pain using the litter box, and will often go #2 outside the box still to this day. I am not sure if there is a texture preference going on, or if perhaps he still is having digestion problems. My concern is that I believe what he was infected with is Bartonella (AKA cat scratch disease), and that he is still a carrier of it. Years ago he bit my mom, and she developed papules near the bite along with a mess of symptoms and ended up needing to be treated for months with antibiotics that target Bartonella. He does not outwardly show many symptoms, other than occasionally getting a runny nose, possibly his ears may itch sometimes, and lately he has gained weight (now 2lbs overweight and extremely resistant to diets) and is possibly a little more lethargic. He does lie down a lot more when I play with him.
I did bring him to a vet, who told me that he believes he probably has Bartonella, since we've had previous issues. He does not know how to treat him for that though, but offered to do a few weeks of Azithromycin or Doxycycline, or colloidal silver which he confessed he has never done before. He told me that my cat seems in very good health to him though aside from being overweight, and would prefer not to treat with anything. He would rather that I declaw him if getting infected with Bartonella is what I'm worried about. I definitely am worried about getting re-infected, as I am treating Bartonella in myself right now along with other tick-bourne diseases. But I am also worried about my cat. I know firsthand how crappy it is living with this disease, and knowing he has it as well, I can't help but wonder if he is dealing with some harmful symptoms.
In humans, long-term, combination antibiotics are used since Bartonella is very adaptive to treatments. It does not at all seem common to do that for cats though. I am wondering if anyone has treated their cat for this particular disease and had success? Thanks very much for your time!
-Michelle
I did bring him to a vet, who told me that he believes he probably has Bartonella, since we've had previous issues. He does not know how to treat him for that though, but offered to do a few weeks of Azithromycin or Doxycycline, or colloidal silver which he confessed he has never done before. He told me that my cat seems in very good health to him though aside from being overweight, and would prefer not to treat with anything. He would rather that I declaw him if getting infected with Bartonella is what I'm worried about. I definitely am worried about getting re-infected, as I am treating Bartonella in myself right now along with other tick-bourne diseases. But I am also worried about my cat. I know firsthand how crappy it is living with this disease, and knowing he has it as well, I can't help but wonder if he is dealing with some harmful symptoms.
In humans, long-term, combination antibiotics are used since Bartonella is very adaptive to treatments. It does not at all seem common to do that for cats though. I am wondering if anyone has treated their cat for this particular disease and had success? Thanks very much for your time!
-Michelle
