Upper respiratory help until vet tommorow

Hi guys, my older guy (eleven years) has a history of uri. He started symptoms last night. Vets are closed until tommorow. He is wheezing on and off pretty bad and has coughed up clear mucus. No discharge from nose or eyes yet. When he is wheezing it sounds pretty scary he just did it and it lasted five minutes. He has calmed down for now. What can I do if anything until tommorow morning? I have a humidifier should I put him in the spare room with it and leave it running? Any help would be appreciated

Cat dad72 said:

Hi guys, my older guy (eleven years) has a history of uri. He started symptoms last night. Vets are closed until tommorow. He is wheezing on and off pretty bad and has coughed up clear mucus. No discharge from nose or eyes yet. When he is wheezing it sounds pretty scary he just did it and it lasted five minutes. He has calmed down for now. What can I do if anything until tommorow morning? I have a humidifier should I put him in the spare room with it and leave it running? Any help would be appreciated

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Several times during the day go to the bathroom and turn on the shower hot water only and get the room super steamy, then take him in there and shut the shower off, close the door, for 15 minutes, which will loosen all of the mucous from chest/nose/throat and will really help alleviate symptoms temporarily.

Wheezing or congestion?  Wheezing is not normal in URI's, did your vet ever rule out asthma, lung infections, bronchitis?  Has kitty ever had pneumonia as a result of a URI? 

I

catwoman707 said:

Several times during the day go to the bathroom and turn on the shower hot water only and get the room super steamy, then take him in there and shut the shower off, close the door, for 15 minutes, which will loosen all of the mucous from chest/nose/throat and will really help alleviate symptoms temporarily.

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I did try that but the sound of the shower scared him so bad he urinated on the floor. He did eat whitch is good and he is sleeping now. He starts coughing/wheezing when he gets up. Just trying to keep him relaxed I don't think there is much more I can do until tommorow. This is the worse flare up he has had

Eating and drinking is great so no need to worry there.

If the shower scares him just shut it off before putting him in there.

Maybe stay with him too, that will help comfort him.

cat-tech said:

Wheezing or congestion?  Wheezing is not normal in URI's, did your vet ever rule out asthma, lung infections, bronchitis?  Has kitty ever had pneumonia as a result of a URI? 

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he was diagnosed with uri last year vet thought it was stress related from moving into a new home. It took him three trips to the vet to get it under control. He has done great for the last 9 monthes wich was the last time he was in for this. He has had minor flare ups with a weepy eye about one every other month but will go away the next day. As far as when he is breathing it reminds me of when a person has bronchitis and you can here the crap in there lungs. He will do that and cough up clear phlem. I am guessing the vet will stick him on antibiotics and I do remember last year he gave him a shot to clear the mucus in his lungs. It's just never been this bad before and it happened on the weekend when the vet is closed

It could be bronchitis, and I'd strongly recommend getting him seen first thing tomorrow.  At the exam, and if bronchitis is diagnosed, ask the vet if there is anything else to be looking for that is causing these flareups - be prepared for an xray, may need another xray in 4 weeks to compare for any significant changes, this is good practice to ensure that nothing else is going on undetected and for comparison should another episode occur.

In the meantime, keep him rested, offer small but frequent meals/water, no activity and keep stress reduced.  If he expels excessive mucous or blood and has difficulty breathing, emergency vet right away.

Ths

cat-tech said:

It could be bronchitis, and I'd strongly recommend getting him seen first thing tomorrow.  At the exam, and if bronchitis is diagnosed, ask the vet if there is anything else to be looking for that is causing these flareups - be prepared for an xray, may need another xray in 4 weeks to compare for any significant changes, this is good practice to ensure that nothing else is going on undetected and for comparison should another episode occur.

In the meantime, keep him rested, offer small but frequent meals/water, no activity and keep stress reduced.  If he expels excessive mucous or blood and has difficulty breathing, emergency vet right away.

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thank you, will update after his visit to the vet.

A

Cat dad72 said:

Ths
thank you, will update after his visit to the vet.

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we are at the vet now and they are doing a x-Ray keeping my fingers crossed

Just got back from the vet, chest X-Ray did show he was congested. He was a little dehydrated so the have him fluids. And was given a cortisone injection. Said if symptoms did not improve they could do tests for lung worm,heart worm. I could be wrong but it just seems they use cortisone for a quick fix. They didn't really diagnose him with anything it was almost like give him this and call us if it doesn't work. I just have a feeling it's going to work for awhile and I will go back and they will want to give him another shot. Any thoughts?

Well for one thing, vet probably did not want to stress him at this point with additional diagnostics - the xray was confirmative for congestion - and it is a common approach to use an anti-inflammatory to reduce inflammation (I'll bet his bronchial tubes were inflamed).  I am surprised however, that the vet did not prescribe antibiotics again.  Do monitor him closely in the next couple days and if this doesn't seem to be resolving, alert your vet and get antibiotics and/or consider additional testing as they mentioned.

Did the vet say his heart function was ok?

When he was being treated 9 months ago, what were your vet's comments then, did they want to test for anything other than feline herpesvirus?  (i.e., fungal disease, swabs or cultures to isolate particular bacterial infections, etc) - that might be the next step, or chronic bronchitis caused by the URI's.

You do have the option of a second opinion with a new vet. 

Just to rule out the obvious, keep dust in home to the barest minimum, if you smoke, don't smoke in the home, check furnace filters regularly, make sure no mold in the house, etc.

Thanks f

cat-tech said:

Well for one thing, vet probably did not want to stress him at this point with additional diagnostics - the xray was confirmative for congestion - and it is a common approach to use an anti-inflammatory to reduce inflammation (I'll bet his bronchial tubes were inflamed).  I am surprised however, that the vet did not prescribe antibiotics again.  Do monitor him closely in the next couple days and if this doesn't seem to be resolving, alert your vet and get antibiotics and/or consider additional testing as they mentioned.

Did the vet say his heart function was ok?

When he was being treated 9 months ago, what were your vet's comments then, did they want to test for anything other than feline herpesvirus?  (i.e., fungal disease, swabs or cultures to isolate particular bacterial infections, etc) - that might be the next step, or chronic bronchitis caused by the URI's.

You do have the option of a second opinion with a new vet. 

Just to rule out the obvious, keep dust in home to the barest minimum, if you smoke, don't smoke in the home, check furnace filters regularly, make sure no mold in the house, etc.

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thanks for the reply, i did ask what he had been tested for when I rescued him and he was tested for fiv and feline leukemia. And when he started his flare ups a little over a year ago he was diagnosed with feline herpes and was given a ointment for his eye and I believe clavamox but don't quote me. Also was given a cortisone shot on one of those visits when symptoms started back up. I hope I didn't come off as my vet doesn't know what they are doing, I just hear negative things on cortisone and have a feeling when it wears off I am gonna be right back where I started.

Steroids can be useful, and they can be detrimental to some health conditions.  It's the lesser of the evils one must take into consideration depending on the severity. 

I suspect your vet and you agreed to try a conservative approach at this point, and thus his request for a recheck if kitty isn't improving - for additional testing.  Additional testing isn't a bad idea, since there could be a bacterial infection going on undetected that keeps rearing up.  A swab sample and possibly culture might be one step you could talk to your vet about. 

If he has herpes, managing that should help reduce the flare ups.  Try to transition to a grain-free diet for him and keep stress to a minimum in your home. Keep your schedule and routine. Cats are creatures of habit and routine, so keeping one is really good practice for your kitty. Feliway diffusers might help decrease overall stress and help your kitty somewhat.  Additionally, adding lysine to his diet might help. It doesn't help all kitties and it can take about a month to see any change or improvement. I give my herpes girl lysine mixed into her wet food.  Since it's an amino acid, it's secreted out of the body when the kitty urinates. Dosing twice a day helps keep the amino acid in the system.

If you notice these flare ups happening when the seasons change, you can ask your vet about a daily antihistamine to give him during seasonal transitions to reduce inflammation and nasal and eye irritations.  This might help ward off another flare up. 

On steroids and herpes kitties, I avoid them unless it's absolutely necessary.  I have given them before and probably will again, but I prefer not to use them if it can be avoided.  Steroids suppress the immune system and with the chronic condition, your kitty's immune system is already compromised. So, work on improving the overall health of your kitty and you'll be one step ahead of things.

Lastly, did the vet see anything on the x-rays that would indicated asthma?  That could also cause a "croupy" sound in your kitty, along with coughing at times.

Thanks for the advise everyone, I will say he is acting much better already. I guess it's going to be a wait and see and if the symptoms start up again I will have them look into testing for things we haven't done yet

An update on grey
I brought him back to the vet yesterday as he was still showing symptoms. Saw a different vet that has seen grey in the past for his uri. He doesn't see anything in the x-ray pointing to asthma so that is good, also ruled out lung and heart worm. He thinks it is still uri. Gave him a shot of antibiotics and said at this point he has given him all the meds he could and let it run it's course. He will be on call this weekend so if something major happens I can get ahold of him. He mentioned that he could feel that his throat is swollen and that was casing him to gag, also heard some congestion in lungs but didn't think it was severe. Grey does seem to have a good appitite, he comes out to the kitchen to eat but then he goes back to the bedroom and for the most part and sleeps so I know he's still not feeling great. I am interested in hearing more about Lysine seems to be a lot of conflicting reviews on it actually doing anything but if there isn't any bad side effects it's worth a shot