Kitten sick for 4 months....

Hi all, and Happy New Year. I posted a few months ago about my kitten who had trouble breathing through her nose.

Well, the vet eventually put her on a combination of antibiotics and antihistamine, which seemed to work fine. But now that we've had "Geddy" for about 4 months, we're getting concerned because her symptoms seem to keep coming back.

In addition, she has two sores on her neck, front and back, that just won't heal. Initially, we thought that they were scratches from our other cats, and we covered them with gauze so that she would stop scratching at them. She was constanly re-opening the wounds. The vet instructed us not to cover the sores, and prescribed a cleansing solution, an antibiotic ointment, and told us to maintain the same antihistamine to reduce any itching so she won't scratch them. The vet also shaved the areas to make it easier for us to apply the treatments.

After just a few days we saw dramatic improvement in the sores - they seemed to be healing VERY fast. Now it is about a week later, and the healing seems to have stopped - they aren't growing any larger, but they aren't shrinking anymore. Also, if we miss giving her the antihistamine, her stuffy, runny nose seems to come back, too.

After four months, two rounds of antibiotic, and antihistamine, I would think she should be well. She is scheduled to be fixed in a few weeks, and we're worried that the clinic won't do it because she may still be sick and have open sores. We need to solve this illness, not just keep wasting money at the vet.

I've heard rumors that white cats (especially with blue eyes, and "Geddy" has one blue, one brownish) are prone to medical problems and possibly suppressed immmune systems. Any truth to this? Anyone have any idea as to what may be ailing my poor kitten? She has excellent energy and demeanor - very friendly, and almost too playful and mischievious. The vet also suggested possible allergies. Any ideas?

You know it's hard to say. Has she been tested for Felv or FIV? Those 2 could be a possiblility. There are also viruses out there that are sort of a mutant virus that does clear up with the "normal" antibiotics. You usually find this in multi cat enviroments such as breeders or cat colonies. Depending on the virus, there are several antibiotics you can try. It seems that some of them tend to hang on until the cats are about a year old and then they are fine. It is also possible allergies could be behind the whole thing. The vet can do a blood test to find out what she is allergic to. Then you can treat them for the allergy properly. With the scabbing, I would imagine it's either because she is allergic to something and once the wound gets deep enough, it can take 2 months or more to heal because they keep opening it up. Steriods will help but only short term. If her immune system is suppressed because of a virus, it would take a long time to heal as well. There havn't been any studies to show that the odd or blue eyed whites have a gentetic problem associated to the coloring. They say the blue eyed whites are usually deaf, but that also is under fire because there are blue eyed whites that come from a good gene pool and they are not deaf.