Hi everyone...
I'm new here but I wanted to share this with you just in case you end up with a sick kitten like I did.
My kitten Smokey came down with a URI that he caught from another kitten I had. The other kitten was on an antibiotic for secondary infections and he was well within 4 days. Smokey on the other hand became very ill. Luckly, I already had antibiotics here for Bandit, so when Smokey began sneezing and looking like he had a runny nose and eyes late one Sat night... I decided to start him on it as well. I was going to take him into the vet Monday first thing but didn't want any time to go by without him being started on the antibiotics.
Well, by Monday he was really sick. The vet told me he had a severe URI and that I did a good thing getting him started on the antibiotics. Smokey was just 10 weeks old at the time and he was not handling the URI very well. Anyways, here is how we treated him.
Each day I took him into the vet for subcutaneous fluids so that he wouldnt dehydrate. He stopped drinking. When he started to breathe through his mouth I started to panic. He then stopped eating too. I would sit in a hot steamy bathroom 4x a day for 15 mins each time so that I could get his nose to clear up a bit and keep his airways from becomming dry. He would eat a little smelly can food then. I got him some high protein/high water food from vet. He ended up going back in and had a chest xray done to rule out a lung infection because he started coughing next... we also put him on the z-pack just to cover our bases because he was in such bad shape and any secondary infection may have killed him. Another thing my vet said to do was give him 1/2 cc of Afrin nose spray up the nose once a day. Some people thought this would be bad, as it turned out it was SMART!!! It helped open him up and make him breathe easier. I would also do plain saline at bedtime in his nose. Another thing i did was put Vicks Vapor rub on a piece of clothe and lay it near him while he was in my vision. That helped too. DONT let any cats lick it though or touch it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only use the Afrin ONCE a day if you do use it and switch nostrals each time. 1/2 cc ONLY!!!!! Use childrens strength if you can find it. The doctor told us adult afrin was fine too. Reg. Strength and nothing fancy. ONLY use it if you need to and only use AFRIN, no other brand.
As it turned out Smokey recovered !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thanked our vet for his unusual ideas and his constant support.
By the way, we took Smokey in for fluids daily for 3 days just to be sure he was well hydraited. Forcing fluids or food is harder on them. Just take them in for the fluids. It dont cost much. Anyways, hope this helps someone out here. I know some people may say bad things about the methods we used, just keep in mind that these ideas did work and smokey did get well. By the way, even some vets do not approve of Afrin. However, ours swears by it and it WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just remember to only use it if you HAVE to.
Hope this helps.
I'm new here but I wanted to share this with you just in case you end up with a sick kitten like I did.
My kitten Smokey came down with a URI that he caught from another kitten I had. The other kitten was on an antibiotic for secondary infections and he was well within 4 days. Smokey on the other hand became very ill. Luckly, I already had antibiotics here for Bandit, so when Smokey began sneezing and looking like he had a runny nose and eyes late one Sat night... I decided to start him on it as well. I was going to take him into the vet Monday first thing but didn't want any time to go by without him being started on the antibiotics.
Well, by Monday he was really sick. The vet told me he had a severe URI and that I did a good thing getting him started on the antibiotics. Smokey was just 10 weeks old at the time and he was not handling the URI very well. Anyways, here is how we treated him.
Each day I took him into the vet for subcutaneous fluids so that he wouldnt dehydrate. He stopped drinking. When he started to breathe through his mouth I started to panic. He then stopped eating too. I would sit in a hot steamy bathroom 4x a day for 15 mins each time so that I could get his nose to clear up a bit and keep his airways from becomming dry. He would eat a little smelly can food then. I got him some high protein/high water food from vet. He ended up going back in and had a chest xray done to rule out a lung infection because he started coughing next... we also put him on the z-pack just to cover our bases because he was in such bad shape and any secondary infection may have killed him. Another thing my vet said to do was give him 1/2 cc of Afrin nose spray up the nose once a day. Some people thought this would be bad, as it turned out it was SMART!!! It helped open him up and make him breathe easier. I would also do plain saline at bedtime in his nose. Another thing i did was put Vicks Vapor rub on a piece of clothe and lay it near him while he was in my vision. That helped too. DONT let any cats lick it though or touch it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only use the Afrin ONCE a day if you do use it and switch nostrals each time. 1/2 cc ONLY!!!!! Use childrens strength if you can find it. The doctor told us adult afrin was fine too. Reg. Strength and nothing fancy. ONLY use it if you need to and only use AFRIN, no other brand.
As it turned out Smokey recovered !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thanked our vet for his unusual ideas and his constant support.
By the way, we took Smokey in for fluids daily for 3 days just to be sure he was well hydraited. Forcing fluids or food is harder on them. Just take them in for the fluids. It dont cost much. Anyways, hope this helps someone out here. I know some people may say bad things about the methods we used, just keep in mind that these ideas did work and smokey did get well. By the way, even some vets do not approve of Afrin. However, ours swears by it and it WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just remember to only use it if you HAVE to.
Hope this helps.
