Hi everyone! I'm new to the forum, and joined because I could really use some insight on this issue:
My boyfriend and I adopted a 2 year old orange tabby from a PetSmart here on August 31st (her name is Lana). She was housed there for a week, but prior to that she was being handled by the local SPCA, so all of our adoption stuff came though them. When the employee got her out of the cage, we played with her for about an hour, and she was really loving and playful. I instantly fell in love with her, so we decided to take her home with us.
Here's a little backstory first before I go into details about her being sick: We have another cat (1 1/2 years old; male) and we knew to keep them separated before doing the big face to face introduction. So we kept her in the bathroom while our other cat, Bailey, was outside. Originally, we were going to keep them separated for 4-5 days, but my boyfriend felt it'd be okay to let her out after 2 days. She didn't seem to like Bailey, and would hiss at him if he got too close. Bailey was very chill throughout all of this, and seemed merely just curious and wanting to play. (that was the reason we got a second cat, as a companion for him).
Later on, we noticed she would be a little sneezy. We thought maybe she was just irritated by something in the air, or something in the carpet. That sneezing was soon followed by her acting lethargic. We called the vet for advice, and they mentioned to be on the lookout for open mouth breathing and to bring her in if that happened. Sure enough, she started breathing from her mouth, so we took her to the emergency vet office, and they diagnosed it as an Upper Respiratory Infection caused by a virus. They also noted she was dehydrated, gave her a fluid shot, and prescribed her Clavamox (2x a day; 10 days) and Viralys (2x a day; 10 days). We were told to bring her back in if she didn't get better within a week.
Within the past 5 days, she's been experiencing a variety of ups and downs. One of the more notable events was that we found her drooling quite a bit 2 days ago, with an accompanied very slight head jitter. Called the vet about this, and we took her in to get her glucose levels tested, but everything was fine. They suspected it might be something neurological, and told us to wait out the antibiotic treatment. She's very off and on, health-wise, earlier this morning she was fine (energetic and meowing) but now she seems lethargic again, and seems to have a very stuffy nose. She didn't eat her wet food this morning or evening like she usually does, so I gave her some grilled tuna canned food, and she got all of that down. We've even been taking her into the bathroom while the shower was running to try and clear out her nostrils, and get her breathing a bit better.
Long story short, we're not sure if she's actually getting any better, or if this is all what one might expect with a cat dealing with a URI. This is my first time caring for a sick cat, and I'm at a loss and generally feeling like an overly worried mom. So, we were wondering if anyone had any advice, or similar experiences, that might help us feel more secure in her well being right now.
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By the way, she is current on all of her shots, and tested negative for FelV/FIV on 8/21. She was also spayed on 8/23. She's 6 lbs, and kind of a scrawny cat, but we're working on upping her weight more.
My boyfriend and I adopted a 2 year old orange tabby from a PetSmart here on August 31st (her name is Lana). She was housed there for a week, but prior to that she was being handled by the local SPCA, so all of our adoption stuff came though them. When the employee got her out of the cage, we played with her for about an hour, and she was really loving and playful. I instantly fell in love with her, so we decided to take her home with us.
Here's a little backstory first before I go into details about her being sick: We have another cat (1 1/2 years old; male) and we knew to keep them separated before doing the big face to face introduction. So we kept her in the bathroom while our other cat, Bailey, was outside. Originally, we were going to keep them separated for 4-5 days, but my boyfriend felt it'd be okay to let her out after 2 days. She didn't seem to like Bailey, and would hiss at him if he got too close. Bailey was very chill throughout all of this, and seemed merely just curious and wanting to play. (that was the reason we got a second cat, as a companion for him).
Later on, we noticed she would be a little sneezy. We thought maybe she was just irritated by something in the air, or something in the carpet. That sneezing was soon followed by her acting lethargic. We called the vet for advice, and they mentioned to be on the lookout for open mouth breathing and to bring her in if that happened. Sure enough, she started breathing from her mouth, so we took her to the emergency vet office, and they diagnosed it as an Upper Respiratory Infection caused by a virus. They also noted she was dehydrated, gave her a fluid shot, and prescribed her Clavamox (2x a day; 10 days) and Viralys (2x a day; 10 days). We were told to bring her back in if she didn't get better within a week.
Within the past 5 days, she's been experiencing a variety of ups and downs. One of the more notable events was that we found her drooling quite a bit 2 days ago, with an accompanied very slight head jitter. Called the vet about this, and we took her in to get her glucose levels tested, but everything was fine. They suspected it might be something neurological, and told us to wait out the antibiotic treatment. She's very off and on, health-wise, earlier this morning she was fine (energetic and meowing) but now she seems lethargic again, and seems to have a very stuffy nose. She didn't eat her wet food this morning or evening like she usually does, so I gave her some grilled tuna canned food, and she got all of that down. We've even been taking her into the bathroom while the shower was running to try and clear out her nostrils, and get her breathing a bit better.
Long story short, we're not sure if she's actually getting any better, or if this is all what one might expect with a cat dealing with a URI. This is my first time caring for a sick cat, and I'm at a loss and generally feeling like an overly worried mom. So, we were wondering if anyone had any advice, or similar experiences, that might help us feel more secure in her well being right now.
===
By the way, she is current on all of her shots, and tested negative for FelV/FIV on 8/21. She was also spayed on 8/23. She's 6 lbs, and kind of a scrawny cat, but we're working on upping her weight more.
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