Hi, I'm new here, and I'm at the end of my rope. Bear with me please, as this is long, but there's some back-story.
I am a lifelong lover of all animals (3 cats, 2 lizards, 1 turtle, and plenty of fish (and a boyfriend!)), and when my long-time friend died at age 11 in November 2009 from a massive heart attack (she had just been diagnosed a few months earlier with a stage 4 heart murmur), it took a few months, but I knew my house was too empty for my boyfriend and I, but also for Domino, our 2 year old cat.
So after months of looking on Petfinder.org, rather than going to the shelter to sift through dozens of cats and feeling terrible that I can't help them all, I picked two cats from two different shelters to come and live with us.
Rosalita is in perfect health, and she and Domino are the best of friends. However, 2 weeks after adopting Butters from a different shelter, he's still not met everyone, because he's still quarantined. This breaks my heart.
When I went to the shelter, it was dirty, cold, and all the cats were sneezing and coughing. I couldn't get away from there soon enough, but I knew this wasn't Butters' fault, and I said I'd take him and care for him anyway. They said he would be treated for a URI, because they are "common" in shelters and harmless. 1) I know this not to be true, because I've adopted from two other shelters in the past two years, and those shelters were clean, and the animals perfectly healthy. 2) I think a URI CAN be harmful if left untreated, and Butters has been at the shelter for 7 months. 7 long months of nothing but sneezing and coughing...that doesn't sound good. They said they don't bother treating the animals unless one gets adopted, and then they treat and quarantine him, fix them, and send them home.
After finishing the antibiotics given to me by the pound, he started to sound better, and I had lots of hope that he would get to meet his new brother and sister. But then he got worse again. After another day of him starting to get stuffy again and more sneezing, I took him to my personal vet, whom I love and trust. She gave him a different antibiotic, treated him for worms, treated him for ear mites, and gave him Revolution. This is all out of my pocket -- and if I didn't have that money, I would have never adopted, so I'm not upset about it, but at the same time, I was told he would be just fine when I adopted him, so I am angry...but realize this is not his fault, and the shelter is seriously lacking funds from the county.
After 5 days, he's still sneezing and stuffy. It's just not going away. He's eating, playing, sleeping with us, purring, using the litterbox, etc. But he's just sneezing up a STORM, and huge boggies (sorry!) are coming out of that tiny little nose (he was seriously tiny when we brought him home -- only 6 pounds, and he's a year old). So I just now called the vet, and she had to call in a prescription at my pharmacy, which won't be available until tomorrow.
But I'm extremely concerned. This is the 3rd antibiotic we've tried. I'm worried that it will never go away, and that he has something very serious. I didn't adopt this cat just to live in my bedroom -- I want him to have the full reign of the house, but I can't let him meet the other cats for fear of them getting sick as well.
Does anyone have any advice? I trust my vet, but I'm also anxious, so I've been looking things up online. She did mention that there's a possibility that it's the Herpes virus, which REALLY scares me. Does anyone have any advice?
I am a lifelong lover of all animals (3 cats, 2 lizards, 1 turtle, and plenty of fish (and a boyfriend!)), and when my long-time friend died at age 11 in November 2009 from a massive heart attack (she had just been diagnosed a few months earlier with a stage 4 heart murmur), it took a few months, but I knew my house was too empty for my boyfriend and I, but also for Domino, our 2 year old cat.
So after months of looking on Petfinder.org, rather than going to the shelter to sift through dozens of cats and feeling terrible that I can't help them all, I picked two cats from two different shelters to come and live with us.
Rosalita is in perfect health, and she and Domino are the best of friends. However, 2 weeks after adopting Butters from a different shelter, he's still not met everyone, because he's still quarantined. This breaks my heart.
When I went to the shelter, it was dirty, cold, and all the cats were sneezing and coughing. I couldn't get away from there soon enough, but I knew this wasn't Butters' fault, and I said I'd take him and care for him anyway. They said he would be treated for a URI, because they are "common" in shelters and harmless. 1) I know this not to be true, because I've adopted from two other shelters in the past two years, and those shelters were clean, and the animals perfectly healthy. 2) I think a URI CAN be harmful if left untreated, and Butters has been at the shelter for 7 months. 7 long months of nothing but sneezing and coughing...that doesn't sound good. They said they don't bother treating the animals unless one gets adopted, and then they treat and quarantine him, fix them, and send them home.
After finishing the antibiotics given to me by the pound, he started to sound better, and I had lots of hope that he would get to meet his new brother and sister. But then he got worse again. After another day of him starting to get stuffy again and more sneezing, I took him to my personal vet, whom I love and trust. She gave him a different antibiotic, treated him for worms, treated him for ear mites, and gave him Revolution. This is all out of my pocket -- and if I didn't have that money, I would have never adopted, so I'm not upset about it, but at the same time, I was told he would be just fine when I adopted him, so I am angry...but realize this is not his fault, and the shelter is seriously lacking funds from the county.
After 5 days, he's still sneezing and stuffy. It's just not going away. He's eating, playing, sleeping with us, purring, using the litterbox, etc. But he's just sneezing up a STORM, and huge boggies (sorry!) are coming out of that tiny little nose (he was seriously tiny when we brought him home -- only 6 pounds, and he's a year old). So I just now called the vet, and she had to call in a prescription at my pharmacy, which won't be available until tomorrow.
But I'm extremely concerned. This is the 3rd antibiotic we've tried. I'm worried that it will never go away, and that he has something very serious. I didn't adopt this cat just to live in my bedroom -- I want him to have the full reign of the house, but I can't let him meet the other cats for fear of them getting sick as well.
Does anyone have any advice? I trust my vet, but I'm also anxious, so I've been looking things up online. She did mention that there's a possibility that it's the Herpes virus, which REALLY scares me. Does anyone have any advice?