My kitty is sick again.

[mlerose]

This is so sad. About three weeks ago, my 8 month old kitten caught an upper respiratory infection from a neighbor cat, and we had to take her in to the vet. She was put on a 10-day round of antibiotics. After she finished her round of meds, she seemed nearly 100% again - she just sneezed occasionally.

Well, she's still sneezing - and coughing - and wheezing. It's kind of a scary sound. Over the past couple of days she's been getting worse again. I really don't like to see her feeling so bad; she's had a tough enough time already, what with having her leg amputated at 8 weeks, and then the recent URI.

What I'm wondering is whether she had to have so many antibiotics at a young age (the leg thing) that the course she took recently wasn't as effective, and maybe that's why she got sick again (or really never got better, and is getting worse again?) Or is it normal for a cat to go through a full round of antibiotics and still be sick afterward? And what the heck is that wheezing noise, anyway?

I can't REALLY afford another $150 in vet bills, but I guess I'll do what I have to.

Just worried and needed to vent.

[CrazyCatLady]

Has your kitten been tested for feline leukemia and FIV? If so, how old was she at last testing, and how old is she now? Unfortunately, you can get false negatives for several months after infection (conversely, very small kittens can sometimes clear the infection by the age of six months). If she has one of these or is otherwise immune-compromised, that could cause what you're describing.

Another possibility is that she had an infection that was resistant to the meds she was put on, and either needed a longer course or a different antibiotic. She might also have had multiple organisms causing the original infection, and the antibiotic only took care of one of them. Then again, she might just have feline asthma.

The antibiotics she's taken previously should NOT be causing her to have this sort of problem. And yes, about 95% of the time one 10-day course takes care of it.

[overlyverbose]

I'm not a vet, but is there any way your cat might have feline herpes? My youngest cat was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection three times before I took her to a private vet and they diagnosed her with herpes. She's been on lysine since then (which I can get at Walgreens), and her symptoms, which are very similar to an upper-respiratory infection, have practically vanished, except for the runny eyes.

I originally took her to the Humane Society where I got her. They're wonderful vets there, but they treat mostly emergency cases at my local Humane Society, so with the "less sick" pets they tend to treat them as quickly as possible so they can contend with the more serious cases. When I took her to Bansfield Clinic (usually attached to PetsMarts), the vet recognized her problem immediately and she hasn't been sick since. Also, the vet told me that approximately 80% of pets in pet shelters carry herpes (it's a flu-like virus) and it can be passed very, very easily from cat-to-cat.

Regardless, as CrazyCatLady suggested (and she always has excellent advice regarding pets), you should take your cat to the vet and ask that they test her for FIV and leukemia. You can't be too careful. Best of luck!

[mlerose]

Crazy Cat Lady: Petra is 8 months old now. We adopted her when she was 3 months old from a great shelter here in Denver. She'd had her leg amputated and was already spayed. They tested her for FIV and Feline Leukemia before we even adopted her. So she hasn't had a test in 5 months. She was also given all her shots before we adopted her.

I called her vet and he's going to have her do a two-week round of antibiotics. He said it's possible that the infection she had before just wasn't completely gone with the 10 days of antibiotics that we had her on before. We're going to see how she does with a two-week course and if she's still having problems after that, we'll bring her back in.

And no, Overlyverbose, I don't think she's ever been tested for Feline Herpes. I'll mention that to the vet if we do have to take her in in two weeks.

Thanks for the advice!