It's been a rough couple of weeks here at Clarke's kitty condo. I took Sprite and Dolly to the vet's a couple of weeks ago to get ultrasounds for their hearts - they both have heart murmurs. A few days after I brought them home Sprite started coughing. Then Violet, then Pugsley, and Tanya. When I realized it was contagious it was too late because everyone had already been exposed. They all have at least been sneezing and snorting, but Pugsley and Violet have been the worst. Whether it was kennel cough or just some other type of respiratory infection/virus, who knows? Basically, all the kitties had a bad cold, but there for a while I wasn't sure Violet was going to survive it. I took her to the vet last Saturday who gave me enough antibiotic to treat everybody. I stopped at the vet's again midweek to see if there was anything else I could do for her because she just didn't seem to be getting any better and the vet gave me a couple of tablets of prednisone to see if that would open up her airways. She also suggested a vaporizer, which I got (it was going all day both Saturday and Sunday in the bedroom) and a couple of times I even took Violet into the shower with me to get her into the steam and try to unplug her nose. I didn't get her wet - just held her with my back to the water. I knew she was indeed improving when I tried it a third time and she ran away from me - twice! She did seem to enjoy the steam the first couple of times and didn't struggle at all. The first time I did it she just kind of looked around and then at me as if to say, 'are you sure I'm supposed to be in here?' When I just held her, she even nuzzled my chin a couple of times. What concerned me the most was that she just didn't feel like eating. I'd put a bowl of food in front of her and she'd look at me like she didn't know what she was supposed to do with it. Thank goodness, she's finally feeling much better. The other night she started snorting again and there was a long string of green snot hanging from her nose! Hopefully, that was the last of the snot.
Violet and Dolly
Pugsley had a really bad cough and sounded like he had the croup. He also had laryngitis and couldn't meow very well, which was very upsetting for him I'm sure since he's part Siamese and my most vocal cat. When he could meow, it was either two octaves lower than normal or at one point he was about two octaves higher. I told him he sounded like a girl! Unfortunately for me, he's got his 'singing' voice back, but I still hear him coughing once in a while. He's also had more issues with his urinary tract infection. I took HIM to the vet a couple weeks ago and got more meds for him, but since he's had this cold and/or virus, his regular meds just don't seem to be doing the trick. I'm givng him extra anti-inflammatory meds in a 1/4 cup of water to get more moisture into him and give it to him twice a day so am hoping to see him improve as well. I'm also trying to wean him off dry food to canned food. There is always a little extra canned food in a dish by the stove, but I've never seen him even touch it. Now I've taken up the dry food that was available to everyone 24/7 so I have control over how much dry food Pugsley eats while we're in transition. Wish me luck.
Hopefully, calmer seas are just up ahead. Soon!
It certainly sounds like feline kennel cough to me! UGH, poor kitties. We've had a few dogs that got kennel cough despite the vaccine (since the vaccine covers about 4-6 strains and there are 20 different strains, not all so common). Cats are stimulated to eat through their sense of smell so it's not so strange that they don't want to eat.
ReplyDeleteHere's to hoping everything gets back on track soon!