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originally one of my cats was wheezing, sneezing and had watery eyes….my Lydia. So I called the vet and they said it was probably just a cold..and she’d be fine in a week..but if she wasnt ok in two weeks..to bring her in. Well…now all five cats are sneezing, wheezing and have watery eyes, even the kitten. Is the common cat cold contagous? 😕
It might not be a cold. There is a disease that has the same symptoms and is contagious. But it’s also treatable. Talk to your vet about it.
Or it could be alergies but all of them? I don’t know…sounds more like something more serious. Not that I want to scare you or anything but call your vet again and tell him about it.
yeah…I was worried about that…I wish they’d allowed me to bring in Lydia when she first got it…now if it’s something serious I’ve got vet bills times five. 😡 I’m worried and annoyed.
It could be a URI (upper respiratory infection – and yes, URIs are contagious), which it sounds like it is, if it’s spread to everyone. It’s like a cold in that it’s caused by a virus and like the common cold, it kind of has to run it’s course, but antibiotics to help protect against secondary infection shouldn’t be out of the question.
I’d make another call and let them know all five cats are going at it now, and you’d like to have at least the first kid seen to find out what’s up and if there’s anything you can do, and to make sure that a “cold” is all it is.
When I worked at the shelter, we got lots of cats with URI’s, even my kitty had it, she got over it eventually. It’s kinda like the common cold but REALLY REALLY contagious. Well I suppose the common cold is, too.
I would suggest maybe (as suggested) talking to your vet about preventing secondary infections, and just keep an eye on them to see if they get anything other then the general symptoms, which are runny nose, sneezing, lethargy (but it’s not extreme lethargy, more like, they aren’t as interested in playing and that).
Trying to keep them more isolated (yeah, right, I know) would help them get over it a bit quicker. Then they aren’t tossing it back and forth and such. Like how people do when they get colds. 🙄
Of course I’m no expert this is just from what I’ve seen and dealt with, ask your vet is the best advice I can give. 🙂
As everyone else said- if it’s an URI keep a close eye but it needs to run its course.
However if any of your cats gets any worse, I would take them to the vet. It’s wildly contagious but if the cat has a weakened immune system (kittens or old cats especially) it can turn for the worse and end up causing more serious problems. A kitten we rescued had a URI and the shelter didn’t do anything, so by the time we got him he had a fever, fluid in his lungs, and nearly died. $1,400 later at the vet, lots of medicine and worrying, he’s okay, but has some long term problems from being so sick so young.
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My art: featherdust.comthey’re all still eating really well, so that’s a good sign. I called the vet and they said to still give them a couple weeks for it to run it’s course. I’ll just hover I suppose. 🙂
Just a note on the eating thing; be sure to keep an eye on them to make *sure* they’re eating. If their little noses get too stuffy and they can’t smell their food, they will literally starve to death in front of a full food dish, because if they can’t smell it, they won’t eat it. If they go off their food, and this is especially true if any of them are overweight, cats that don’t eat anything for over 24 hours are prone to fatty liver disease. Their metabolisms go all whonky and this can be fatal. It’s not as bad or as likely to happen to thinner cats.
Should they go off their food, warming wet food slightly in the microwave will “enhance” it’s aroma. (to the cat… 😆 ) And you can also offer human baby food that’s been warmed. Just make sure there’s no onion in it; that can cause Heinz’ anemia. Human baby food is a good “treat”/comfort food for cats, but not as a full time diet.
Turbo came to us as a young kitten, and brought a URI in with him. He spent the first 2-3 weeks with us in an isolation room because we had an elder cat at the time. I spent lots of time in there with him feeding him baby food and warmed canned cat food to make sure he ate. Since all of our cats are indoor cats, that was the last episode of any kind of contagious bug we saw. And Turbo made it to 14. So don’t hit the panic button just yet. 😉
Keep us posted and good luck!called back and emphasized Reese’s age, she’s still pretty young, so they said I could bring the worst cat in and then they’d send me home with enough antibiotics for all of them. Being able to do something will help my worry. 🙂 Two of our cats are 10 years old, so I’m worried over them too. We got them after my miscarraige years ago…they’re my babies. 🙁
Are the cats current on their FVRCP vaccines? Those will protect them against some of the nastiest upper-respiratory diseases (although don’t vaccinate anyone who’s sick). Unfortunately, there are several less-dangerous respiratory diseases that there is no vaccine for. Generally feline upper-respiratory diseases are super contagious to other cats. A cat can be infected just by sniffing noses (or hollering at) another cat through a window screen. These bugs are usually viral; antibiotics are useful if anyone is blowing green snot (sign of a secondary infection). And for what it’s worth, if one cat breaks with symptoms, everyone else is probably going to catch it right away no matter what you can do. 🙁 The virus moves fast.
Definitely make sure everyone is really eating, not just faking it. Also, ask your vet how to tell if someone’s getting dehydrated. Sometimes they feel punky enough that they don’t drink enough to keep up with the runny nose water loss, and that will drag them down faster. Good luck!
they’re all still eating really well, their food is emptied every day with no pukes…so that’s good, but I’m keeping a sharp eye on them. 🙂
The cat we got came with URI, and she wouldn’t eat for about a week (we ended up going to a vet and they suggested a few things, wet food warmed up didn’t work, baby food wasn’t suggested) we ended up almost forcing the food in her mouth (she was severely underweight when we got her, so not eating was not an option). After she got over it, she ate like a horse for awhile, now she grazes, and is perfectly healthy (though she still sneezes if she’s really stressed).
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