Cats Feline Respiratory Infection?

[Sacajawea]

Anyone have any home remedies to treat this? For the time being I'm trying to isolate the in/out cat inside... away from the sick feral kitty. He isn't happy about it - and is quick when the door opens. I don't want him to get sick and infect my elderly indoor kitty.

I've never been able to get close to the sick kitty - so I can't even clean it's poor face off. It's having a hard time breathing through all the slime on it's face and hasn't groomed either. First saw it a couple nights ago, and it didn't run from me - just mewed, like it knew I wanted to try to help. Not wanting to stress it any more either. I might could wrap a towel around it and get it in the box to take it to the vet Monday. Assuming it's around then.

I just don't know what I can/can't give the kitty - or try to at any rate.

 

[Cardinal]

It probably needs antibiotics. If it outside right now? Can you bring it in and put it in a room by itself?

 

[Sacajawea]

I can't get near it. Tried to give it a soft rug to curl up in and it moved off.

 

[summerthyme]

Could be viral, in which case there isnt much to do except comfort care... which he won't allow. Providing good, nourishing food (this is one of the things I use my home canned chicken scraps for) can help.

Since it could be bacterial, I'd put 1 ounce colloidal silver in 1 quart of water and offer it in a convenient spot for the kitty to drink. If it was tame enoigh to be caught, I'd be putting about 5 ccs down it orally with a syringe 2-3x a day, but I know that's not possible.

These can be frustrating.

Summerthyme

 

[Sacajawea]

Thanks. It's sad. Poor thing. I think it has a fever, because it's not even coming in on the dry porch out of the rain. But it's face is looking cleaner than it did the first night I saw it. Problem with trying to give it food/water is that Freddie goes out a lot... and I'm fairly certain this is contagious. Yes, Freddie's bowls are inside now.

Sigh. If only there was a way to confine the cat outside... and it's shelter/bowls. Hmmm. Maybe that's the answer if I can figure something out. Wish I had a decent sized wire dog cage. Maybe something to think about getting, just to have for situations like this.

Thanks for the ideas. I don't have any colloidal silver; thought crossed my mind tho, trying to think of alternative antibiotics/antivirals.

 

[summerthyme]

The really good thing about silver (and I strongly believe every prepper, and anyone who owns animals shoukd kearn how to make it and keep the supplies on hand... you can set up for a lifetime supply for under 50 bucks) is it's tasteless and odorless. Animals drink it willingly, even suspicious ferals.

And it WORKS! I know I've told this before, but a neighbor had a herd of beef cattle with a really bad strain of ba trial pinkeye going through the entire herd. He'd spent hundreds of dollars and too many hours running them through the chute, having the vet inject eyes and sew eyelids shut,band injecting antibiotics. He had over half a dozen cows which were blind, and his money losses (including weight loss in the sick animals) was well into the thousands.

I sold him a quart of colloidal silver, and he bought a "Super Soaker" squirt gun. He went out every morning, and squirted every affected eye with the silver. Within a week, he had no new cases, and the affected animals eyes were normal. Several if those whose eyes had turned completely opaque white had most of the white shrunk to the point they were able to see enough to get around and function just fine!

Is your house kitty vaccinated for the basic feline diseases? If not, I'd strongly suggest you get it done. This is another thing you can do yourself. Many Tractor Supply stores sell a single dose syringe with the common cat (or dog) vaccines for around $10.

I vaccinate every barn cat as a kitten (as soon as I can catch them, essentially) and then give them one booster at @4 months. After too many years of sad, thin scruffy barn cats (despite feeding them hood quality kibble and milk, plus stuff like the chicken scraps after making a big batch of soup), with runny noses, inflamed eyes, etc, I'm thrilled to be able to say that the current crop are all slick, plush and shiny, with clear eyes. They are also aggressive hunters...the big tom dragged in a 6# *rabbit * the other day! (I think he wanted to show off! The thing weighed about 2/3rds what he does!)

One other thing... there is a formula online that tells how to use ivermectin in milk to worm feral cat colonies. It works great! I do it once a year, and any kittens that are born are super healthy. Small investment to keep very healthy cats who more than earn their keep...we literally haven't seen a mouse or rat in any of the barns this year, and they must have run out... I'm now finding dead English Sparrows!

Summerthyme

 

[summerthyme]

Oh, also... Amazon has really good prices on folding wire crates with plastic trays for the bottom. I bought several last year if the large size to haul chickens to the butcher, for under $33 each delivered (Prime)

They really can be useful for confining a sick or injured animal, and they can be completely disinfected afterwards if necessary.

Summerthyme

 

[duchess47]

Do you have fish antibiotics? Amoxicillin in in capsules. I open them and mix the powder in the cat food. It appears to have no taste since they eat the food with no problem. I feed it twice a day for seven days.

 

[Melodi]

Just saw this - kitty may be highly contagious and once certain types of infection get "stuck in" they can be very hard to get rid of in a population - we had to stop breeding pedigreed cats partly because of a cute little former feral that was a carrier; it took five years to get things sorted and now that we foster - well lets just say even with all the vet care in the world and my housemate sleeping with kittens in pouches around her neck we lost three out of five.

If kitty doesn't recover on its own and doesn't pass away/go-away; you may want to see if there are any feral rescues in your area (even animal control in a pinch) because if the eyes don't clear but are permanently weepy and there is green stuff coming out of the nose; what you have is a kitty whose carrying cat flu/similar virus who has manage to survive with it but maybe a permanent danger to your housecats/barn cats.

The kindest thing to do at that point has the rescue either loan you a humane trap and/or come out themselves then you call them when you have a kitty in the trap and they take it away for treatment and/or humane euthanasia.

With a house pet you can isolate them and let the vet treat them for a few months until at least the other cats in the house are vaccinated and exposed, so you can then let your house kitty back into the general population when the vet gives the all clear and/or rehome them to a family with only one cat, which is what we did.

With a feral you can't even catch; they can just keep passing the illness on to numerous other cats and kittens in their nearby colonies and house cats that they encounter; I hope kitty is better and you won't need this advice but this is just in case; some cats recover just fine and never have another sniffle - it can be hard even for vets to be sure what exact virus a cat has, and impossible from a distance.