So my second cat, Catrick, has a mild URI. He's a pretty recent addition to the household, and only my second cat. The first, Mozzie, hasn't had a cold since I adopted her. Catrick is 9 months old, had a clean bill of health as of his adoption two weeks ago, and is FIV+. He started getting sneezy and having watery eyes last week, and I took him for a vet check on Monday out of an abundance of caution (having had neither a cat with a cold nor a cat with FIV before, I'm a little paranoid). She said he should recover just fine, and that it's not uncommon for newly-adopted cats to 1) have a dormant URI virus from living at the shelter and 2) have it flare up from the stress of moving and settling in. She gave me some antibiotics and antihistamines to speed him toward good health. He's not even congested, and doesn't have a cough or anything; just a lot of sneezing and the watery eyes. Hs appetite and mood are fine, and he's sleeping well. He's had a few better days this week but was back to more frequent sneezing yesterday, so I started giving him his antihistamine in the morning instead of at night, and that seems to help. I know logically that this is a mild cold and, being so young, his FIV shouldn't have any impact, but he's also a new cat that I'm in that early, hypervigilant stage of attachment with, so him being sick is causing me a lot of anxiety. If anyone has words of advice or encouragement, I'd really appreciate them!
If it helps at all, I’ve been having success with Levoit air cleaners that I bought from Amazon. We really notice a difference when they are running.
