We have had a rough week here.
My cats are all indoor cats and we have not fostered or introduced another cat into the home recently.
One of our cats is FIV+, he also has a heart condition, HCM. On Thursday he seemed fine, Thursday late evening he was coughing a little. We thought it was a hairball. Friday I was gone all day dealing with a family emergency. My daughter advised that he did not eat and was still “working on the hairball”. When I got home at 2 a.m. he was clearly not well and we went to the emergency vet.
My first thought was that it was his heart or that he had thrown a clot to his lungs but the x-rays showed no signs of congestive heart failure and the vet doesn’t feel his symptoms are consistent with a clot. He also has a mild fever and she said he would have a low temperature if it were his lungs.
They gave him oxygen and started him on antibiotics. The vet felt it was either feline asthma or a cold. They sent us home at 6 a.m. and wanted us to go see our vet in the morning which we did.
At this point I had 8 hours of sleep in three nights and I was running on caffeine and swear words so I didn’t ask all the questions I should have.
Our regular vet did some blood work which we don’t have the results of yet, but they also believe he has a cold - say it could have been in his sustem forever and now with stress it rears its ugly head.
He has mostly stopped coughing which is good but he is open mouth breathing because he is congested and can’t breathe through his nose. Because of this, he isn’t very interested in food because he can’t smell it (and he is sick so not terribly hungry). He hasn’t had a meal in 48 or more hours, but I did manage to convince him to eat a little tuna this morning, a very little bit. He is on two antibiotics.
At this point I am starting to worry about him not eating - hepatic lipidosis is not what I want our next vet visit to be about.
When do I start freaking out? How long does the worst part of a cat cold last?
He just wants to sleep right now. He is on some pain medication because his tonsils are inflamed, and he had some subcutaneous fluids at the vet yesterday so I am not overly concerned about dehydration yet.
My cats are all indoor cats and we have not fostered or introduced another cat into the home recently.
One of our cats is FIV+, he also has a heart condition, HCM. On Thursday he seemed fine, Thursday late evening he was coughing a little. We thought it was a hairball. Friday I was gone all day dealing with a family emergency. My daughter advised that he did not eat and was still “working on the hairball”. When I got home at 2 a.m. he was clearly not well and we went to the emergency vet.
My first thought was that it was his heart or that he had thrown a clot to his lungs but the x-rays showed no signs of congestive heart failure and the vet doesn’t feel his symptoms are consistent with a clot. He also has a mild fever and she said he would have a low temperature if it were his lungs.
They gave him oxygen and started him on antibiotics. The vet felt it was either feline asthma or a cold. They sent us home at 6 a.m. and wanted us to go see our vet in the morning which we did.
At this point I had 8 hours of sleep in three nights and I was running on caffeine and swear words so I didn’t ask all the questions I should have.
Our regular vet did some blood work which we don’t have the results of yet, but they also believe he has a cold - say it could have been in his sustem forever and now with stress it rears its ugly head.
He has mostly stopped coughing which is good but he is open mouth breathing because he is congested and can’t breathe through his nose. Because of this, he isn’t very interested in food because he can’t smell it (and he is sick so not terribly hungry). He hasn’t had a meal in 48 or more hours, but I did manage to convince him to eat a little tuna this morning, a very little bit. He is on two antibiotics.
At this point I am starting to worry about him not eating - hepatic lipidosis is not what I want our next vet visit to be about.
When do I start freaking out? How long does the worst part of a cat cold last?
He just wants to sleep right now. He is on some pain medication because his tonsils are inflamed, and he had some subcutaneous fluids at the vet yesterday so I am not overly concerned about dehydration yet.