Four month URI in five year old cat - any advice?

[cheeseburger]

We adopted this cat from the shelter when he was two. On bringing him home, he had a severe URI where he stopped eating, drinking or moving for about two weeks. We syringe fed and watered, did antibiotics, and he made a full recovery. Since then, he's always had eye drainage and been minorly sniffly/sneezy sometimes. Vet told us it was likely Feline Herpes and to just give lysine when things flared. That system seemed to work for three years until a few months ago.

Kitty's congestion and sneezing started to increase. I upped lysine, but he just seemed to get worse and worse. Finally he started having audible breathing and seemed to be struggling when he exercised. So I took him to the vet.

He's been back four times over the last three months. His chest x-ray shows fluid and inflammation in his lungs (vet labeled this pneumonia). Head x-ray was negative for polyps or tooth infection. His PCR panel came back negative for feline herpes, or any other known infections or viruses. He's been given a full round of covenia, zithromycin, and doxycycline, all with no improvement. We are doing probiotics and his gut seems to be okay so far.

He is still eating and playing, though he is not his old alpha self and the other two cats are moving in on his territory in the house without him seeming to care. Whatever he has doesn't seem to be contagious as other cats are perfectly fine. Meanwhile, his lungs are worsening.

It seems our final salvo with the vet is a culture. We've ordered one, but the vet isn't optimistic that this will tell us anything.

At home we are doing lysine (4 treats/day), locking him in with a humidifier for 10 minutes 2x/day, and antibiotics. Monitoring food and poop closely.

Anybody have any other suggestions for our poor sick cat at this point? Should we start looking at potential food allergens or something? Seems hard to believe food allergens could progress to pneumonia but...

(all cats are indoor only)

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I think ordering that culture is the way to go, even though your Vet isn't optimistic. It's possible you just haven't gotten the correct antibiotic yet. Hoping that's the case. I, too, don't see how food could be the cause of pneumonia.

Let us know what the culture shows.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I'm all for that culture. And if it fails to show anything, you might consider a specialist. Another idea, should it be possible, is to take him to a University Veterinary Medical program. It may well not be ANY less expensive than a regular vet, however, they will be teaching cutting edge medicine, and with the most up-to-date techniques and diagnostics.