How to reduce fever in cat & Q about URI

[rocktosh]

My baby girl, Liberia, is sick and has 104 degree fever. She's been sick so much and I hate to see her suffer. Is there anything I can do to make the fever go down? Is there anything like Tylenol for cats that I could give her? She was started on Clavamox yesterday but it will take a while to work.

Liberia is 10 months old and she's had a lot of health problems. The vet said that she has recurrent upper respiratory infection but I wonder if it could be something else. The only symptoms she has is the fever and a goopy eye. The goopy eye started first and she's had that for almost two weeks (the vet told me at first to leave it alone and let it heal on its own but now I've started to treat it). The fever started a couple of days ago. When she was sick a month or two ago she had 106 degree fever and that's dangerous.
Does anyone have any experience with recurrent URI? Does it sound like that's what Liberia has? Will the outbreaks always be this frequent or will it get better as she gets older? Is there anything I can do to keep her healthier and the URIs less frequent, like giving her some sort of vitamins or suplements or something? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

 

[mews2much]

There is a shot Meeko got for a 105 fever that helped some. She had the high fever and runny eyes but never the cold part. Do not give Tylenol or anyhing like that to your Cat. It isnt safe. My Meeko amost died at 3 months from Anemia and a Infection and ever since we have had the eye problems off and on. It might be like that with your cat also when she gets older. They might get less when she gets older it depends on the cat. My Coco has had aot more since she turned 13. She is 16 now.I think the shot Meeko got for the fever was Ketafen or something like that. I wil look at the papers and see if I can help you. Btw it took almost a week for Meeko to eat evn with the clavamox.

 

[stephanietx]

First of all, you should call the vet and let them know what's going on and find out if they can do anything else to help her. If her temp has been high for many days, she may need IV fluids. Is she drinking, eating, and using the litter box well? She MUST drink and eat or you'll have bigger problems. Find the stinkiest canned food you can and put a bit of it in a bowl for her. Add a few teaspoons of water to it (helps with water consumption) and warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds. Warming it up will enhance the aroma. Cats need to smell their food to eat it. If she's got an URI and a stopped up nose, she won't be able to smell her food. Therefore, she's less likely to eat.

Sounds like the infection may not have been totally cleared up from the first go-round. If she's on the same antibiotic as she was last time, I think I'd ask for something stronger if you don't see improvement in the next 24 hours.

Has your baby been tested for Feline Herpes? If not, get her tested. It's a very easy and painless test and will let you know if she's got herpes. If she is positive, then recurrent URIs & URI-like symptoms are normal, but there are things you can do to boost her immune system so that the flare ups are reduced. One thing you might want to go ahead and try is to start adding Lysine to her food. You can get Lysine at Wal-Mart in the supplements/vitamin aisle. Crush the tablet and mix in wet food. Give about 500mg/day. During flare ups or times of illness, increase it to 1000mg/day.

There's lots of other things you can do to help her rest easier, especially if she's not breathing well. If possible, confine her to a single room (with all the ammenities) and run a vaporizer. If you can find some, get eucalyptus drops or oil and add a couple of drops to the water. Eucalyptus will help open up the nasal passages. Do NOT let her ingest the eucalyptus as it's fatal to cats. If you don't have a vaporizer, turn on the shower as hot as you can, shut the door, turn it off with her in the bathroom until the steam dissipates. When my Hannah is especially stuffy, I put a wee dab of baby Vick's on the top of her nose, out of the reach of her tongue to help her breathe better.

Continue wiping the goop out of her eye with a warm cloth. If it continues to be a colored discharge, you should ask the vet for some drops to help clear up any potential eye infection. Eye infections are very common with kitties prone to URIs.

Feel free to inbox me if you have any questions. You also might want to search this forum for URI or Upper Respiratory Infection. There's tons of info out there.

Whatever you do, do NOT give her ANY kind of Tylenol.

 

[jack31]

Jack had a fever of 106 and we did fluids under the skin and his fever dropped in 24 hours down to 101.5

Leslie

 

[laureen227]

Originally Posted by stephanietx

One thing you might want to go ahead and try is to start adding Lysine to her food. You can get Lysine at Wal-Mart in the supplements/vitamin aisle. Crush the tablet and mix in wet food. Give about 500mg/day. During flare ups or times of illness, increase it to 1000mg/day.

actually, you can get capsules [much easier!] & open them. that's what i do for my herpes cat.

 

[stephanietx]

Laureen, I actually use powdered Lysine for my kitty. I buy it in this huge container and it lasts for several months. It's cheaper than the pills or capsules. I get it at the health food store. I was recommending the tablets because they're easily available at Wal-Mart and drug stores.

 

[stephenq]

Don't give her any human meds like aspirin or Tylenol unless you want to kill your cat. Massaging her paws with rubbing alcohol can reduce the temp but ultimately the high temp is from infection and you need to treat the infection. Clavamox is a good start.

 

[laureen227]

Originally Posted by stephanietx

Laureen, I actually use powdered Lysine for my kitty. I buy it in this huge container and it lasts for several months. It's cheaper than the pills or capsules. I get it at the health food store. I was recommending the tablets because they're easily available at Wal-Mart and drug stores.

so are the capsules - i get mine at Drug Emporium.