not dying, especially if still eating and drinking. Our favorite vet won us over in the early years after we got a shelter kitty with a uri, and besides the antibiotics meds , he also gave the following information:
Generally, cats are enticed to eat by the aroma of a food, so a cat that is having issues with respiratory infections and stuffy nose might not be as interested in eating because they cannot smell their food. To help a sniffly kitty eat, try heating wet food in the microwave for about 15 seconds to augment the aroma. If that fails, you can try decongesting the kitty via a steam treatment - bring them in the bathroom while you take a hot shower, or keep the room with a humidifier. If that does not work, he even suggested to try infant nose drops, administered as you would to a baby (neo-synephrine was his specific brand mention) . Lastly, failing all other methods of encouraging them to eat aon their own, he said force feed it via eye-dropper . This might not be the best for an older animal, but a kitten, perhaps could be saved that otherwise would die from not having eaten.
Our next cat had a particularly bad uri that took a lot longer to clear up, so we supplemented the regular meds with a casule of l-lysine added to food, along with a few drops of colloidal silver in the decongestant drops and water bowl, and added some cider vinegar to the steam baths which also seemed to help quite a lot, as he was most comfortable following those sessions in his kitty "yurt" we made with a blanket over his carrier to guide the steam. Finally he got through it , but it was concerning for a bit how snotty the poor thing was.and we couldn't figure out how you could get a kitten to blow its nose...
She hasn’t returned but she has no problems with appetite. She comes to food bowl 20 times a day, takes 3 bites and leaves before Treasure sees her. She’s worked out a system around the guard cat.
Trying to find someone to bring me a trap during this pandemic is not feasible. And no vet will take Shadow unless they specialize in feral cats. However I did notice a huge hairball this morning in the area she was at on the video and she came to eat a couple of times already with no issues, no "sneezing" or whatever. In fact she came a couple of times during the night with no problems.