Japanese Vet Left Us Confused? Uri?

[nilbog]

Hi! Our kitten started showing symptoms of maybe a URI. He had one eye with yellow puss coming out. We visited the local Japanese vet and were prescribed eye drops. Getting used to administering those was tough! But now we can do it without blinking and his eye has cleared up. However at our followup we went in, I said he sneezed occasionally and we were immediately prescribed antibiotics and seen out. I asked if we could put them in food and she hesitantly said yes. So now I'm stuck with a bag full of little circular white pills cut in half for some sort of sickness? He has had such mild symptoms with only the eye and a few sneezes over the course of a two weeks now.
Anyway what I'm getting at is, should it be ok to put the pills in his food. They're already cut in half but I cut them in half again and put the two small pieces in his wet food and he ate them fine. I'm just a little frustrated obviously as I don't really even know whats wrong with him. They didn't do any tests at all.

 

[Draco]

Is there another vet in the area to take him to?

You can put the pills in his wet food

 

[LTS3]

Norachan might be able to recommend a vet in your area. I beleive she lives near Mt Fuji.

Most cats won't touch pills that are hidden in food. You have to use something like a Pill Pocket or other pill masking dough or coat the pill in butter and roll in something tasty like tuna juice or parmesean cheese.

 

[Norachan]

Hi nilbog By all means look for another vet if you're not happy with your current vet. I live in a tiny one-vet town, but I think there will be a lot more choice in a bigger city.

Japanese vets don't do a lot of testing unless they are stumped by the cat's symptoms. It does sound like your cat has a URI, which is why you were given antibiotics. My vet cuts the tablets up for kittens too. Adult cats get a whole tablet, kittens have half a tablet, tiny kittens a quarter tablet and so on.

If your kitten will take them in food, no problem. I have to crush tablets up, mix them with water and syringe them into my cat's mouth. They're all a nightmare to pill.

 

[nilbog]

Vet says, after Facebook badgering, its probably FVR? Unfortunately, I'm in Aomori so any vet recommendations would be wasted. ):
My husband is running now to go check his records. I was 50% positive they tested him for that and he was negative but of course he was with tons of other kittens before adoption. I could be confusing it with FIV. I just asked the vet what the difference between URI and FVR are so we will see.
But good news! After trying last night and failing I watched some youtube videos and figured out how to get his mouth open this morning. High fives around after his pill went down no trouble following by sips of water from his bowl.

 

[nilbog]

Is there another vet in the area to take him to?

You can put the pills in his wet food

There are a few others, but the one we went to had the best ratings. /:

 

[valentine319]

Fvr seems to be interchanged with fhv. Feline herpes virus.
Feline Herpesvirus (FVR) | Symptoms, Causes, Treatment

It's very common. Many of us treat with lysine powder (I buy Now brand) be sure only lysine powder with no additives, Cats over 6 months get 500 mg twice a day. Otherwise lysine treats. It increases their immune system. Lysine doesn't hurt them. Just be sure if you use treats, easiest way to give lysine (i used spry treats), be sure to put in a cabinet. Some cats will rip the bag open and eat all the treats.

As far as an antibiotic, that's not uncommon for a URI from anything.

 

[Norachan]

A URI is an upper respiratory tract infection. It can be cause by bacteria, but it can be caused by the cat having been exposed to the feline herpes virus too.

Antibiotics won't do anything against a virus, but they will prevent secondary infections which are particularly dangerous in kittens.

You should ask your vet to test for FVR now, while your kitten is showing symptoms. It's difficult to test for when the virus is in the latent stage.

Do you have any other cats? FVR is quite contagious.

One of my cats, who also has FIV, has FVR too but my other cats never developed any symptoms. They're all from a feral colony so were probably exposed to the virus early on and are what's known as latent carriers. (Carry the virus but show no symptoms).

She gets L-lysine daily, but to be honest I haven't noticed any change in her condition. It works better for some cats than others, I guess.

 

[nilbog]

Can L-lysine treats be given even if the cat doesn't have FVR? We have no other cats. Also he sneezed maybe a total of 15 times in 2 weeks so its really nothing drastic.

 

[Norachan]

Sure, it doesn't do them any harm even if they don't have herpes. I've found it quite hard to get L-lysine treats over here. I ordered some powder (South Korean import) from Rakuten but she wouldn't touch it. I now have a liquid form that she takes on her canned food, cost around 6,000 yen for the bottle.

I'm not sure if it's making much difference. She's not as wheezy as she was but she still gets gloopy eyes. She was very sick when I found her though, this could be as healthy as she ever gets.

 

[nilbog]

Sure, it doesn't do them any harm even if they don't have herpes. I've found it quite hard to get L-lysine treats over here. I ordered some powder (South Korean import) from Rakuten but she wouldn't touch it. I now have a liquid form that she takes on her canned food, cost around 6,000 yen for the bottle.

I'm not sure if it's making much difference. She's not as wheezy as she was but she still gets gloopy eyes. She was very sick when I found her though, this could be as healthy as she ever gets.

Hi! Thanks. We just found out he tested negative for FVR before we adopted him along with all the kittens he lived with. Definitely a URI it looks like. But he's all better now! Just grumpy that the vet mis-diagnosed him and was a bit rude to me on Facebook. We will definitely be using a different vet in the future!

 

[Norachan]

Oh, that's good! I'm glad he's better.

Yes, it sounds like you need a nicer vet too. Good luck with finding one you get along with. Keep warm up there in Aomori!