Very healthy 14-month-old cat has runny nose

dwdanby

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Hello all! my darling kitten/just-turned-cat is doing great. I feed her a raw meat diet using Alnutrin and liver powder according to the recipe, and she has gorgeous fur, does torpedo zoomies, and loves on me. When she was around 10 months I think, she had a runny nose, just clear liquid, she would shake her head and it would go flying all over my face - I love my cat! It lasted a few days. Now it's back, same thing. She's had nothing in her eyes, no tearing or discharge. No sneezing. Nothing but happy... I'm temporarily without vet care as the local vet is gone for a while (small town, no cover for him). She doesn't seem in any discomfort. Is there anything I should do?
 

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Hi. It does sound like either a viral condition or a seasonal allergy. Look at the timeline to be something more seasonal, like pollen, grass, etc. If it viral, the vet - when next available - can check more into that aspect, as mentioned above. In the meantime, with the assumption is related to a viral flare up, you could try something like DMG to help boost your kitty's immune system. I can't imagine how it would hurt, even if it is a seasonal allegy.
DMG for Cats: What It Is and How It Can Benefit Your Feline Friend - RedRusa
VETRISCIENCE Vetri-DMG Liquid Immune Supplement for Dogs, Cats & Birds, 28-mL - Chewy.com
 

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Edited for this initial disclaimer: I'm not trying to assume your cat has the same reasons for her snottiness as mine (my cat, I am just assuming, had a much rougher start to his life than yours did), but I just wanted to describe my whole experience with a cat with recurring sneezing and runny nose, if any of it helps.

Boy, do I have experience with a snotty cat.

Willy showed up outside the door where I was staying in 2013 as an approximately-one-year-old cat, very sick, starving (very emaciated), sneezing, with raspy breath, ear mites, ticks, a whole mess of problems.

I honestly can't find the records from that long ago to describe how he was treated (back then, it was a whirlwind of new information as my vet was saving his life, and I'd never had a cat before, and honestly remember nothing). I am still trying to get those records of those very early days, in case they can ever help someone else on this forum, but for reasons I won't get into it's complicated.

Anyway, he obviously had a respiratory illness, and was treated successfully. But he ALWAYS had chronic symptoms afterward. Chronic sneezing, chronic nasal discharge (my newest vet, after I'd had Willy for 9-10 years already, interestingly spotted that his discharge only ever comes out of one nostril, which I had never noticed before).

In Willy's case, the snot is always yellowish in color, and mucus-y/stringy in consistency. And when he sneezed it out, it indeed goes flying onto the windows, the walls, my face... my god do I know what that feels like. Having a super-affectionate cat kneading on your chest, purring, affectionately bunting you in the face... and the BAM!!! sneezing snot right in your face. LOL.

By "chronic" I don't mean these symptoms were all the time, always, over the last 9-10 years. They always came and went. He'd have a resurgence of them for several weeks to a few months, then they'd go away for several months at a time (so more time, overall "off" than "on," but "on" enough of the time that it was a constant problem). Eventually, after much trial and error, my vet and I figured out that zeniquin (marbofloxacin), an antibiotic, mostly would successfully knock out the symptoms after they were starting up again.

Over the last few years, it became only like a once-a-year occurrence. As soon as I'd see him starting to sneeze and produce discharge, I'd get an 8-10-day course of zeniquin from my vet and start administering right away.

I DID try DMG for some time, but did not find much change in the overall frequency of the symptom recurrence. However, I am starting it again now, as Willy is going through chemotherapy right now, and is immunocompromised.

From my understanding, if a cat is sick at an early age (I don't know with which pathogens, specifically, which is why I am just saying "sick"), there can be some permanent damage to their nasal mucosa, resulting in these chronic symptoms that can never be fully cured. In some cases, at least, as with my cat.

By the way, my cat was always super energetic and couldn't care less about sneezing and blowing snot everywhere whenever his symptoms were recurring. He was equally active and energetic and otherwise totally healthy.
 
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IndyJones

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Edited for this initial disclaimer: I'm not trying to assume your cat has the same reasons for her snottiness as mine (my cat, I am just assuming, had a much rougher start to his life than yours did), but I just wanted to describe my whole experience with a cat with recurring sneezing and runny nose, if any of it helps.

Boy, do I have experience with a snotty cat.

Willy showed up outside the door where I was staying in 2013 as an approximately-one-year-old cat, very sick, starving (very emaciated), sneezing, with raspy breath, ear mites, ticks, a whole mess of problems.

I honestly can't find the records from that long ago to describe how he was treated (back then, it was a whirlwind of new information as my vet was saving his life, and I'd never had a cat before, and honestly remember nothing). I am still trying to get those records of those very early days, in case they can ever help someone else on this forum, but for reasons I won't get into it's complicated.

Anyway, he obviously had a respiratory illness, and was treated successfully. But he ALWAYS had chronic symptoms afterward. Chronic sneezing, chronic nasal discharge (my newest vet, after I'd had Willy for 9-10 years already, interestingly spotted that his discharge only ever comes out of one nostril, which I had never noticed before).

In Willy's case, the snot is always yellowish in color, and mucus-y/stringy in consistency. And when he sneezed it out, it indeed goes flying onto the windows, the walls, my face... my god do I know what that feels like. Having a super-affectionate cat kneading on your chest, purring, affectionately bunting you in the face... and the BAM!!! sneezing snot right in your face. LOL.

By "chronic" I don't mean these symptoms were all the time, always, over the last 9-10 years. They always came and went. He'd have a resurgence of them for several weeks to a few months, then they'd go away for several months at a time (so more time, overall "off" than "on," but "on" enough of the time that it was a constant problem). Eventually, after much trial and error, my vet and I figured out that zeniquin (marbofloxacin), an antibiotic, mostly would successfully knock out the symptoms after they were starting up again.

Over the last few years, it became only like a once-a-year occurrence. As soon as I'd see him starting to sneeze and produce discharge, I'd get an 8-10-day course of zeniquin from my vet and start administering right away.

I DID try DMG for some time, but did not find much change in the overall frequency of the symptom recurrence. However, I am starting it again now, as Willy is going through chemotherapy right now, and is immunocompromised.

From my understanding, if a cat is sick at an early age (I don't know with which pathogens, specifically, which is why I am just saying "sick"), there can be some permanent damage to their nasal mucosa, resulting in these chronic symptoms that can never be fully cured. In some cases, at least, as with my cat.

By the way, my cat was always super energetic and couldn't care less about sneezing and blowing snot everywhere whenever his symptoms were recurring. He was equally active and energetic and otherwise totally healthy.
Yup sounds like Indy. She has feline herpes and acvording to my vet, it never goes away just into remission. She does have flare ups every now and again, her left eye is always kind of goopy (apperently has scar tissue in tearduct from the herpes) she leaves little brown/red stains on her bowls, my skin/clothes, her face, her bedding pretty much everywhere. Apperently its a mix of snot and tear staining.

When I first brought her home the rescue gave me a tube of eye ointment but my vet said it was making things worse so I stopped using it.
 

cmshap

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Yup sounds like Indy. She has feline herpes and acvording to my vet, it never goes away just into remission. She does have flare ups every now and again, her left eye is always kind of goopy
I just wanted to respond to this, for D dwdanby 's benefit as we discuss our respective cats' conditions.

Willy was never diagnosed with feline herpes, nor has he ever had eye goop/tearing issues.

But from what I understand, there are lots of different chronic conditions like this that can come and go but never be cured. Someone else I know has a cat who, as she explained to me, "has the flu forever" and his symptoms will come and go for life. I have no vet experience and minimal cat experience, so I can't confirm if that is truly a condition; it's just a description I heard in passing from her when describing her cat's chronic upper-respiratory symptoms.
 

IndyJones

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Feline herpes is extremly common and the number one cause of uri in cats, its estimated up to 97% of the cat population has it. Most kittens get it from moms milk

The vacciene works not by preventing it but lessoning the symptoms
 
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