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Kaza's dry nose

KazNik

Savannah Kitten
Hi everyone,
We need your help and advice. I have got 2 f5 girls just over 6 months old. One of them is growing real good but the other one is ill. Vet failed to establish the cause of her dry nose and sneezing. We went through eye drops to antibiotics for general use and a special antibiotics to treat increased levels of bordatella( which was revealed by swab) Kazu is a really young kitten and she has been through lot already. Our breeder recommended I put her on Llysine daily but it does not seem to improve. She sneezes from time to time and her nose becomes congested. I wipe her nose with luke warm saline solution and sometimes syringe a bit in order to open the blockage. Her nose is really dry, almost crusty. We will go to see a vet specialist but I kinda lost faith since the last one only dope my kitten with antibiotics for general problem and did not really provide me with any treatment.(but took a lot of money indeed)
Does anyone have similar problems or been through such a illness and could advise us? We really are open to any suggestions... Thanks
 

SV Dad

Savannah Super Cat
For what it's worth, I had a DSH that sneezed frequently for most of his life. And of course, we did the whole vet workup to no avail. Only some improvement with antihistamine therapy. One day when this cat was elderly, we decided to change cat litter to a domestically produced product. (Made in USA. Purina Tidy Cat). The sneezing stopped. The nose cleared up. The cat was visibly improved and his personality blossomed. The happened in the last year of his life, and we were so glad to see a happy healthy cat. He wasn't the only cat to improve either.
The point being, there may be something the cat is having an allergic reaction with. A clue may be a positive response with antihistamine treatment. Was this tried?
 
T

tkymasters

Guest
I agree with Rascaldad.... Your cat maybe allergic the the litter.. try moving to wood pellets.
 

WitchyWoman

Admin
Staff member
Could also be food allergies. Corn and wheat, which are used as fillers in some foods, are problematic for a lot of cats. Cleaning and laundry products should be evaluated also.
 

Tina Kinsley

Savannah Super Cat
This is a really interesting thread. My 11 yr old Rex has had chronic rhinosinusitis. He has been on a plethora of antibiotics and is still on lysine, but he still is the sneeziest snottiest cat I've ever seen. He's perfectly healthy.

I just switched him to a raw diet two days ago. I'm going to try that for a week and then I'll try the litter switch to Tidy Cat. I'll let you know if I get any results from it. Hopefully it might help your little gal too, KazNik

I <3 this board.
 

Brigitte Cowell

Moderator
Staff member
Allergies could be the culprit, but have they done a respiratory PCR panel during all the testing? I see that antibiotics have been prescribed (but not which ones) but what testing was done? And the Bordetella was diagnosed by swab, was that a culture or the PCR test? It can be resistant to treatment so was she retested after the "special antibiotics" to know if it had worked?
 

Patti

Admin
Staff member
I agree with Brigitte - if a URD PCR has not been run that is the first place I'd start. If the symptoms are caused by a virus rather than bacteria then no amount of antibiotics are going to help. It sounds like the lysine is of no help either. If it is a virus you might want to try Famvir, an antiviral. I also read on another list that someone used children's nasal decongestant spray on their cat and it worked really well to dry up the sinuses without having a systemic effect that other treatments (e.g., oral antihistamies) have.

However, if it is an allergic reaction then antihistimines sometimes work quite well. Allergy testing is usually quite expensive and not terribly helpful since most cats are allergic to dozens of allergens and trying to figure out the trigger of her symptoms can be very difficult. I agree with changing the litter and looking at the ingredients in food. There are some limited ingredient diets such as Nature's Balance Green Pea and Duck which is formulated for cats with allergies. BTW, chicken is one of the most common allergens to cats.
 

KazNik

Savannah Kitten
Rascaldad - thank you for your suggestion, I think an allergy was the first option the vet singled out so actually no tests were done. She said that cats nose dont get so dry because of allergy. I tried to change the actual litters as well, (since we had a problem with kittens using hallway carpet instead of litter tray)we started of with catsan- mineral based litter but most of it ended on the carpet unused because they loved playing with it. Than we changed into natural pinewood litter which was kinda alright but not the best. Breeder recommended we go back to OKO plus which she used when they were kittens. I will see if she gets better after changing it since kazuyas problem started almost immediately after we got her ( maybe a 10 days before we noticed) so the litter is a possibility. Thanks again

Deborah- I feed them royal canin 36 (breeder recommendation ) and we switched from felix pouches to hills wet pouches, they find them so much tastier. I also give them raw turkey and chicken meat every other day for dinner. Kaza eats less, I think she can't smell as well as her sister and looses apetite quickly. She is also a little smaller than her sister. How could I find out if it maybe the detergent I am using that's causing her trouble? By changing it?

Tina - I really hope the switch works for you. Kaza behaves normally , does not really look sick but after extensive playing or running up and down the stairs chasing her sister I noticed she is out of breath. You can also try sprinkling Rexes food with little moringa powder. It is a very powerful herbal remedy known to help both animals and humans. Kaza didn't show any significant improvement but the cat homeopath I sleeked out spoke of moringa highly. Maybe it will help you as no two cats or illnesses are the same.

Brigitte - thank you for your post. No they haven't done any respiratory PCR testing. The bordatella was diagnosed by culture swab ( eyes,mouth and nose). I can't remember the names of antibiotics the vet prescribed but we are going to see the vet tomorrow so I will take a note. The Vet also explain that bordatella is not "bad" bacteria and it might not be necessarily cause of the problem. After being on and off antibiotics for almost two months I did not want to feed her any more pills as it might spoil the actual "good" level of bacteria she has. We went for a check up after , there was very little improvement. That's why the referral . I will request this test immediately.

Patti- I think the mouth nose eye swab we did did not show any presence of virus. I will certainly try the child's decongestant as we are pretty desperate for anything to work. Are there any specific substances in cat foods I should watch out for ( the most common allergies beside chicken? )

Thank you all for your imput. We have a vet app tomorrow morning so I ll let you know what she said and thanks to you guys I will have few more questions to ask her.
KazNik aka mum of Kazuya and Nikita, or in a real life Denise
 

Brigitte Cowell

Moderator
Staff member
Good luck at the vets!

In terms of worrying for the levels of "good" bacteria in her gut, consider adding a probiotic to her meals to help with that, especially when you have a kitten or cat on antibiotics. I like Proviable but there are many choices out there.

Most common food allergies for cats can be grains (corn, wheat etc) and then chicken and fish. Most of the diets designed for hypoallergenic diets will use duck, venison, rabbit as all these don't seem to have the same effect. I find all my cats love rabbit, but it is one of the more expensive raw meats to buy :-(
 

KazNik

Savannah Kitten
Hi guys,
So we saw vet today. Got a referral to specialist. They said they r going to put my kitten on aneastethics an then stick a camera up her nose, reswab for wider range of bacteria and virus and possibly cut a piece if her nose to send it to lab. This sounds terrible and I won't let anyone cut my kittens nose! Don't they just need a tiny little flake of skin to put under microscope? Do u have any experience with this? Is there any other alternative ? Please advice me
 
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