I knew when we saved Merlin first time round that he would suffer bouts of flu through out his life but he seems worse this time than when he was a baby. We have been to the vet and he is now on his 7th day of a 14 day stronger antibiotics course as the first 5 day course didnt work, he is also on stuff to help with his temperature. He has been full of snot since day one so we have had to wipe his nose and take him up with us for a shower to help relieve this but now he is also dribbling gloopy saliva. He has lost quite a lot of weight but the vets dont seem to be bothered by this and we are having to syringe feed him as he has stopped eating again so we give him Simicat as much as we can get down him, I just want to get him to a place where he can have his shots so he doesnt get it as bad again, last year the vet advised us not to get him vaccinated but now the new vet who phoned the pharmecutical people that manufacture the vaccines asked if he would be ok with it and they said it wouldnt cause another episode but would be beneficial to him, I am worried that we are just prolonging the inevitable because he just looks so pityful lying there not interested in much at all although he has taken himself out to the garden to sunbathe the last few days. Any advice would be welcome as I feel some vets are more interested in money and not so much the animals.

Hi there!

How old is Merlin? It sounds as if he's got a secondary bacterial infection which is common with cases of cat flu. With some bacterial infections it can take a long course to eradicate them completely.Do you know which cat flu it is? If it's feline herpes, L-lysine is excellent because it stops the virus resplicating. You can also ask the vet to prescribe something to help with the mucus in addition to the 'steaming' sessions.

With flu cats lose their sense of smell which is probably why he's not eating. I share your concern about the weight loss and can't stress enough how important it is he eats. You're doing the right thing by syringe feeding.Have you tried warming the food in the microwave? This enhances the aroma. Here are some other tips, although with CRF cats in mind there are some useful pointers.

Tanya's Comprehensive Guideto Feline Chronic Renal Failure - Persuading Your Cat to Eat

Hopefully as the infection is brought under control his appetite will improve.

Merlin is 11 months old, we had him as a 6 week old along with his sister who also had the flu but not as bad as him. i dont think its the Calici one the vet didnt say it was anyway so I presume its the other type. We are going to mush down some tuna so its more like pate and see if he will take that later.
well we did it once we can do it again if need be, lucky my daughter has finished college so is able to feed him on the hour as we found little and often worked better.

It won't be of much help to you now but keep your eye on the (hoped for) USA licensing of Polyprenyl Immunostimulant. It's under review at the moment and if it is licensed it will be for herpesvirus. Hopefully the EU will follow very quickly. If poor Merlin is going to have recurrent bouts it could be of real help to him in the future. It's in the public eye as a treatment for FIP but will actually be far more useful for 'cat flu' for the majority.

i used to have ragdoll that suffered with after effects of cat flu and i used to put him in the bathroom with a vapouriser. when you put the shower on put some obas oil in it and also try to put some on his bedding to help with his breathing. what sort of antibiotics is he having?

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He is on Metacam 0.5mg once a day, Marbocyle P 5mg once a day and now he is on Bisolvon 0.5g in 0.5ml water once a day.

He has lost so much weight because he has stomatitis in his mouth, the vet didnt seem to worried by his weight loss as we are syringe feeding him with water and Simicat 20ml every hour, I know it doesnt seem a lot but he doesnt want to admit him yet as this will stress him out more than us with the syringe.

Sorry to hear he's still poorly.

With the stomatitis then it sounds more like Calici then Herpes. No wonder he's reluctant to eat. Hope the Bisolvon helps to clear some of the mucus and alleviate his breathing. Very often prescribed for horses with excess mucus production!

There's something called Lactoferrin-used with good results with Calici. Used in the US only at one stage I've now noticed it's available here when I last googled it. I would discuss this with the vet.

Hope you see some good improvements soon!

Well he is still holding in there so thats good news, he walked himself to the cat flap yesterday but couldnt get out so we put his blanket in the garden as its been nice and sunny and contiued to feed him milk and water every hour.

Last night i made chicken soup from chicken breast and added water and zapped it until I could feed him through the syringe without any lumpy bits in it, this is the first proper food he has had in about a week and a half and this morning he was sitting/lying up with his paws curled under his chest, he hasnt laid down like this for ages he was just laying flat out out on the blanket before, and if you call his name now he turns his head towards you.

Hopefully this means he is turning a corner and on the road to recovery, he is still slightly dehydrated but the vet is ok with the amount of water we pump into him, I am still toying with the idea of putting him in hospital for a couple of days to get his fluids up but the vet did say this could stress him even more than us syringe feeding him so at the moment he didnt want to do this.

yes my raggie raffles was given marbocyle but it didnt work for him and bisolvon i used to put it on his food directly. i have been wracking my brains trying to think of the antibiotic injection that he used to have, that used to help him. it lasts 10-14 days.
unfortunately he had calici and it left him constantly sneezing this over a period of 8 years just got worse.
i think he had every antibiotic that was going for a virus like that

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incidentally alot of breeders use an antibiotic called zythromax. it isnt licensed for cats and some vets may not want to use it. i tried with my vet but she was reluctant to use an unlicenced drug for cats. but i have heard good reports about it. you can always ask the vet and see what they think

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