My kitten is sneezy and snotty still after having medicine over 7 days from the vet.He is five months old from a bengal breeder who i suspect didnt feed or look after him well.I am afraid he may have a cat chest illness that is uncurable.The kitten is still livley and seems well in himself just cant shift this cold,please advise?
Thx
Chris

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Heidi

Hi

I've got two 10 month old bengals that both sneeze this disgusting green mucous quite chronically. They have had about 5 different courses of antibiotics each which does clear it up a a fair amount when they are actually on the course, but after the course they soon go back to sneezing chronically.

They sneeze a couple of times per hour and eject quite a lot of mucous each time. They are both full of life and always charge around, they have very healthy apetities... eating 4 packs of kitten food per day... each! They don't have any runny eyes, mouth ulcers, temperatures, definitely no lethargy. The only thing wrong with them is this awful sneezing.

The cats started sneezing soon after we actually got them home from the breeder (the same day infact). Before this we spent a couple of hours at the breeders on two occasions to view the cats and none of her cats including the ones we bought were sneezing. Which has made me think that it could be an allergen in our house which is causing this. I suggested this to our vets but they pretty much dismissed the idea and said "cat flu!!!" which was a little dissapointing.

These cats are indoor cats and they've not come into contact with any other cats.

The vets have suggested we go down the (costly) route of getting viral swabs. Which is almost a couple of hundred pounds per cat as they'd need to be sedated.

Has anyone else had a similar experiece to this and could share some advice? Is there still a chance that it could be an allergen? Are there any supplements you can get in the UK that could help with this sort of thing?

We are using the same litter as the breeder called Yesterdats News so it can't be that.

The only other thing i can think of is the food they eat, both of them really trough their food and try and breath at the same time, really sounds like they're almost snorting it. But i'm not sure how to tell a bengal to stop snorting their food. Doesn't matter if they're eating off a flat plate or out of a bowl, they still snort it up.

Hi Aaron,

they definitely sound like they have cat flu I'm afraid.
Your vet is right in saying that viral swabs need to be done. Without a proper diagnosis as to what virus they have it's going to be difficult to know what antibiotics are needed to cure it. Synulox or Baytril might not be the correct cure.

Do you have pet insurance ? I know this is a nuisance if you didn't keep it up but if the cats are covered then the insurance will cover most of the bill. I know most insurances you pay the first £30 and they pay the rest.

The snorting when they eat really sounds to me that they might not be able to breathe properly

I'm sorry I couldn't tell you a natural way of curing them

Keep us posted and good luck

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All the Best
Elaine Lomax
www.wildside-bengals.com

I used to catsit for some bengals over a year ago, and one of them had pretty much exactly the same sneezing problem as my two. However the lady who owned them did go down the route of viral swabs and after a lot of different tests they still couldn't find anything wrong with him. Again this bengal showed no other signs of illness, was very active and had a very healthy appetite. Incase you are wondering if this bengal infected my two, these bengals have never met and the last time i cat sat for them was 3 months before we even saw my two kittens for the first time.

I've made an appointment to see the vets again today, we do have insurance just the excess is £50 and i'm sure the premium will increase, which means I'll just be paying for it over a longer period of time.

The breeder did go on holiday for a week a couple of weeks before we actually brought the kittens home and while she was on holiday she put all the cats in a cattery and my suspicion is that they may have contracted a cat flu virus while in that cattery.

I say virus because every time they have antibiotics the sneezing does infact stop, it's just as soon as they end the course the sneezing starts again, so i figured a virus could be the primary cause and the secondary bacterial infection is what's causing the sneezing. And as virus' are increadibly difficult to treat once taken hold, I have a horrible suspicion that they can't be cured at all.

I've read in other places (maybe even here) that people have had some success with supplementing their cats with L-Lysine to help boost their immunne system, but I wont jump into this without getting some professional advice, that and i'm not even sure where to source that stuff in the UK.

Hi Aaron,

here is a link I found where you can buy Lysine http://www.nutrisun.co.uk/search.asp?wh ... ZgodPlJI6Q

Only thing there is I wouldn't know how much to give a cat without over dosing them !

we feed our cats on Royal Canin complete dried. we feed kittens on RoyalCanin Baby Cat and this food contains Lysine.
This is a link to Royal Canin and there is a telephone number on there and you could ask them which food is best for two 10 month old Bengals.
http://www.royalcanin.co.uk/

We feed our cats Whiskers or Felix once a aday just as a small treat. There isn't as much goodness in the tinned foods, it's mainly water. We much prefer the complete dried as it also keeps their teeth clean.

What food are you feeding them on at the moment ?
It could be worth switching their food.

You are probably guessing correctly that your cats picked something up whilst in the cattery. They can harbour viruses for months without showing any signs of illness and thern suddenly start to be ill.

I do say they need the correct antibiotic. Sounds like the antibiotic they've been on isn't strong enough to cure it.

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All the Best
Elaine Lomax
www.wildside-bengals.com

Results finally came back today and they came back negative for herpes, chlamydia and calicivirus (basically negative for everything they tested for). Got an appointment on saturday to find out what the next step is.

Hope all goes well aaron, my kitty had an conjuctivitus which has now gone thanks to eye drops and his sneezing is practically non existant. Do ur kittens eat 4 packs each?!?!?

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All the Best
Elaine Lomax
www.wildside-bengals.com