Cats getting colds?

duckie1905

So the other night I heard my cat sneeze for the first time.  I SQUEEEEEED for an hour because it was adorable but, she continued to sneeze.  Her nose is runny but her appetite is okay.  There isn't anything in the house that would be causing her to sneeze that is out of the ordinary.

DH is taking her the vet tomorrow but, I'm just curious, can cats catch colds?  She's my first cat so I've never experienced it before but I can't recall in all my years as a dog owner any of my dogs ever catching a cold.

aggiebug

How old is she?

There are several reasons cats may sneeze. One of the most common is a recurrent viral infection that can make them feel sick, sneeze and have a runny nose. There is nothing to treat the viral aspect but sometimes antibiotics can help a secondary bacterial infection. They tend to get another bout when they are stressed.

schuette2

Our Lola sneezes on occasion - usually when it's too dry in the house in winter. Yes, kitties can get colds. Hope she feels better!

duckie1905

My little Tammy is 5 1/2.

DH took her to the vet.  Nothing too serious; sounds like the viral infection aggie described.  He gave us as antihistamine for her. 

Getting her to take pills has been a life-changing experience.  She's too smart for her own good.

erollis

Glad you have it figured out. Our Kali (going on 8y) had her first "cold" after getting her teeth cleaned. The vet checked her out and gave her meds. And she does sneeze if something in the air is bothering her. Went out of town once where both her and H were sneezing the entire time in the other city. But yes they can get actual colds.

iwantcake

URG, giving cats pills is quite the experience...hope she is feeling better!!

formerlyGDaisy09

Our Jelly Bean had chronic upper respirtory infections after we adopted her, anti-biotics usually helped.  I would swaddle her in a blanket to pill her, easier for me, quicker for her, and I avoided scratches.  she's much better about pills now (or maybe i'm more confident in giving them to her). 

I highly recommend the "kitty-taco"

duckie1905

Ha, kitty taco.

It ended up being a 2-person job.  One of us bundled her in a towel and held her, the other mashed up a pill, sprinkled it in her open mouth, and then gave her some water.

She's done with the meds now and feeling better, but she's still looking at me like any minute I'm going to attack with with a bath towel.

formerlyGDaisy09

the other thing I'd recommend is seeing if your vet has a pill shooter, basically a long plastic thing that you put the pill in, get it in kitty's mouth and push a plunger to administer the pill, it's faster and less traumatic for the cat because you're not worried about the cat biting your fingers. 

becareful mashing up pills, unless the vet tells you that you can do so, some pills are designed to time-release medications and mashing them up speeds up how fast the meds get into kitty's system and could cause her to acutely have too much drug in her system

duckie1905

Vet gave us permission to mash so this worked best for her.

I think next time around we'll probably pay for the compounding if available or try the pill shooter.  She's my first cat and I've always had dogs.  Medication time in our house with the dogs is like Christmas.  It never even occurred to me that the cat that lets us bathe her and cut her nails would reject pills!

formerlyGDaisy09

cats are finiky, mine are much easier with pills than they used to be....some of it may be that i'm more confident giving them pills. so they don't sense that moment of hesitation.