Jackson’s Battle with Chronic U.R.I.

I recently went through a herpes flare with my 1 1/2-year-old cat Jackson. Jackson was born to a feral mom, and was brought inside at 3 months old because he was sick. He was suffering from a runny nose and one of his eyes was crusty, so the vet gave him Clavamox and an ointment for his eye. The eye cleared up immediately, but the runny nose went away for about two weeks and then came back. He was given another round of Clavamox, which once again cleared it up for a few weeks. Do antibiotics work for chronic URI?

After that second round of Clavamox wore off, he remained boogery and after a month or so, the vet gave me a prescription for the antiviral medication Famcylovir. I read the pros and cons and decided not to give the medicine to Jackson. Although he sneezed “snot rockets” rather frequently, he was otherwise fine. You will know exactly why they are called that if you’ve experienced them! I am always shocked that something so large and sticky could shoot out of my little cat’s nostril! And when they hit the wall or floor, clean ’em up immediately, or you may never get them off! The vet referred to them as “ropey”, which I guess sounds more professional.

Since Jackson had nose issues since I brought him in, I held off getting him vaccinated or neutered because I was waiting for him to not be sick. When he was 11 months old, he started urine marking in random places around the house, and we couldn’t wait anymore. He was doing OK when I brought him in for his vaccines and scheduled his surgery, but the stress of the vet visit brought on a slight flare-up and we had to postpone the neuter.

A week later, while he was at the vet for his neuter surgery, he ejected a few snot rockets, and the vet gave him a shot of Covenia before they sent him home. I was told to call if the URI symptoms came back, which they did two weeks later. He was then given Azithromycin and was on that for 6 weeks. Aaaaaand then the nose congestion came back. At this point it was either keep him on the Azithromycin indefinitely, or just battle through on our own. I figured that since we had already tried numerous antibiotics, we should try some holistic approaches.

So, with this last flare, we decided to take care of it at home.