RE: Introduction

[Hideyo Yamamoto]

I would personally suggest you stop Metronidazale for now. I am not sure why he needs to take it.  Just so that you know what your kitty has is viral and not bacterial and antibiotics will not treat that URIs which are viral related.   Often times, you need to let it run its course… antibiotics may suppress some of the symptoms on the surface level and, but the symptoms will reoccur until the viral run its course..  The reason the kitty has diarrhea may something to do with the dosage of V-C- how much were you giving to him?  You NEED to give him subQ fluid every day if he is not eating on his own.. force feeding food and water will not give enough for survival sometimes,, and you will need to give him some vitamin or other nutritional supplement as the baby food will not complete the need for a cat – you really don’t need to stop V-C as it is antioxidant and it’s good for him, but make the dosage smaller and make sure that you give enough fluid so that he is not dehydrated (you can ask your vet to show you how to do it).. but try to stop Metronidale for now – I don’t think it’s doing anything to him.. antibiotics really cure the very problem, only suppress the symptoms on the surface.. and you need to be careful with any immune compromised kitties like FIV or FeLV what you give them as their immune system is already very compromised.  I rarely treat my animals with antibiotics.. (I have lost one of my 6 months old baby from Baytril and ever since then, I am very careful as to what I give him) I follow holistic approach for all my cats for the most of the time, and have been really satisfied with it… Again, don’t worry too much if the URIs symptoms last for a couple of weeks, that’s what the viral infection does.. the meantime, you need to give him fluid and force feeding as a support therapy.. If his nose it stuffed, that may have something to do with not having an appetite… Does he have a fever?  What other conditions does he have?  You might want to have your vet run the complete blood work done to make sure there is nothing else going on.  Again, whenever before you give a drug to your kitty, you might want to research on line any side effect or post messages here so that you can pay pre-cautions.  I am very conservative when coming to western drugs.. but again, I have reason to be due to the past experience.   I hope he will feel better soon (you might want to give V-B complex and V-B 12 injection to him every few days, too) – Also, you might want to give Liver shake (ask for a recipe on the list if you want) – it’s very good for FeLK kitties.. humidifier might help.  I have 4 kittens who have URIs for a few months now – but as long as they are eating and playing, I don’t worry too much about it.. I lost my Henry because he was having light URIs for a long time, but he was still playing and eating and very happy.. then, the vet prescribed baytrill and he died within 72 hours… I wish I had never given it to him.. but it’s a very bitter lesson for me to learn…   Hideyo   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Marissa Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 7:17 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Introduction   Hello!    I am so happy to have found this mailing list.  My name is Marissa and I wanted to introduce my little guy, Jake.  I adopted Jake only a couple months ago from a rescue group that I had been fostering for.  I was moving to a new city and decided I wanted to take a cat with me, and since FeLV cats are so hard to adopt out, and little Jake was just too cute for words, I decided he deserved to not be in a cage for the rest of his life so I adopted him.    He is such a great cat.  So playful, affectionate, silly, sweet.  Just a good little guy.  Soon after I adopted him he started coughing and sneezing and had a fever.  Probably something he caught when he was surrounded by other cats in the rescue shelter.  He was on Baytril and the vet kept him on it because he seemed to get better with it, and every time I would take him off of it he would start sneezing or coughing.  The vet also gave me vitamin C to give to him as a supplement.  Then about a week ago he started to have diarrhea.  Vet put him on Metronidazale.  Then a couple days ago he stopped having an appetite.  The vet thinks it may be the vitamin C upsetting his stomach, so I stopped that, and have been force feeding him baby food and water.  He still has no appetite (only stopped the C about 36 hours ago) and isn't quite himself, although he isn't totally lethargic either.     I just hope that this isn't the "beginning of the end."  Jake is about 2.5 years old and I don't know much about his history other than his previous owner surrendered him at the beginning of the year.  I would appreciate any advice from others experienced with FeLV cats as well as any tips on force feeding.  I hate to do it but I don't see any other option.  The vet says if hes not better he wants to run a bunch of tests on him, which I hope I don't have to do.   Thanks for reading and for all of your help!   Marissa