Chronic Rhinitis in cats
 

Hi members - hoping you can offer some advice. :fingerscr
Baci has had it rough for a bunch of months. He's had months and 4 courses of different antibiotics to help a serious sneezing/cold. More recently breathing became more laboured at night so we were doubly concerned. So for those that don't know him, My (7ish year old male neutered sweet) sphynx just had a full-on general anesthesia involving CT scan and biopsy. Results are negative thank dog and diagnosis is........... chronic rhinitis.

There's one more (expensive once again) respiratory virus PCR test to determine if the cause of the rhinitis might be viral - but so far seems like chronic rhinitis is the diagnosis... and spot antibiotics are the first choice of treatment even though they haven't helped much in the past. But he's cool with pills hidden in soft food.(One of his nicknames is Jimmy the scavenger).

During the biopsy and while he was under they flushed his nasal cavity. It has helped somewhat but even today he again sounds nasally congested and goes through the occasional 15-20 sneezes in a row sneezing fit. Full on snot gets to decorate our apartment at each sneezing fit. Lots of times the snot is chunky and sticks to the walls. Gross - yuck. We still love the cat but gross - yuck.

Also prescribed is flushing his nostrils with Salinex. Holy carp, :evil: He'll love that about as much as i like getting kicked in the jewels. And to be honest, I'm not sure we can pull it off he hates it so much...

aside from the now constant congestion and occasional laboured nightly breathing, he eats, sleeps and poops great. He grooms great as well though you really hear the congestion when he's grooming.

So that's our story as of late - any advice? Thanks for listening. :grouphug:

many thx as always!

Good Morning Marko:
Been out of the loop for a couple of weeks while we moved from one side of Lake Superior to the other. Now we're up and running again.
Sorry to hear of your situation with Baci.
My humble suggestion would be to use a couple of drops of Colloidal Silver every evening in each nostril. Keep the strength to between 5 and 10 ppm. It's good for general care around cats as well as humans. I've personally used it as a nasal spray, and have also applied it to my cats' nostrils with good results in both cases.
An eye surgeon who did my cataract surgery some years ago, suggested using by applying a 5 to 10 ppm in the eyes when they were tired from driving or irritated. And he also uses it for his dogs when they have been running in the bush or grass, to help alleviate irritation from grass scratches.
The nice thing about Colloidal Silver is that it should not have any effect with any other prescription medications.
Monitor it closely. After a few days, you may be able to have to apply only every 2 or 3 days. I hope that it helps to clear up the situation. In due time you should be able to eliminate using it altogether. But you would have it handy should it re-occur.
It's also great stuff applied to a cat scratch - or any other abrasion - takes the sting right out within a couple of minutes.

Much appreciated Reg! :goodvibes:

marko -

Are you using L-Lysine ?[quote].........[U]it is likely that feline herpesvirus type 1 may play a have paroxysmal recurrence causing exacerbation of disease in some cats.[/U] [B][COLOR="Blue"]Lysine (500 mg PO q12h) therapy may benefit some of these cats.[/COLOR][/B] [B]Lysine replaces arginine in viral proteins rendering them nonfunctional and [I][U]thereby reducing viral replication[/U][/I].[/B] For those cats demonstrating response to lysine, therapy may be continued indefinitely as it is safe to use in young or older cats.

[URL="http://bluepearlvet.com/chronic-rhinitis-in-cats/"]BluePearl Veterinary Partners - Chronic Rhinitis in Cats[/URL][/quote]

One of our older cats also has a chronic nasal problem. He had his teeth pulled because of problems, and we hoped we'd see an improvement in the sinus infections, but there wasn't any. I took him to the vet two weeks ago, the last time was January. He was really bad, you could hear him walking into the room the way he was breathing. They gave him another steroid shot, which takes a couple of weeks to work, but does help. Trouble is that it only helps for awhile. Last time they also gave him a antibiotic shot, because he used to be a feral cat and can't be picked up and won't let you handle him to medicate him. This time a different vet said it would help him more if I could give him Veraflox once a day. The first two days I was able to take him by surprise,but day three to ten have been horrible. I'm not even sure how much I'm getting in to him because of the struggle. Vet says he shouldn't get the steroid shot very often, but can get the meds whenever needed. Theres no way I'm going through this on a regular basis, when I walk into a room the cats gone and in hiding for the rest of the day.
If you find something that helps that doesn't have to be done daily. please let me know.

really appreciate the advice everyone - please keep it coming. :goodvibes: My cat will not tolerate a syringe in the mouth or nasal spray - but pills (or liquid meds that can be mixed with soft food) are no problem at all when hidden in food.

lindapalm- seems like we may be in a similar boat. Can you name the steroid shot your cat got - and do you think the veraflox helped?

Rustycat - I've tried l-lysine before....didn't appear to help much.

many thx again

[QUOTE=marko;1067670]Rustycat - I've tried l-lysine before....didn't appear to help much.[/QUOTE]

Unless the trial was a rigorous twice daily 500mg never-miss dosing over a long period, I wouldn't consider it a valid test of its efficacy.

Also, with a condition like this, we really must keep a log - a diary - , a calendar record of exactly what's happening - that includes everything from episodes of sneezing (or other presentations), meds, supplements etc........without that, our ability to distinguish what works/doesn't and our overall perception of a condition becomes cloudy....translation: inaccurate.....which means no change.

Just some personal experiential feedback/suggestion.

Marko, because the steroid shot and Veraflox were both done about the same time, its hard to tell which helps. Supposedly you should do both for best results. The steroid isn't supposed to kick in right away, it takes maybe two weeks from what I've seen. Our cat is probably 60% better and I think he'll continue to improve for at least a week. I don't know the name of the steroid, but if you decide to go that route I can find it out. The bad part is the improvement doesn't last for more than a few months, and then gradually he starts to get congested again. The vet said I can get the Veraflox again soon if needed, the shot not so often. He feels that it is going to be something that is never going to go away and will have to be continuously treated.

I forgot to mention, Marko, the chunks on the walls are real fun to try to get off, aren't they? You have to scrub so hard there's no paint left.

thanks again for all the advice - we should be seeing our regular vet this week and I'll discuss all these options with her.

and yes lindapalm...the dried snot everywhere is yet another joy of this frustration - it's making carmy crazy....but she's so sympathetic to what Baci is going through...she has the hugest heart. :lovestruck:

The best though is when the snot-chunks land on us....and yes, both of us have taken a full on snot-chunk storm right to the face.

The more advice the better so if anyone has anything extra to add, please do :grouphug:

Its amazing the things we put up with, but what else can you do?