Feral Cat with URI

Aha!

I have done my research, made my purchases, and await mealtime.

Petsmart is turns out, only sells the tapeworm pills online....3 for about $20. Each pill is 23mg, and you give one, and then one more in three weeks. The active ingredient drug in that is Praziquantel, 23 mg.

I also discovered the popular antibiotic for cats URI's is amoxicillin, which is found in a aquarium fish product "Mox Fish"...alas, also only sold on line.

Since I was in the fish dept anyway, I looked through what they did have, and found the following...

An aquarium product called "General Cure" an anti-parasitic fish medication, the ingrediants being....Praziquantel! It also contains Metronidazole, which is also perscribed for cats, and is something to soothe their stomach.

The same company also made an anti-bacterial fish medication....E.M. Erythromycin......another antibiotic.

I checked with the vet there, who told me the Metronidzole is safe, and that they do prescribe erythromycin for cats.

yay.

So, I just figured the dosages so as not to overdose the little dear, and will begin treatment when he decides to show up.

You keep giving the erythromicin for 2 weeks after symptoms go away.

Good luck on this, Chai...

Sounds like a good start, but whadda I know. I do remember that Erythromycin was a commonly used prescribed drug for humans back in my clinical lab days of yore; seem to remember it worked for some things well and not not so much others (that was back when we used to do culture and sensitivities routinely -- when a prescription was written based on what happened on an agar plate.) I looked it up now, and it seems it's still used as a broad spectrum antibiotic.

Fish meds were exactly what I was going to suggest.

Along with some baby benadryl in his food.
This will help dry things up a bit so that the meds can work a bit faster.
( this was something a vet told me a few years ago )

Take baby benadryl and less then 1/4 teaspoon, pour it over the food, or mix in.

You sweetheart, you! So nice of you to put the effort in to figure out how to help him. Whaddya tryin to do, restore my faith in human nature?

AAACCKK!

The little bastid.

I figure "snikie" would chow down on anything, so I got his meds mixed up in a small bit of the food, and buried it in more. Then, I left it in the microwave so roland wouldn't sample it, until dinner time.

I'm layin' out on the porch in the swing, purusing the latest edition of Tiger Beat Magazine, when I hear the "AAACCCK! CHAAAAAACCCK! ZZZZOORRRT" that heralds snikies arrival.

I gives him his special dinner, he takes one bite, and stares at it for an eon.

So....I go inside, and make up a pot of brown gravy (from a powder) and pour it all over the mess thinking "That's GOT to disguise any taste".

One lick of gravy, then he went over and hunched by the front door like Kevin, my gargoyle.

Shewolf, you saw him that one time, didn't you? What....a....mess.....

He looks like Bill the Cat, if anyone remembers....

Chai--

The parasites are riding in his brain and not permitting any fishy cure.

Don't get too optimistic with any medication, Chai. At least in my area, most of the feral cats with respiratory infections are chronic cases of Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis (FVR). FVR is the feline form of herpesvirus, so recovery generally results in a carrier state. Feral or not, you can give these guys antibiotics (as stated earlier in the thread, it's usually amoxicillin) and they will get better - for a while. Relapses tend to occur around every 60 to 120 days. In the meantime, you hear a fair amount of sneezing and sniffling, but they rarely go off feed unless they are undergoing a rather severe outbreak. The only long-term negatives I saw were that they act as a reservoir to infect other cats, especially kittens, and that they tend to lose their teeth as they get older, apparently due to severe gum recession. That's about all I can tell you about them.

Invite cjhsa over.

Hi cowdoc, I was hoping you'd see this and respond.

If I may, can I ask you a couple more questions?

This AM, when I fed him, I mixed up the dose in 1 and 1/2 times his normal amount of food, and ONLY the ery...I was thinking the taste of 2 drugs together was overpowering.

He ate, but not much...obviously the taste. Normally he eats anything like a champ.

So, I'm first thinking to halve the dose again, but then he wouldn't be getting enough treatment, so is it worth it? Or will he eventually just eat it all when he gets hungry enough?

Or, from what you say about this not taking him off his feed, should I just leave the whole thing alone, and let him wheeze and snork all winter?

In other words, will what he has kill him if I don't treat it?

Yes, I read about a cat becoming a carrier, but my 2 grown cats come into no contact with him, and we always wash our hands after feeding him. They are strictly indoors, and he is strictly out there (in more ways than one)

Oh, we built a shelter out of the wind for him, it'll get into the teens at night sometimes.

What about the tapeworm? If he eats some of the food with the Praz....whatever in it, should I treat him every month or something?

Finally, is there anything I can use to disguise the taste further, and is the erythromycin any good at all? (I read they use that more for LRI, but hey, it's what I could get)

perish the thought.

I thought you might say that.

Seriously though, If the cat is feral/stray, it may recover to infect other cats, some of them loved houshold pets.

Feral cats are known to carry and spread disease such as toxoplasmosis which can be fatal for several Australian native species (i imagine its the same in the US), as well as causing sickness in other livestock, and even humans.

Its nice that you care though.

oh yeah dadpad, I've thought about that too.

this guy showed up out of nowhere last Fall.

Pretty much stays to himself. I've never seen any sign of him fighting.

I'm well acquainted with the cats of my neighbors, the one's who go outside.

They honestly don't interact with him, and vice versa.

Hey, Chai, I was just thinking-- when I give my cats medications that they don't like the taste of, I put a little tuna and a lot of tuna juice in with their food. I think it's strong enough to overpower the taste & smell of medications pretty well. They never have a problem with medications when I do that.

I'll have to try that tonight cypher.

I have a feeling he'll eat around it though.

I mixed the powder in with a whole can of Friskies Captains Table or something like that (he gets the name brand, the inside kids get iams or science diet) PLUS a tiny can of some Purino one (3 oz) I got on sale.

Maybe it's because the taste permeated the entire thing.

I just got back form Home Depot, and 80% of the food from this AM is still there, I'm just gonna throw it out.

Or, do you want some? It's nice and warm from sitting in the sun.



When I had to give dr. lulu abromowitz her pill, we had the flip onto back, finger on side of jaw to open, pill dropped far back in throat, shocked look on dr. a's face, and release, all it 5 seconds flat. It was like a pit stop at the Indy 500.

jezzer takes a syringe to the back of her throat....she's that kind of girl.

shoot....I don't think anything is gonna work.

Chai--

I've found cheap lox works for giving cats medicine--the cheaper the better.

lox huh?

yeah, you find a lot of that here....

I'll look for some tomorrow at the grocery store near work. The area near work has I think the highest Jewish population around there, it's even got a kosher butcher and everything.

Chai--

Cheap, oily lox.

Be prepared for jealousy.

The disease that Cowdoc mentioned is pretty prevalent in our tri-state area of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. It's a booger for sure. Kittens often don't survive. I have found that cats that have had their shots, if they contract this, seem to fair much better than cats that don't have their shots.

I was wondering what Cowdoc thinks of Zithromax? That is what my vet gives me for my cats and they seem to do very well on it. I mix it with their food and they don't seem to have a problem with the taste.

I think it's awesome you are doing this Chai! Not enough people in this world care about animals. The bad thing about this disease is it extremely contagious. It took me quite awhile to get it completely out of my shelter.

I work at an an automall and have about 15 feral cats I feed. Some for 2 years and since they've never been fixed 2016 brought a lot of kittens. I've never seen one of them sick until recently due to this year the rain/temperature has been bad. One of the kittens is so sick with an upper respiratory infection and I've tried to trap him to no avail and now the others are sniffing and have watery eyes. It has stressed me out that I can't help them and I even went to a vet who just told me to catch him and bring him in. I need to know if anybody has had success in any non prescribed because it is heart breaking to slowly see him die.