Sneezing & eye goo (ick)

[Ingrid's dad]

Matilda has come to live with me. She was born on April 21 and lived at the vet's until I adopted her last Saturday.

When I met her, they told me she'd had some discharge from her eyes, so they had had to flush her tear ducts.

Now that she's home, she's settling in just great, getting used to all the space that she never imagined might exist. I have two bedrooms closed off; even so, sometimes she has to retreat to her safe zone under my bed to consider it all. Big world out there, you know. Like, if the back door is open, there's even more space out there, which is practically mind-boggling; it's best to lie down way across the room and keep low, facing the door with all that bright light pouring in. Maybe that weird zone can be investigated in the future. No hurry.

I had worried that she might go nuts every night & keep me up. But so far, she's only awakened me by rolling dough against me, and I'm not going to curtail that.

However: Matilda sneezes. A lot. And lustily. It doesn't slow her down--I mean, it doesn't bother her at all--but I wonder what's up.

Yesterday when I got home, she had little grains of dried substance [???] at the lower inner corners of her eyes by her nose. Larger than little flakes: they felt like scabs. She let me remove those, and she obviously felt better afterward, but after a while I noticed that some goo had come out. I think the goo (some sort of mucus that looked almost like pus) had been bottled up inside by the dried grains.

Yes, I know: Like, ewwwwwwwww, man! Nasty.

The edges of her little eye sockets are fairly red and inflamed, too. Not swollen--just red.

Anybody have any ideas? Does this sound familiar to anyone? If I see the same thing tonight when I go home, I'm going to check into getting some special antibiotic eye ointment from my vet. Since she lived at the vet's office a while, she may have picked up some kind of conjunctivitis (you know, "pink eye") or eye infection that another critter brought in there.

She doesn't try to rub her eyes or anything; the only action I've seen that is at all unusual is all that sneezing. She has a normal appetite, she plays just like a kitten should, and she doesn't seem to have a fever. She acts happy.

But this is kind of gross, and I don't think it can be a good sign.

[jazzcat]

Those are the same symptoms my Jazz had when we adopted her. Turns out she had a nasty URI (upper respiratory infection). She needed antibiotics for a couple of weeks. I think she took Clavamox.

Sounds like Matilda may have a cold. I'm surprised the vet where you adopted her didn't catch that.

Congrats on your newest family member!

[Ingrid's dad]

Well, last night when I got home, it didn't take long for Matilda to sneeze, and it blew a little green wad on my forearm.

She doesn't seem uncomfortable, but this cannot be good.

So tonight we're gonna begin a course of 3cc Vibramycin every 12 hours until the stuff is all gone. And from the looks of this bottle, that could take a while.

I hope this kitty is okay with oral meds. Ingrid was <*NOT*>.

I hope I can ease her into it & make it seem routine.

BTW: For any mammals, it is important to take the entire course of antibiotics prescribed. Because if you just quit when you're feeling better, it can come roaring back stronger than ever. You have to kill the bad germs. All of 'em.

[catnapper]

Welcome!

Yup, it sounds like the little sweetie has a bit of a cold. Sounds like you're also right on top of it!

If she starts sounding pretty bad and congested, you can put her in the bathroom with you so she can breathe in the steam. Like it helps us, it'll help her. Good luck with this little one!

[Laura's Babies]

Congratulations on your new Baby!! Sounds to me like you are on top of her problem so I hope this will do the trick and she will be better soon. PICTURES? A formal introduction for us please.....

[Ingrid's dad]

Matilda's doing well. Still sneezes now & then, but not anywhere near as often as before, and there's no nasty residue blown out of her little nostrils.

She tolerates the oral meds okay. That stuff has a weird purple color, and I have no idea what it tastes like but it smells sweet. Seems as if it would be more palatable to a cat if it were salty or suspended in some fish oil or whatever. Matilda doesn't understand what we're doing or exactly enjoy it, but she doesn't fight with me or try to spit it out (a very different thing than her predecessor Ingrid), and she swallows the stuff like a good girl, and she lets me wipe her little face if a bit dribbles out. Then she gets some canned food.

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I don't have a digital camera or a scanner, so my picture-posting ability is kind of limited.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

So sorry to hear your new little sweety pie is sick. :( It does seem surprising since she came from a vet. I could see this if she came from a shelter, but it seems the vet should have noticed....but I guess that's here nor there right now.

Glad she tolerates the meds. My RB Tubby was the easiest cat in the world to pill, so I was in for a shocker when I got Cracker Jack. He fights like the devil when it comes to pilling and I wasn't prepare for that the first few times. Glad your experience went the other way (from hard to easy to medicate). Makes it so much easier if you're expecting trouble and get none rather than expecting none and getting a handful! :rolleyes: ;)

I have a scaner and a digital camera, so if you'd like, you could snail mail me some pictures, I'll get them digitized and email them back to you. I'd love to see your new little sweety pie - and some of Ingrid too if you wish. Just PM me if you like and I'll reply with my snail mail address. :)

[Ingrid's dad]

She runs around like crazy and nothing slows her down. It just used to be that she sneezed a whole lot as she played. Now she sneezes much less often.

This might have been something that came on fast. Or something that came on slow & only manifested itself around the time I brought kitty home. But my vet waived the adoption fee and gave me the medicine, too, so I don't have any complaints.

I think Matilda is gonna be HUGE. She eats a lot more than Ingrid ever did. She still has her baby teeth. Her paws are gigantic (especially when she does the milk tread).

She had been trying to tell me "I need something to scratch on," and when I brought her a little carpet-covered house, she caught on immediately. Like "Oh, man, I am gonna love shredding this."

I live in a well-wired town (Austin, Texas) so I can use a scanner 'most any time I want. There have just been lots of other things going on (like settling into a house, Ingrid's illness, etc) that have prevented me from doing any of that stuff. It's not my top priority. But thanks for the offer of help.