Sneezing kitty...Please help.

[Anonymous]

I have an 8 yr old male cat who I have been concerned about lately.

Every four to five mos., he gets this sneezing weeks. I say "weeks" because they usually last more than one week.
He will just sneeze over + over and when he is not sneezing, his nose has clear liquid coming out. I use a tissue and clean him, and one nostril is usually dripping more than the other. When he breathes, I can hear him and sometimes he gets a little bubble coming out of his little nostril. Aww.....

Anyway, he is typically like this for a few weeks, then miraculously gets better. Then a few mos. later, he starts sneezing again and here we go.
I have another 8 yr old male cat who does not seem to catch what my sneezing cat has at all.

Your thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Uh, vet?

[Anonymous]

I think your cat has feline herpes. Mine came from the breeder with it. Not curable. It can be picked up outdoors, at a cat show, or at the vets. I've tried oral lysine. Powdered lysine in the food. Everything. The cat is now 7 years old but in periods of stress starts the sneezing and throws loogies out her nose. It's gross but I feel an obligation to take care of the cat until the bitter end. Unfortunately, she has given this to my other cats. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_herpes

[Anonymous]

Can't this also be caused by dental issues?

[Anonymous]

respiratory issues in cats can be serious, get him/her to a vet pronto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uh, vet?

I know that, but I just wanted some input from other kitty owners.

Because again, it comes and goes.

But yes, I will most definitely take my kitty to see the Animal Doc.

[Anonymous]

We went through this last year and Dr. Google DVM freaked me the f out, so we took him to the vet right away. Sneezing can be caused by respiratory problems (but if you aren't seeing any gunk anywhere, this is less likely), nose obstruction, like getting something stuck up there (if it comes and goes, also less likely), allergies, or a tooth problem, which can be very painful. I was expecting either an obstruction or dental issue, and was very worried. Vet did the exam and ruled out everything but allergies. He gave us some relatively cheap allergy medication (for like 10 days or something, not forever), the sneezing stopped and never came back.

Definitely go in and see your vet. It's not an automatic huge bill, but it could be something really serious.

[Anonymous]

I had a dog who did the same thing. He got sneezing spells that came and went. Went to the vet, they put him on allergy medications that helped a little, but the problem kept coming back.

Then we had xrays done... it was a nasal tumor.

Go the vet and ask for an xray. That will at least save you the torment of several vet visits while you try allergy meds. Just get the xray to rule out a tumor. Then you can feel certain it is allergies and not either a tumor or obstruction.

[Anonymous]

Our cat had sneezing fits due to feline herpes.

[Anonymous]

18:21 back. Did you read the wikipedia piece about feline herpes? This is an epidemic among cats. I wasn't clear in my post but you must take your cat to the vet to be checked out. It was my vet that gave me the diagnosis 8 years ago and he was dead-on. I had never heard of it. Unfortunately, none of the lysine products he suggested worked. If you find anything please post. I'm on annual physicals with this vet and up tp date on the literature but if you learn of anything that will help please post back. Cats with feline herpes also develop bad gum and dental issues because of immune issues. I Just paid another $500 dental bill for cleaning and extractions of one cat that my first cat infected. The episodes of sneezing will come and go. If we leave for a long weekend and have a housesitter to take care of the cats, the cat will often start sneezing or be sneezing when I return. The vet said my departure is a big stressor for the cat.