Cats and colds - bad colds

My cats blackie and Lucy both have colds.

for months blacky has been sneezing but last night I came home to find him really stuffed up and sneezing bad. I could hear him breath all night and he would sneeze all over my hair as I tried to sleep. Can I give him some of the antibiotics another cat I have - patches - is using for his abscessed foot? Do antibiotics help that?

Another cat I have - Lucy - also has a cold and I'm afraid it will get as bad as blackies.

What should I do. Blackies so stuffed up and sneezing.

If I take him to the vet before saturday it's a big ordeal because of how far I commute and the lenght of time I'll be gone. of course if I have to, I'll get him to the vet.

Cats generally don't get observable colds like humans do. What you're describing could be a more serious condition. And if more than one has it, it could be a serious infectious illness that could spread to all of them.

Also, don't give any cat unprescribed antibiotics. The particular antibiotic might not work for that illness (if it's a virus, it won't work at all), and might have other bad side effects or create an immunity that would leave him vulnerable to later illnesses.

they want to see the cat to make sure it doesn't turn into pnemonia and isn't anything else.

she's usually quite demanding of attention, outgoing and just a little precious (she's the last of 3 cats, and she was quite traumatised as a kitten before i 'stole' her')...anyway, i posted a call for info when she began hiding away, refusing to eat or drink, it became quite scary. i was able to get her to vet the day after she showed symptoms, and for a few days after seeing doctor, she still hid away etc, again w/out drinking or eating....the vet prescribed 62.5 mg ' clavamox' and this is how it worked:
saturday- missy2 is sneezing, alot
sunday- missy 2 seems to have trouble breathing, but she's around most of day. she begans hiding sunday eve.
monday- i take her in morning to vet, she's stuffed up and lethargic
tuesday- missy hides all day, i put treats and water by her in morn, after work, she still under bed. i give her 1st pill.
i continued giving her pills every 12 hours after, but she never noticeably improved until friday , when she came out to eat etc...she still had sniffles etc so kept dosing her until sunday, when all symptoms were gone.
maybe the vet could, on your description of symptoms, prescribe some clavamox. if you go back to nov 18 there's a thread
about the case, and alot of info from some very knowlegable people. good luck!
Woops! i just checked the dates: it appears missy 2 was actually sick for a whole week! i posted on nov 18th, which was end of the week...so she was ill from the 13th til the 24th, a thursday. again good luck :)

I got a cold a few weeks ago and was sneezing. A few days later, my two cats started sneezing for a couple of days. It seemed as though they caught a milder version of what I had.

My and blackies symptoms were the same last night.

Yes, research has now proven that cats can in fact catch a few versions of the human "cold", which is actually a whole group of distinct viruses, some related, some not.

My clients used to ask me this for years, and I always said NO, viruses except rabies are species-specific. But now I know better! I have observed that often when a cat catches a human respiratory virus, there is more coughing and less sneezing than with the common cat colds. But not to worry - when a ct catches a human cold it is generally mild, and they CANNOT pass it on to another person or even another cat - it dead-ends.

When cats get a respiratory virus I always treat now with L-lysine, because most of the cat URIs are due to Feline Herpesvirus, which is inhibited by lysine. But it has no effect on rhinoviruses or the other varieties, or feline calicivirus.

I'm sure blackie caught mine then.

Poor dear was totally stuffed up and sneezing like crazy, watery eyes, etc. The shelter gave me Zpak and he was about 75% better within 2 days. Now, 4 weeks later, he's starting to sneeze again! :-( I hope he doesn't get it bad again.

from an apt last night. He had been locked in for days at his old abandoned home.

His eyes were gooped shut and so was his nose. His breathing very pnemonic. He had lost a lot of weight. I don't know how long he was in there. Me and his former caretaker -a friend of mine, broke the law by going in that place to look for him. The door was unlocked and thank God we found him. He would have been dead.

Rich - his former care taker who lost his place, is taking tuxedo to the vet this morning. Tuxedo will stay with me until Rich gets his new apt. Tuxedo was to stay at my place anyway but didn't come home for several days - over a week and I told Rich I was worried about him. He's always been an outdoor cat. He's not really homeless now because Rich will keep him forever. But he's one of the strays rich took in - Rich had 20 cats. I house 3 of his right now and feed 2 more who won't come inside, like he used to feed them. Tuxedo was one who wouldn't stay inside long but would come in for Rich. It got cold so he went through a now fixed, broken window at rich's old place. The owners of the complex fixed it and probably accidentally locked tuxedo inside.

Anyway, this should be a warning. Don't ignore cats and colds - Tuxedo was only sneezing when I saw him a few weeks ago. Now he literally looks and acts half dead.

I'm on pins waiting to hear if the vet can help him. Of course I'm at work.

added note - nearly all of richs cats - except the wildest, went to no-kill shelters when he got evicted. So he did try to care for them even though he could'nt anymore. I met him because he was bringing food around outside for them every night.

He is very sick but he should make it.