@Dr. Jeff , @Dr. Christina , @Dr. Sara ,
Hello! I have a little guy, Banjo (domestic short-hair, mix), whom I adopted from an animal rescue when he was approximately 6-8 weeks old. He is now almost 6 (in August).
When he was rescued, he was the only one of his litter that did not require surgery for his eye disease (I don’t know what the disease was called but it required all but him to have their eye removed) but he has lasting tissue attached slightly to his eyeball, which the vet who treated him did not feel warranted surgery at the time, and since then, his current and past vets agreed that it doesn’t seem to bother him greatly. As a result, he always had a leaky eye on that side (his right side), which I always assumed was due to the attached skin.
Fast forward to last year when he came down with a sinus infection. At that time, he was put on antibiotics, azithromiacin (spelling?), I believe. They also gave him one to put directly in his eye but I don’t remember what that was called and I don’t know if it was an antibiotic. To my surprise, his leaky eye cleared up for the first time ever and his sniffles and discharge improved but did not entirely go away. At this point, his vet put him on an antiviral for a time (she was just guessing his diagnosis and assumed that he had one) but it only seemed to make him worse. We took him off of it since his discomfort had cleared considerably and let him coast for a bit.
It was also noted that he had lost nearly 2 pounds since his last visit, which was either at 3 years or maybe 2 (but I’m assuming 3 because he was probably in for his 3 year vaccine).
I moved to another state in October and by January his sneezing and discharge got bad again and I made an appointment with his current vet but they couldn’t fit him in until February since he was a new patient (poor guy). At this time, I was feeling like let’s just stop guessing at what is going on with him and had them run a test for viruses. It turns out he has Calicivirus, which he likely contracted from my former roommate’s cat who also had a sneezing/discharge issue but couldn’t be fully treated for it because he had other health issues (renal failure being the major one) and was too fragile to risk the antibiotic side effects, they determined. So he was put back on antibiotics in February, this time Doxycycline, given saline drops for his nose, and I was told to give him Fortiflora.
His sniffles (and eye) cleared up entirely, his energy went through the roof, and his appetite increased. He was doing great for awhile but by April 6th he was back on the Doxycycline, fortiflora, and they told me to add Lysine to his meals and give him an appetite enhancer. Once again, his sniffles and eye cleared up, his energy raised, and his appetite increased. I admit that I didn’t give him the appetite enhancer at first because I felt like I was already doing a lot “TO” him and I knew that when he felt better he would eat more, which indeed happened within a few days of the antibiotic treatment. Once he was back to his high energy levels, I began with the appetite enhancer and he started to eat more than usual... but then after a few days he didn’t eat for almost two whole days and I felt sketched out about that so I stopped giving it to him. I just feel like, if he’s healthy, he would eat properly so it feels weird to me to meddle with his appetite like that. I am open to being wrong about this manner of thinking and please do correct me if I’m wrong but it just doesn’t feel right to me...
I am here because I want (desperately) to get to the root problem and FIX it so he can go back to being a healthy and energetic cat! Throwing antibiotics at him constantly is giving me anxiety about what that is doing to his microbiome and overall health and ability to heal. So now it is May 29th and the sniffles have been back for a week. Not extreme but becoming more so each day and I am just dreading taking him back for more antibiotics, though the last time I spoke to the vet she basically said that he would likely have to be taking them off and on for the rest of his life (yikes!) but switching to azithromiacin (?) because it’s not as strong as the Doxycycline. There has to be more that can be done... right?
So his current regimen is: I feed him two cans/day of Royal Canin Adult Instinctive (which I add a little water to for extra hydration, though he seems to be pretty decent at drinking on his own) and supplement with dry kibble ad libitum. Please don’t hate me for this but the dry kibble is Evolution brand and the reason I give him this is because I was giving him Wellness Core for the longest time and then someone gave me the Evolution as a sample so I gave it to him IN ADDITION to his wet food and the dry Wellness just to see if he would even give it the time of day and he basically snubbed the wellness for the Evolution, which actually shocked me. For a LONG period of time, I had both dry food available for him to choose from and he consistently snubbed the Wellness and never ate it in favor of the Evolution. So I give him the Evolution to supplement his wet food, which he only eats a negligible amount of (like maybe 1-2 tbsps/day). I would give him 3 cans/day of the wet food if he would eat it but he has always only eaten the two and then wasted the 3rd, so I just add a little extra water to the wet food and let him eat the dry when he is out of wet.
Full disclosure: I am vegan but I am NOT trying to make my cat vegan, however I admit that I have misgivings about the pet food industry because I know it is not regulated and the ingredients are probably not the most ideal, though I do feel that Wellness and Royal Canin are probably some of the better brands out there (again I am open to being corrected if I am wrong). I just want to be fully transparent about what is going on with him because I genuinely want to do what’s best for him. I’ll feed him raw meat if that’s what it takes to get him healthy, though as a vegan I will hate doing it. Does that make sense? Okay so that’s food.
Supplementation, as per his vet’s recommendations is: 1/4 tsp Lysine daily (the supplement I have is Vimergy brand capsules, which are 500 mg each so he gets 500 mg/day. Please tell me if that is too much!) split between two wet food meals. 1 packet of Fortiflora/day, also split between meals. I have my reservations about this supplement (I’ve heard some less than positive things about the ingredient “animal digest”) but I’ll let you all be the judge... I give him saline drops when he sounds congested but otherwise try to just let him live his life as much as possible. I bought an air purifier, which I keep near where he sleeps and hangs out even though our air quality is pretty good. I can’t say that it’s doing much for him. They also recommended the appetite enhancer, which I gave him for a period of time until he stopped eating for almost two days. I still have it but I am hesitant to resume. Open to suggestions...
Other concerns: He is due for his rabies and upper respiratory/distemper vaccines but I held off on them last time because he was feeling so bad and I just wasn’t sure if they would be helpful or hindering to him. I always thought it is best to get a vaccine when you are healthy in case of a reaction, that way you have the best chance of fighting it off. Is that true or am I totally off-base with that? I know there are different types of vaccines so the rules might be different for each... The last time he was seen by the vet they noted that they heard a heart murmur
—She said it was HOPEFULLY just due to the stress of being at the vet but I will have to keep an eye on him. He doesn’t appear to display any of the symptoms of it being anything more serious than a stress response as of now. Finally, his Dr. and I both noted that he tends to be congested/leaky mainly in his right nasal passage. This is interesting because when he had the leaky eye as a baby it was also mainly the right eye. She thinks it could potentially be a polyp in there somewhere but would have to either put him under anesthesia and x-rays and/or get a specialist to put a tiny camera up there to see... will look into this down the road possibly. The leaky eye tends to clear up with the antibiotics, though.
General info about him: He is generally very energetic (which is why we didn’t realize he was sick at first because he always had a lot of energy despite his sniffles) and loves to play. He will often play by himself when he is feeling good. When he first came to us and for several years after, it was clear that he trusted us but was also very jumpy and a bit skittish. Any sudden movements would cause him to startle. I had to approach him extremely gently, as I said for several years, before he eventually mellowed out and now appears to be more trusting of his surroundings. He still occasionally has his moments. He likes people and is friendly but will hide away for several hours before “introducing himself” when visitors come over. I mention all of this because it reminds me of my cat who passed away just prior to adopting him that was always slightly jumpy (but not skittish) who turned out to have high blood pressure and once he was put on medication for that no longer was jumpy. Not sure if there’s any connection there with Banjo’s possible heart murmur but I thought I’d mention it. Okay I’m really sorry this is so long winded. I just want to make sure I’m covering all the bases. I would really like to get to the bottom of all of this and hopefully you guys might have some insights that his allopathic vet is overlooking.
Thank you so much for hearing me out
Sincerely, Stacie
Here are the details I might have missed: Banjo is Neutered. He is domestic shorthair mix, black (I suspect there is some Siamese in the mix) Weight fluctuates between 8.2-8.6 lbs over the past year.
Vaccination history / exposure to toxins, other medication: has had distemper/upper respiratory in the past but not current; Other health concerns: possible heart murmur, loss of weight (almost 2 lbs since highest weight) although current doctor says he’s not “alarmingly” underweight but would like it higher.
Hello! I have a little guy, Banjo (domestic short-hair, mix), whom I adopted from an animal rescue when he was approximately 6-8 weeks old. He is now almost 6 (in August).
When he was rescued, he was the only one of his litter that did not require surgery for his eye disease (I don’t know what the disease was called but it required all but him to have their eye removed) but he has lasting tissue attached slightly to his eyeball, which the vet who treated him did not feel warranted surgery at the time, and since then, his current and past vets agreed that it doesn’t seem to bother him greatly. As a result, he always had a leaky eye on that side (his right side), which I always assumed was due to the attached skin.
Fast forward to last year when he came down with a sinus infection. At that time, he was put on antibiotics, azithromiacin (spelling?), I believe. They also gave him one to put directly in his eye but I don’t remember what that was called and I don’t know if it was an antibiotic. To my surprise, his leaky eye cleared up for the first time ever and his sniffles and discharge improved but did not entirely go away. At this point, his vet put him on an antiviral for a time (she was just guessing his diagnosis and assumed that he had one) but it only seemed to make him worse. We took him off of it since his discomfort had cleared considerably and let him coast for a bit.
It was also noted that he had lost nearly 2 pounds since his last visit, which was either at 3 years or maybe 2 (but I’m assuming 3 because he was probably in for his 3 year vaccine).
I moved to another state in October and by January his sneezing and discharge got bad again and I made an appointment with his current vet but they couldn’t fit him in until February since he was a new patient (poor guy). At this time, I was feeling like let’s just stop guessing at what is going on with him and had them run a test for viruses. It turns out he has Calicivirus, which he likely contracted from my former roommate’s cat who also had a sneezing/discharge issue but couldn’t be fully treated for it because he had other health issues (renal failure being the major one) and was too fragile to risk the antibiotic side effects, they determined. So he was put back on antibiotics in February, this time Doxycycline, given saline drops for his nose, and I was told to give him Fortiflora.
His sniffles (and eye) cleared up entirely, his energy went through the roof, and his appetite increased. He was doing great for awhile but by April 6th he was back on the Doxycycline, fortiflora, and they told me to add Lysine to his meals and give him an appetite enhancer. Once again, his sniffles and eye cleared up, his energy raised, and his appetite increased. I admit that I didn’t give him the appetite enhancer at first because I felt like I was already doing a lot “TO” him and I knew that when he felt better he would eat more, which indeed happened within a few days of the antibiotic treatment. Once he was back to his high energy levels, I began with the appetite enhancer and he started to eat more than usual... but then after a few days he didn’t eat for almost two whole days and I felt sketched out about that so I stopped giving it to him. I just feel like, if he’s healthy, he would eat properly so it feels weird to me to meddle with his appetite like that. I am open to being wrong about this manner of thinking and please do correct me if I’m wrong but it just doesn’t feel right to me...
I am here because I want (desperately) to get to the root problem and FIX it so he can go back to being a healthy and energetic cat! Throwing antibiotics at him constantly is giving me anxiety about what that is doing to his microbiome and overall health and ability to heal. So now it is May 29th and the sniffles have been back for a week. Not extreme but becoming more so each day and I am just dreading taking him back for more antibiotics, though the last time I spoke to the vet she basically said that he would likely have to be taking them off and on for the rest of his life (yikes!) but switching to azithromiacin (?) because it’s not as strong as the Doxycycline. There has to be more that can be done... right?
So his current regimen is: I feed him two cans/day of Royal Canin Adult Instinctive (which I add a little water to for extra hydration, though he seems to be pretty decent at drinking on his own) and supplement with dry kibble ad libitum. Please don’t hate me for this but the dry kibble is Evolution brand and the reason I give him this is because I was giving him Wellness Core for the longest time and then someone gave me the Evolution as a sample so I gave it to him IN ADDITION to his wet food and the dry Wellness just to see if he would even give it the time of day and he basically snubbed the wellness for the Evolution, which actually shocked me. For a LONG period of time, I had both dry food available for him to choose from and he consistently snubbed the Wellness and never ate it in favor of the Evolution. So I give him the Evolution to supplement his wet food, which he only eats a negligible amount of (like maybe 1-2 tbsps/day). I would give him 3 cans/day of the wet food if he would eat it but he has always only eaten the two and then wasted the 3rd, so I just add a little extra water to the wet food and let him eat the dry when he is out of wet.
Full disclosure: I am vegan but I am NOT trying to make my cat vegan, however I admit that I have misgivings about the pet food industry because I know it is not regulated and the ingredients are probably not the most ideal, though I do feel that Wellness and Royal Canin are probably some of the better brands out there (again I am open to being corrected if I am wrong). I just want to be fully transparent about what is going on with him because I genuinely want to do what’s best for him. I’ll feed him raw meat if that’s what it takes to get him healthy, though as a vegan I will hate doing it. Does that make sense? Okay so that’s food.
Supplementation, as per his vet’s recommendations is: 1/4 tsp Lysine daily (the supplement I have is Vimergy brand capsules, which are 500 mg each so he gets 500 mg/day. Please tell me if that is too much!) split between two wet food meals. 1 packet of Fortiflora/day, also split between meals. I have my reservations about this supplement (I’ve heard some less than positive things about the ingredient “animal digest”) but I’ll let you all be the judge... I give him saline drops when he sounds congested but otherwise try to just let him live his life as much as possible. I bought an air purifier, which I keep near where he sleeps and hangs out even though our air quality is pretty good. I can’t say that it’s doing much for him. They also recommended the appetite enhancer, which I gave him for a period of time until he stopped eating for almost two days. I still have it but I am hesitant to resume. Open to suggestions...
Other concerns: He is due for his rabies and upper respiratory/distemper vaccines but I held off on them last time because he was feeling so bad and I just wasn’t sure if they would be helpful or hindering to him. I always thought it is best to get a vaccine when you are healthy in case of a reaction, that way you have the best chance of fighting it off. Is that true or am I totally off-base with that? I know there are different types of vaccines so the rules might be different for each... The last time he was seen by the vet they noted that they heard a heart murmur
—She said it was HOPEFULLY just due to the stress of being at the vet but I will have to keep an eye on him. He doesn’t appear to display any of the symptoms of it being anything more serious than a stress response as of now. Finally, his Dr. and I both noted that he tends to be congested/leaky mainly in his right nasal passage. This is interesting because when he had the leaky eye as a baby it was also mainly the right eye. She thinks it could potentially be a polyp in there somewhere but would have to either put him under anesthesia and x-rays and/or get a specialist to put a tiny camera up there to see... will look into this down the road possibly. The leaky eye tends to clear up with the antibiotics, though. General info about him: He is generally very energetic (which is why we didn’t realize he was sick at first because he always had a lot of energy despite his sniffles) and loves to play. He will often play by himself when he is feeling good. When he first came to us and for several years after, it was clear that he trusted us but was also very jumpy and a bit skittish. Any sudden movements would cause him to startle. I had to approach him extremely gently, as I said for several years, before he eventually mellowed out and now appears to be more trusting of his surroundings. He still occasionally has his moments. He likes people and is friendly but will hide away for several hours before “introducing himself” when visitors come over. I mention all of this because it reminds me of my cat who passed away just prior to adopting him that was always slightly jumpy (but not skittish) who turned out to have high blood pressure and once he was put on medication for that no longer was jumpy. Not sure if there’s any connection there with Banjo’s possible heart murmur but I thought I’d mention it. Okay I’m really sorry this is so long winded. I just want to make sure I’m covering all the bases. I would really like to get to the bottom of all of this and hopefully you guys might have some insights that his allopathic vet is overlooking.
Thank you so much for hearing me out
Sincerely, Stacie
Here are the details I might have missed: Banjo is Neutered. He is domestic shorthair mix, black (I suspect there is some Siamese in the mix) Weight fluctuates between 8.2-8.6 lbs over the past year.
Vaccination history / exposure to toxins, other medication: has had distemper/upper respiratory in the past but not current; Other health concerns: possible heart murmur, loss of weight (almost 2 lbs since highest weight) although current doctor says he’s not “alarmingly” underweight but would like it higher.
