Home Remedies for Kitty URIs?

[Archimedes]

Two of my girls have minor cases of the sniffles from the change in weather conditions. I'd rather not spend 100+ for a vet to tell me that it's viral and they can't treat it, so does anyone have any good holistic remedies for cold symptoms (mostly sneezing and runny eyes) that are safe for cats? The two affected are Sophie and Parker, see signature for ages.

[Archimedes]

And now of course, because Sophie insists on touching me as much as possible, I have cat sneeze all over me. Can't live with em, can't live without em...

[Mike41793]

Try vitamin C. I'd buy them and only give the cat like 1/4 or 1/2 a tablet once a day. It seems to help in humans sometimes.

[Archimedes]

Thanks Mike! (Happy belated birthday, by the way!)

I think I'll also try to pick up children's unmedicated saline nose drops to help with her sneezing. Dry things up in there. Other people seem to have experienced success with that.

[Mike41793]

Thanks.

Yea i found this:
http://m.voices.yahoo.com/the-benefi...-10342037.html

I don't see them list a dosage on that link though... :/

[Dracoluna]

Is it URI or might it be seasonal allergies? For a URI, you'll notice a fever 90% of the time. For allergies, no fever.

Home treatment of URI would be to up the temp a little, use a humidifier, and you can always give them honey and echinacea to help. Honey contains natural antibiotics while echinacea helps support the immune system. Basically it's like a cold in people and will run its course.

For allergies, I use Children's Benadryl at 1/2-1 mg per pound of body weight, twice a day. I've had several kitties with issues over the years with allergies so I start at the low end and work up. You want to balance it between symptom control and how sleepy it makes them.

[Archimedes]

No fever, I've been checking frequently. I would not be surprised at all to find out that it's allergies, she's already very sensitive to diet.


Thank you for your feedback!

[Mike41793]

Yep, we give my dog Benadryl for her allergies. It works but can make your kitty a bit drowsy. (My dog always seems to sleep more after we give it to her).

[Annarose15]

Be VERY careful. I'm not sure about Benadryl, but some dog-safe meds will kill a cat.

[Dracoluna]

Children's benadryl is safe. For cats, you want to use the children's variety and NOT the adult unless you want to redo the math on the dosage. Because cats are more sensitive to the drug, you generally end up using less than the max amount or you end up with one drugged kitty.