Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Health & Behaviour => Health & Behaviour General => Topic started by: kathleen21 on April 15, 2011, 22:17:37 PM
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Hiya
Is there any ideas on how to build a cat's immune system? I am slowly adopting two stray cats (Mum and 4/5 month old kitten) who have appeared in my garden and they both have cat flu. I have had mum who is tame to the vets who confirmed the flu but said it wasn't severe enough to need antibiotics. i.e. no temperature; they are both eating and seem generally lively and playful. I was sent away to keep an eye on them and come back if it gets worse
Its not getting any worse - but they are both sneezy and snuffling ... has anyone come across any supplements that could build their system and help them fight of the lurgy! It needs to be something easy to disguise in food - as strays they are not great at being handled - in fact i've only got to stroke the kitten a couple of times ... but Mum is much easier.
Any ideas all you knowledgeable cat people?
Thanks for your help
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Sorry I have not heard of anything that does this and one of my cats caught cat flu at the vets in Dec and passed it to his brother, it then came back in Feb due to stress .
I dont know if cats who carry cat flu can be vacinated against it or not, you would have to check with your vet.
My two who caught it are coming up to 18yrs and no longer vaccinated and it did not pass to my two younger cats who are vacinated.
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Hello Gill
Can I ask why your two 18 year old cats are not vaccinenated? I have 6 cats but 4 of them are ages 16, 17, 18 and 20.
I have heard this before from a friend whose vet did not vaccinate her old cat but my vet always does. Is it just vet preference. I would be interested to know.
Thank you
Julie
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Thanks both.
I've been reading a the internet about Lysine a supplement which it appears people have used to support cats getting over flu.
Has anyone else tried this? Or had success with anything else?
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My two eldest cats are birman brothers and life expectancy is about 15 yrs for birmans.
Franta sufferes with seizures on and off and was very bad two/three years ago and two vets from different practices recommended he was not vaccinated any more because he had some kind of brain infection and as it was not known what caused the seizures they thougyht the vacs would be too much for his immune system. He also only has one working kidney discovered when he was ill after a dental just before the seizures started. Sadly the current opinion is that the infection in his brain proberly came from the dental that was done and the infection got into his blood stream and into brain.
His brother Ducha, I stopped him having vacs a year ago just due to his age, the vet agreed it was a good idea, turns out that it was maybe not a good idea.......sigh
It interesting cos I have always disagreed with vacs every year but the drug companies always insist the vacs do not last for more than about 6 weeks over a year and Ducha was about 5 months over the year when he caught cat Flu from Franta. As my two younger cats 9 and 11yrs at the time did not catch it and were vacced to date , unfortunately it seems that certainly the cat flu part does need to be done every year.
My first cat Kocka was also not vaccinated from about 16 years as even the dead vaccine made her very ill but she never caught cat flu from all the neighbouring cats, maybe she was just lucky! She lived until 20yrs old.
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OK. I guess I will continue with the vaccinations, just to be safe. Although if I did stop i don't think my vets would agree.
Thank you for the explanation.
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Vetri DMG drops can help with the immune system.
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I give Algie L-Lysine, it is worth giving it a go as it will not do them any harm.
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Hiya
Thanks v much for the info - where would I get the Vetri DMG drops from?
And is it something you give on an ongoing basis - or do you stop it if the symptoms disappear?
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Hiya
Thanks v much for the info - where would I get the Vetri DMG drops from?
And is it something you give on an ongoing basis - or do you stop it if the symptoms disappear?
You can get it from animalmedicines, and probably other online pet pharmacies.
It can be given regularly to animals with a poor immune system. Not really needed if the animal is in good health.