The-Artistic-Garden's Blog

Part #3 – Final Update (For Now) On The Saga Of Alyssum
And Our Battle With “Suspected” Feline Rhinotracheitis

I’ve been behind in posting this update on Alyssum’s battle with what we think might be feline rhinotracheitis. This herpes virus is one stinkin’ bugger to definitively diagnose which makes it frustrating for vets and pet owners. Without having certain diagnostic tests done to your cat, you can’t really nail it on the head as to whether it really is or isn’t rhinotracheitis. Or what may be the cause for persistent convunctivitis.

But the vet still isn’t convinced that perhaps the bacterial infection from the abcessed tooth and maybe allergies on top of everything else added to all her problems. He still thinks that though she probably is dealing with chronic nasal problems, that maybe her eye problem is also aggravated due to allergies. What a hodge-podge of troubles, eh?

The current situation on her health issues are: she is breathing better – less nasal congestion – and her left eye is looking much better than before. So this is good! The vet gave her a second antibiotic shot just to “be safe”. To which I whole heartedly agreed. I don’t know if that shot helped clear things up more or if the homeopathic remedies and L-lysine I am giving her daily are more responsible for her appearing to be on the mend. But I remain optimistic that all of this C#%# will clear up and GO AWAY for good real soon!

However Alyssum’s convunctivitis seems to get better and then it gets a little worse (we’re on a roller coaster of symptom intensity right now). Sometimes her eye is almost 100% open, sometimes it’s a bit squinted, and sometimes (like the photo here) it’s almost shut. And every now and then her eyelids are more inflammed and pink, but most of the time they are back to looking normal. I now administer the eye drops “as needed”.

There are some major tests that can perhaps nail recurrent convunctivitis on the head. But, please don’t think I’m a negligent pet owner by not having those “major” tests done … even my vet doesn’t want to put Alyssum through them. (The tests for recurrent convunctivitis are aerobic bacterial and chlamydial cultures, viral isolation, immunofluorescent antibody techniques, serology and cytology.)

Alyssum had a quick follow-up visit with Dr. Jones on Friday, and I gave him two papers I found online (links below) about recurrent conjunctivitis. He said he’d talk to a colleague/friend of his that is a DACVO this coming week and try to get more insight on this whole issue. I also questioned if another type of eye drop might really help clear things up. We’ll see what this other vet has to say.

Dr. Jones also said we’ll try a shot of Benadryl if her congestion gets worse again. To see if maybe that will alleviate things for her (I can’t pill her with the Musilex tabs because she goes beserk – to her the taste is really really bad).

So, this is where we are right now. But thank goodness Alyssum is eating well, and back to her playful self. She and Seianna (the new cat) are getting along better each day, too.

I count our blessings. I’ll take the small victories in her health right now. Slow but sure improvement is fine with me.

If you are dealing with recurrent feline conjunctivitis, you might want to read these two papers I found that are written by Diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Opthamologists: Feline Infectious Conjunctivitis – Mary B. Glaze, DVM, MS, DACVO and Feline Conjunctivitis: Trouble Shooting the Chronic Persistent Cases – Michele E. Stengard, DVM, DACVO.

Part #2 – How “Suspected” Feline Rhinotracheitis
Manifested Its Nasty Stinkin’ Self In My Poor Cat

Yesterday I posted the introduction about my beloved Tonkinese cat Alyssum, and how the vet and I think she has been battling the #%%@@# #@@!$!% [bleep - bleep] herpes virus called feline rhinotracheitis for the last two weeks.

Let me interject here that both the vet and I are assuming that this is probably what it is … Dr. Jones isn’t 100% sure, but it does seem that the symptoms have manifested in rather classic ways. (Believe me, I have been doing a lot of online researching!)

OK … so yesterday I ended where I introduced a new cat, named Seianna, into the household and within roughly 36-hours Alyssum was breathing and wheezing quite noticeably. So I called the vet’s and off we went on an early Thursday morning appointment.

Well … here’s a shortened scenario of what took place:

• Doc Jones was booked for that entire day, so I accepted the first appointment available that morning with one of the other vets (of whom I’ve no previous experience). I was concerned about her and that perhaps she’d contracted something from the new cat. Let’s say I was VERY concerned, thusly didn’t want to wait another moment to get her to the vet.
• Dr. “T” found no lung congestion, however a lot of nasal and throat congestion. I agreed and told him the wheezing had been intensifying just a bit for about 4-months, but not so badly that I felt I had to run her in to be checked.
• I also told him that one of her little front teeth had been loose, and it looked like her gum was a bit inflamed – that I knew that needed to be pulled. He agreed.
• He suggested a dental cleaning, as perhaps there was another tooth that was causing inflammation, and PERHAPS this was causing an infection and PERHAPS this was the cause of the recent increase in congestion and wheezing. I said “OK … just might make sense. I hope it’s the reason for her troubles.”
• Dr. “T” gave Alyssum an antibiotic injection and scheduled the tooth cleaning to take place on a Tuesday, which was in 4 days, to give the antibiotic time to work.
• Two days later … hmmmmm. Alyssum was starting to squint her left eye a little. That had never happened before. I thought “Oh boy … has the new cat scratched Alyssum’s eye?” (Let’s say that Seianna wasn’t exactly friendly when Alyssum tried to get close to her.)
• Tuesday rolled around. I discussed a few concerns with Dr. “T” before leaving her for the teeth cleaning. One of those concerns was the fact she was congested and she was going to be sedated.
• About 4-hours later I got a call from Dr. “T” telling me “there is good news, and bad news”. I said “Oh God … what??”
• The “good news” was the teeth cleaning went excellently, and only the little front tooth was pulled. It did have a little bit of infection in the gum, but nothing major. All the other teeth were fine. But …
• His exact words then were “But the bad news is that Alyssum almost DIED TWO TIMES on us.” I said, “WHAT??   ” Seems she was way more congested than he “T..H..O..U..G..H..T” and well … her little tongue was rolling back into her throat ’cause she was still drugged and thusly she couldn’t breath. And they had to stick the tube back down her throat (oh geez! – poor Alyssum!) and “boy, she sure fought and bit down on the tube when we were trying to put it back down her throat …”
• (Can you sense I wasn’t too pleased with that I was being told at that point?? )
• OK … I am trying to keep this brief … so later in the day I brought her home. I tried to not get angry about what had happened with the vet. He did tell me “I didn’t think she had that much difficulty breathing because you told me she wasn’t having to breathe out of her mouth.”

Alrighty, I hoped at this point the entire ordeal and all symptoms would slowly disappear behind us. That soon Alyssum would be fine and back to normal now that the offending tooth was removed and the antibiotic had time to kill off any bad bacteria or germs.

Oh boy … was I wrong! And here’s where the story about my introduction to stinkin’ #%%@@# #@@!$!% feline rhinotracheitis really gets going.

Within 36-hours Alyssum’s left eye was so puffed up and inflammed I thought that it just might explode! I was crying and very distraught. I counted the minuntes until I could call the vet’s office for an appointment. Things seemed to be rapidly going downhill.

In a day or two I’ll continue my story about my battle with Alyssum’s feline rhinotracheitis symptoms. Part #3 will really get into the nitty-gritty of symptoms and attempted remedies.

My Adventures In Dealing With A Suspected Outbreak
Of Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis

It’s been a very emotionally hard and draining two weeks here at my house. I’ve had the crummy experience of possibly being introduced into the sad and frustrating world of “feline rhinotracheitis”. Rhinotracheitis is a wonderful (I’m being sarcastic) variety of the herpes virus. Yuck and double-yuck!

To start my story, I adopted a gorgeous Platinum Point Tonkinese about 4 years ago. “Alyssum” was a little over two years old at the time.

I adopted her from a Tonkinese breeder. It is very common for breeders to put older cats up for adoption, in order to thin the herd, so to speak. In Alyssum’s case, she had been breed once and for whatever reasons, the breeder decided to not breed her again. So, I came along at the right time and Alyssum became mine. She grew quickly into being my best buddy.

She had no problem becoming immediately attached to me (just what I had hoped for), and she fit right in as a loving member of the family. I couldn’t have been happier with my decision to commit to a cat as a pet.

After about a year and a half I noticed a slight wheeze to her breath every now and then. I took her to the vet in December of 2007 to have the wheezing checked.

After blood tests and a lung X-ray, my vet said he couldn’t determine the exact cause, unless I wanted to have more extensive (and expensive) tests performed. Not only did I not want to drain my wallet, I more so did not want to put her through any tests. So, the vet and I agreed that I’d keep an eye on things, and that perhaps she just had a slight case of asthma. Sounded good to me …

Fast forward to about four months ago. Another year and a few months had passed and now there was a definite “snorting – snuffling” thing going on. But it wasn’t constant, nor did it even happen a number of times each day. It seemed to be random, but yes, every now and then she’d snort some.

I did think and worry, “Oh geez! Here we go … her breathing is starting to get a little worse.” But, I sat back and decided to just keep aware of things. I am so lucky that I work from home, thusly am here practically 24/7. This allows me to be very involved and very aware of anything happening to Alyssum. She didn’t seem to be uncomfortable or suffering in any way, though now (in hindsight) I had mentioned to others that she seemed to be less playful and was sleeping a bit more.

Now bear with me here during the next few paragraphs as the information will prove informative and useful to those of you who may find yourselves in exactly my situation if you already have one cat (breed doesn’t matter), but want to introduct a new cat into the mix …

In case you don’t know about “Tonks”, the breeders will tell you Tonkinese need another cat in their lives – that they MUST have another cat as a friend. So, I was aware of this philosophy before I adopted Alyssum. But my attitude was (and still is) that wasn’t it better to give any cat a loving home, rather than a home that might have another cat in it, but perhaps not be a very good environment for the cats? The breeder I got Alyssum from agreed with me, too. However she did tell me the best situation was for a Tonk to have another cat friend in the house.

So I did often think, “I wonder maybe IF another cat would be a good idea?” You see, I wasn’t raised around cats, nor had I had much experience with cats before. I’d had a Shih Tzu for over 14 years … and no cats during that time.

But, after watching Alyssum looking longingly through the storm door at the (one stray) outside-only cat that had adopted my home (and me) a few years ago, and realizing she wished she could get in contact with “Gabby” the outdoor cat, I began to think maybe, just MAYBE, I could handle another cat in the house. And that MAYBE Alyssum would be happier with a new friend.

And so, after hemming and hawing for months and months and months (I shuddered to think “what if the cat(s) stop using the litter box?” and other scary things along those lines), about two weeks ago I ended up driving 4 hours to another state to adopt a beautiful little purebred Singapura named “Seianna”.

OK … back to feline rhinotracheitis … within 36-hours of Seianna coming into my home, Alyssum really began wheezing. 24/7 HEAVY wheezing. So … off she and I went to the vet.

Tomorrow I’ll continue the story of Alyssum and our dealings with the “suspected” virus feline rhinotracheitis, and how I thought we were losing the battle. But for now, please know dear Alyssum is hanging in there. She’s not feeling 100%, but “Nurse Mommy Claudia” is tending to her 24/7 with traditional and homeopathic remedies. Hope springs eternal.