Help your cat get over the sniffles

Viruses affect us all alike, regardless of whether you’re a human or a cat. Although viruses aren’t contagious between cats and humans, the fact is that our symptoms can be quite similar to your own, and there’s no way of getting around a week of feeling under the weather.

You should bear in mind, dear humans, that although catching a cold only causes you humans a bit of discomfort, for us cats, especially if we’re kittens or a bit older, a simple cold can make us very, very sick. Pay attention and learn how to help your cat get over a cold.

The main reasons we catch a cold are due to viral infections of the respiratory tracts, especially due to calcivirus and feline herpes virus. We can come down with either one or both of these viruses at the same time, causing different symptoms. If we have picked up calcivirus, we’ll develop ulcers in our mouth, on our tongue and in our nose, and we’ll spend the better part of the day sneezing. On the other hand, if we have a feline herpes virus, you’ll notice ulcers developing in our eyes and our nose and throat being affected.

But not to worry, the most usual thing is for us to catch a common cold, and we’ll have to go through a bit of fever, loss of appetite, runny eyes and nose, feeling run down, aching joints and dehydration. As you can see, these symptoms are quite similar to those you usually have with these types of viruses.

If you are lucky enough to have a multi-cat household, you should devote special attention to taking care of and cleaning our eyes and nose so that our discharges will not come into contact with the rest of your cats, because otherwise we’ll be making it easier for the cold to be passed on to them. The same thing applies to water bowls and food dishes, as these viruses are transmitted easiest via our saliva.

Of course, whenever you have the slightest doubt, take us to see the veterinarian to confirm the diagnosis and prescribe a treatment for us. If we don’t have any ulcers, we’ll get over our cold and that’s that, but we’ll need your pampering and care to make us feel better. In the event that ulcers develop, the veterinarian can prescribe the best treatment for getting rid of them and will tell you when we should come back into the office for check-ups.

Pay special attention to helping us keep our noses clean. That way, you’ll help us to keep our sense of smell up to par in order to be able to detect our food dish and eat right. If we lose our sense of smell during a cold, we’ll stop feeling like eating and, as you well know, that’s not good at all.

Don’t forget to disinfect our water bowl and food dish and, if you have a multi-cat household, keep us away from one another until the cold has gone away.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

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