My two kittens have cat flu

Question
Hi Kate, I took my two kittens to the vet for their first check up at 9 weeks, only to be told that they both have cat flu (either herpes, or calici).
Their symptoms are: red eyes, and sneezing a green discharge.
They were given antibiotics  and wormed. I was told by the vet that the antibiotics would not cure the cats but make them more able to deal with this whilst they are so young.
The kittens did have worms as they come out in their faeces, and their sneezing had improved slightly. So I then took them back to the vets for there first lot of full vaccinations.
After this they seemed to get worst, they were sneezing all time and lots of green discharge was flying out everywhere. So I took them back to the vet a week later and he said that it had turned into secondary infection due to the green discharge (but they had this all along) and they were given more antibiotics. They finished their 5 day course a week ago now, and it didn't really stop their sneezing. They are due to go back to the vet tomorrow for the 2nd lot of vaccinations and they now have blood in their green discharge. They are still eating, and they play, but not very much.

Is this a lot more serious now there is blood, are they in pain, and will they survive?

The vet said they can still live a happy life. Do you think this is true?

Do you think having the vaccinations made it worse?

Is there anything that can control the sneezing, as it must be very annoying for them and not to mention very unhygienic?

I hope you can help, Thank you in advance.

Candice

Answer
Hi
cat flu can be very nasty and in small kittens it can be very dangerous too. As with any flu there is no cure the body simply has to fight the infection off with the help of the antibiotics.

Please see my web page about cat flu for some more back ground info and also how to try and help your kittens through this period

/cat-flu.html


The cat flu vaccination will cause mild symptoms of flu and this could be why they got worse after the first ones. I am not a vet and so cannot comment or whether they should have had the vaccination whilst they actually had cat flu. I would hope that the vet thought this was Ok.

I hope the little guys recover soon.

best wishes Kate