Sick Siamese Cat

Question
We adopted Christopher on Jan. 30th, 2009.  The Humane Society said he was 1 1/2 yrs. old.  He is a Siamese/Tabby cross but looks and totally acts like a Siamese.....very vocal all the time.
He has had the diaherria since we got him and it gets into his paws and all over the house/carpets etc.  I change his litter every day.  He also sneezes all the time, runny nose and eyes.  The vet said he has an upper respiratory problem.  On Feb. 6th the vet gave him a medicine called Convenia Injectable and also Metronidazole Suspension which he has now finished with no sign of improvement.  His stool is very, very soft still and the sneezing and runny eyes/nose haven't improved.  He has been back to the vet but he don't know what else to suggest.  We have tried different litters and his food has now been changed to MediCal Gastro which is supposed to harden up his stool.  Any advice you can provide would be very much appreciated.  Thank you.  Anne

Answer
Hi Anne.  The poor guy!  Convenia is a nice antibiotic because you don't have to struggle with administering something orally.  But it's not really the number one choice for upper respiratory infections.  It's really targeted for use with skin and mouth infections.  So you may want to discuss a more traditional antibiotic to address the upper respiratory infection with the vet since it hasn't really responded.  Something containing amoxicillin might make the diarrhea situation even worse, but medications like azithromycin. or marboflaxocin aren't as likely to cause stomach upset.

But a large part of it is probably viral.  Siamese tend to be hit harder by the herpes virus than other cats, and to help reduce the symptoms, I recommend supplementing him with lysine.  The herpes virus needs an amino acid called arginine to replicate, but high levels of lysine in the blood prevent this.  For an adult cat, 500mg of lysine a day will do the trick.  You can buy lysine tablets at any pharmacy.  They normally come in 1000mg tablets, so half a tablet a day will be the dose.  Don't worry, though.  You cannot overdose.  Even a full 1000mg a day is not too much.  You can grind it up and mix it into canned food.  What I do, though, is buy a lysine gel especially formulated for cats.  It's called Viralys, and I get mine here:
http://www.calvetsupply.com/product/Viralys_Gel_5oz/Veterinary_Nutritional_Suppl...

An adult cat would get 1 1/2 mls twice a day (or 3 mls once a day).

As for his diarrhea, you certainly would have to discuss with the vet, but maybe he has colitis or Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).  The difference between colitis and IBD is generally that colitis may come in bouts with some periods of normalcy in between, whereas IBD is a permanent, lifelong condition.  Hopefully the food will begin to help.  It can take a month or two to see improvement, but in most cases, a diet change alone won't help with colitis or IBD.   Most times, an anti-inflammatory medication will need to be added to help manage the symptoms.  A steroid is usually the most helpful and least expensive, and prednisone is the most commonly prescribed.  When that doesn't work, sulfasalazine might help.  This is a sulfa drug that is sometimes used in human patients with Crohn's Disease, similar to feline IBD.  When that fails, chlorambucil, a chemotherapy drug, or cyclosporine, an anti-rejection drug for organ transplant patients, have helped in some cases.