Stray cat, pregnant, has a cold and is off her food

Question
I recently started feeding and looking after two stray cats that have settled in around ours' and the neighbor's yards. I made sure both have sheltered spots to sleep, and put out a box filled with old towels for each so they can snuggle up. They figured it out fast and are actually very cute when they're sitting in their "beds" surveying the world.

The pregnant one seems to have a pretty bad cold that I've noticed for the past 10 days or so. She wheezes, sneezes a lot and there's always bits of dried mucous (sorry about the visual) around her nose. Till now she has eaten heartily, but today she hardly accepted a bite, even though I tried all her favorite foods.  

I usually feed them twice a day, a mix of different foods, in rotation: tinned cat food, raw fresh diced boneless chicken, people tuna, dry cat food, and plain (un-spiced and unseasoned) roasted boneless chicken or turkey. A couple of times a week, plus when it's rainy, they get a small saucer of warm lactose-free milk. In the past few days I've been offering the pregnant cat more food during the day; usually she devours it. Unfortunately this morning nothing worked.

I'm concerned about her cold and her lack of appetite, especially given her pregnancy. Is there anything I can do for her, considering I can't really get near her except to offer her plates of food?

Thank you so much!

Answer
Hi
sounds like you are doing everything you can for the cats that you could possible do. they certainly are lucky cats to have someone like you looking out for them.

As for the cold and now the loss of appetite this does not sound good. It could be cat flu and this may need to be treated with antibiotics. I don't know if a vet would sell you some without seeing the cat it may be worth asking.

Please see my page about cat flu, it lists everything that you can do for the cat and some back ground information about the illness. here is the page
/cat-flu.html


Best wishes
Kate