sneezing and nasal discharge

Question
My cat is only 3 months old and she has been constantly sneezing. She also have a runny nose and sometimes she tears up. When we adopted her from the pound, they said that she was still too young to get vaccinated and to come back in a month.  But her problem is really worrying me. what could be wrong with her?

Answer
Charis,

Even though I am not a vet, I must respectfully disagree with the pound personnel. Your kitten is not too young to be vaccinated against Panleukopenia, Calici, and Rhinotracheitis.  There are good injectable 3 in 1 modified live vaccines that will do the job and not be a problem for a 13 week old kitten.  She is too young to be vaccinated against rabies.

However, now that she has sneezing and a runny nose, you do not want to challenge her immune system, so you will have to wait until she is over this upper respiratory problem for at least two weeks before she should be vaccinated.

It sounds as if the kitten has a virus infection and, although antibiotics will not help the virus infection, they will help the secondary bacterial infection that is making your kitten miserable.  The biggest danger if she is not treated immediately is that she may stop eating (many cats will not eat if they cannot smell the food, and a runny nose can dull the kitten's sense of smell).  It does not take long for such a young kitten to become dehydrated and go down hill!!!!!  So, it is important that she continue to eat.

Not to disrespect pounds, but, often they have a shortage of staffing and funds and cannot always stay on top of the upper respiratory problems that can crop up from time to time.  The viruses that cause these diseases are air born and highly contagious.  It is not unusual to have kittens from a pound that have these same symptoms.

I would get that kitten to a vet to get the correct antibiotics to treat the secondary infection (usually amoxycillin or clavamox or some other penicillin based antibiotic).  Once this is cleared up, and you have waited for two weeks, you can get the kitten vaccinated.  If the kitten is to be indoors only, it will only need the 3 in 1 vaccine and booster (a month later) and, depending on your jurisdiction, the rabies vaccine.  I would wait at least 3 weeks to a month between vaccines!!!!!

Please let me know how your kitten does.

Best regards... Norm.