Upper Respitory

Question
We adopted a 10 week old siamese cat from the shelter. our paper work said she was just getting over UR. She still acts like she is trying to hack up a hairball and is sneezing. is there anything we can do to help her?

Answer
If she's still having symptoms, I would ask the shelter if she'd seen a vet, and then consult him or her, since he'll be familiar with the case.  Most URI's are caused by viral illnesses.  Two of them, feline herpes and calici virus, tend to stay in the body for months or years, and herpes tends to be a lifelong resident.  Chronic symptoms can be a problem with some of them.  However, it's also possible she needs an antibiotic at this point to fight bacterial infections that often come with viral ones.

And if you like, you can give her l-lysine.  I highly recommend this.  It's an amino acid available at drug stores.  In order to thrive, feline herpes needs an amino acid called l-arginine.  Giving a cat l-lysine REDUCES l-arginine, and therefore prevents replication of the herpes virus.  It's safe for all cats.  The ideal dosage for a kitten her age would be 500mg daily (an adult would get 1000mg daily, if possible).  The tablets are large, however, and may need to be crushed up and fed in canned food.