Ragdoll Cat Forums

Oh, so sorry to hear of this regarding Mika. :-( I see you received some encouraging comments & helpful advice, which I hope will help raise your spirits & get you through this tough time.

I think you should find another vet - and perhaps apologize to the breeder. The vet is not responding to this as a serious infection. L Lysine is the LEAST one might do with rhino. It works, if at all, by interfering SOMEWHAT with viral replication. An active viral infection WILL BE shed through the stool. That is a common vector for infecting other cats. Any number of folks here have had cats fight off these infections. It would be interesting if ANY of their cats were fed kelp or had their stool tested for mutating shed virus. I have never heard of such an approach.

I agree with Jan. The vet is not taking a standard approach to this problem. And recommend that you find a Feline only vet if possible. Just because they have been exposed to these virus' doesn't automatically make the breeder a bad breeder. These types of viruses are abundant and will be present in alot of catteries. We have had titers done for Corona and they came back on the low side. Not zero. We don't strive for zero titer because it's useless. It just sets the cat up for a future infection in which it will not have any immunity against.

Most cats will have Herpes (Rhino) LLysine does help in interfering with the replication of the virus. Usually stress can trigger an outbreak.

Upper respiratory infections are common in cats. I would dare say that almost all cats will have a URI at some time in their lives and many cats will have more than one round. It is like kids/people and colds and flu - and most of us do not pillory a parent if her child gets a cold. Although such statistics have to be taken with a grain or more of salt, I have read that 40% of them are rhino and 40% calici. That will give you some idea of how common these infections are - among all cats.

Hi Lizzy just caught up with this thread. I agree that the vet isn't taking the right approach, we had a similar experience not long ago with Lancelot - the vet seemed more interested in scaring us into paying for all these tests (FIV, FeLV etc which can be standard practice except for the added "and he has a 20% chance of being put down...), and suggested drastic remedies when a simple physical exam would have shown he had chronic gingivitis/stomatitis - a not uncommon and definitely manageable condition. Anyway back to you, I would find another vet and get the proper treatment your kitty deserves. So sorry that you have to go through this and I hope your little one is on the road to recovery soon.

What are her symptoms - other than loss of appetite?

The other symptoms to this is sudden weight loss and runny poos mika only weighs 2.7kg and shes so tiny for 2 year old.
I think vets in the uk don't know much about these things and they do scare people,my vet made out when mika started loosing weight that it could be full blown fip and i had to wait for the results it was the worst 5 days ever i will try get a feline vet and get there opinion,mika is a bright and playful cat you wouldn't know she had problems she now as a good appetite and loves her kitten food which hopefuly will gain her some weight soon thankyou to everyone for the advice im so glad i found this forum mika is sat on the laptop while im writing this she loves the computer.[/size]

If she is now eating and active those are excellent developments. (I am sure there are wonderful "up to date" vets in the UK. There are a few stinkers in the US too.)

As others have said before us .. All cats do have varying levels of coronavirus , its usually stress triggered and an immune compromising condition .. sounds like a rather tame way of dealing with it too
I would be going to another vet or at least find one that is less inflammatory and explains things without scaring you to be honest

Zero titre is rare and we too have done CVT on adults all came in on the low end but still scored all the same ..

Herpes is not curable , its treatable however they become latent carriers .. calci virus is the more serious of the two especially in youngsters but it is curable ..

Sounds like she is on the road to recovery though which is great