Question from Alice
Our cat is pregnant and due in about a week?? She has been sneezing for a few days and today she had yellow discharge from her nose and feels feverish. We are both out of work and can't afford a vet, but don't want to lose our pet either. Can you recommend a course of action or a vet that is inexpensive? - Alice
Jennifer's Answer
Hi Alice,
I'm not a veterinarian, but it sounds like she might possibly have an Upper Respiratory Infection (URI), which in most cases is not life threatening.
The major concern with URIs is that the cat will stop eating and drinking and become dehydrated and in severe cases URIs can develop into pneumonia.
The fact that she is pregnant is concerning to me however, because I would worry about her passing the URI infection onto the babies. Sometimes URI infections will clear up in a short period of time, but again, sometimes they won't.
To be safe it's probably a good idea to at least try calling a few vets and seeing if someone would talk with you on the phone and give you ideas. At a minimum, provide a safe, comfortable environment, reduce stress, monitor eating and drinking, feed wet food if possible to increase moisture intake, and if she gets any worse take her to the vet. Ideally I would take her now since her due date is so close.
Eugene Animal Hospital and Cascade Veterinary Hospital tend to have better prices than most vets in my experience and are very nice.
Jennifer
