Cats With Colds?!? What The Heck?

[Chicken Chaperone]

I am a human with a cold. A bad one with upper respiratory glop and nonsense that is just not letting go and it's been about a week and 1/2. I've been to the Dr. who swabbed my nose for flu (actually it felt like he
was aiming for the inside back of my skull but that's a rant for another day and thread..) and it came back as 'not flu'. 4 days into my cold one of our cats started the same gloppy eyes, sneezing, coughing and pouting and moping around the
house that I'd been doing. After a few days of watching her and giving her extra love I decided maybe I should isolate her so she can eat and nap at her leisure and not worry about the dogs or my DS bugging her. (Wish someone
would do that to me..)
Yesterday her son started sneezing and moping. It's not so unusual for him- he snores and makes all kinds of goofy breathing noises (yeah, I'm still taking about cats....) but then, just now, another cat in the house
started sneezing.

What the heck? Is this some kind of goofy fluke that we're all reaching for the kleenex box 20 times an hour? Can humans pass colds to cats? Should I take all of us into the vet for the nose/brain swabs? Have the cats and I become
allergic to pets? My son and husband are fine. Not a runny nose between them. I'm out of ideas, patience and feeling just plain grumpy. Anybody here know about cat colds and people colds? We have 3 dogs, 5 fish, 2 mice and
Henrietta the chicken and I swear if I hear the smallest sneeze out of anyone else I'm liable to run screaming from the building!

hellllllpppppp!!

 

[thebritt]

Unfotunately, yes, cats and dogs can catch respiratory infections from humans. May be a good idea to have a pet checked by the vet and maybe given antibiotics. If multiple pets are exposed and showing symptoms, the vet may give enough antibiotics for all - as long as you know the weights of the animals. Sorry for your troubles. What a bummer for all y'all. You may not want to wait too long to have a sneezing pet checked - don't want pneumonia to set in and really screw things up for the other pets! Good luck and hope you all feel better soon!

 

[Turkenlover]

Yuck! Sorry, but cats can get colds too! It's no fun, but it's usually easy to cure with some antibiotics!

 

[lemurchaser]

Usually colds are NOT spreadable from human to cats. Cats do get a virus that acts like a cold, but it is a different virus than people get. Could it be allergies? Is there a lot of smoke or allergens in the air? I would get them checked out at the vets, but if its a virus you don't give them antibiotics (as suggested above), if it is really a kitty cold then the treatment is usually the same as for babies (humidifiers, rest, make sure they're eating, etc).

 

[OrpingtonManor]

double check with your vet about this. it is possible for feline herpes to have the symptoms you are talking about. the gloppy eyes, the sneezing, the moping about. it's not terminal, but you need to know, to prevent the spread to other animals, if that's what it is.

 

[ajablu]

I really do believe cats can catch human viruses and dog viruses too. I have been through the exact same thing. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it for myself. Even my vet doesn't think it can happen but I am a believer. For the past several years we all seem to catch whatever cold or virus is going around here Dec./Jan. Our cats sleep on the bed with us. Each time we caught a cold the cats also got the same symtoms a couple days later. They always recovered in a week or so like we did.
Once we got a new pup that brought in a kennel cough kind of thing. The dogs also sleep with us and after a few days the cats had the same symtoms too with the sneezing and coughing. They recovered just fine on their own . The dogs too. The vet said it was viral and would pass. She would give meds only if there was a fever or signs of a secondary infection by getting worse. I know it sounds crazy but my cats live on our upstairs floor and do not go outside. I find it hard to believe they catch a cat virus every time we catch some cold first.

 

[Chicken Chaperone]

Thank you everybody for your input and kind thoughts. I took the mama kitty who had the worst symptoms to the vet and
he said- yep, just a cold- a viral thing and that it'll run it's course and then she'll be ok. He said that if anyone develops fever
that's a whole 'nuther thing and to just watch everyone carefully. So we're on the watch but I think we've all made the turn on
the road to feeling better

thank you so much for your thoughts and support! y'all rock!!