My kitten has a URI, I've heard something about steamy showers being helpful...what does that mean?

Question

What exactly is this steamy shower treatment? Do I keep her in the bathroom while I shower? I'm already giving her medicine from the vet but I want to do everything I can to make her more comfortable!!!

Answer 1

If you have a small enough bathroom that it's easy to steam up and your cat's URI is really bad, the steam can help her breathing by opening the nasal passages.  But keep in mind that when she leaves the bathroom, she may be cold, which can make her feel worse.  If the vet gave you medicine and she's not getting worse, just give her a warm place to settle and make sure she has plenty of water available to her.  Good luck!

Answer 2

Ask your vet about giving your cat L-Lysine.  Its a vitamin supplement, that boosts the immune system, and you can get it in the vitamin section.

You want to get the one that contains no - sugar, starch, fillers, etc. It comes in capsules, you open them up, and mix with canned food or baby food, mix very well.

When my HCM cat, had URI, mouth infection, eye infection, my vet put him on the L-Lysine each time, 500 mg, one cap, once a day, and each time, he was better in just a few days.

But run this by your vet first, and my cat weighs 20 lbs, so the dosage may be different.

If you type L-Lysine Cats in your search engine, alot of info comes up. Hope this helps, and hope your kitty is feeling better soon. :-)      

Answer 3

Shower treatment is for people who don't have a vaporizer -  sit in the bath room with kitty and run hot water- make sure the door is closed so that steam can build up and put moisture in the air so kitty can breath it- but really this will probably just stress her out- the less stress she has the sooner she'll recover- honest- did your vet say WHY she has URI- is it a virus?  Look up URI-  

Answer 4

yes, you can keep her in the bathroom with you while you shower, the steam will help open her breathing passages and thin the "snot" so she can breathe better. an alternative is to use a vaporizer in the house, it works the same way- hey same thing you do when you have a head cold, lots of steam, plenty of fluids, plenty of food and lots of rest. the medicine is probably an antibiotic, that does not cure a virus ( URIs are caused by 3 main viruses) but it does prevent a secondary infection like pneumonia.

your kitty has a stuffy nose and can not smell her food very well right now, if she stops eating or doesn't eat much then offer her slightly warmed canned food or even sardines, they are smelly so she can smell them and develop an appetite.

the virus will just have to run it's course which could be up to 3 weeks or so, just keep her as healthy as possible in the mean time.