Hii, 10 year old fiv+calici+herpes male cat
Need advice/experiences — FIV+ cat with chronic calici/herpes, severe wheezing and possible pneumonia?
My 10 year old Persian male cat is FIV positive and has had chronic herpes/calici symptoms for around 4 years (mouth inflammation, conjunctivitis, sneezing flare-ups etc), but this current flare is very different and much more respiratory-focused.
He still eats VERY well, grooms himself, asks for food, drinks broth etc, which is the confusing part. But his breathing has become very abnormal.
Symptoms:
loud wheezing/whistling sounds
abdominal breathing effort
cannot sleep properly, keeps waking up uncomfortable
severe inflamed/red mouth and past ulcers/bleeding
flare relapses very quickly after antibiotics stop
weight fluctuations during flares
He did 20 days of enrofloxacin with only partial improvement, then relapsed quickly. They shifted him to azithromycin briefly and now doxycycline.
Current treatment:
doxycycline
prednisolone
famciclovir
nebulization 4x/day:
gentamicin/pred
budecort
duolin
mucomix
Deriphyllin was also given
His awake RR can come down around 25/min after repositioning/stretching, but while deeply asleep I counted around 70/min which scared me badly.
Older chest X-ray from May wasn’t showing obvious massive pneumonia according to discussions, but new X-rays are coming tomorrow.
Has anyone here had an FIV/calici/herpes cat progress into chronic lower airway disease, bronchitis, asthma-like disease, or pneumonia?
Did your cat improve with inhaled therapy/nebulization/steroids, or did it continue progressing?
I’m especially confused because he still eats extremely well despite the breathing issues.