My cats have URI. Is Doxycycline working, or is it a viral infection?

Question

I got a foster dog a few weeks ago. And about a week ago he began to show symptoms of Upper Respiratory infection, I took him to get checked and they tested him and took x rays and said I would get the results soon. I still havnt gotten them. But in the past week, about 4 of my cats have began sneezing. I started them all on doxycycline to fight the URI if they had it. It's been 5 days, would the symptoms have gotten worse if the Doxycycline wasn't working? How would I know if it wasn't working?

Daniel Fonza, DVM · Accepted Answer

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. In regards to the test results, I would contact your vet to find out what the results were. For the cats you havestarted on doxycycline, the respiratory symptoms may not be due to a bacterial infection but rather a viral infection, in which case, an antibiotic won't treat if it is purely a viral infection. Sure it will treat secondary bacterial infections that may be going on as a result of the primary viral but I wouldn't rely on an antibiotic solely to treat this. I recommend using lysine supplementation. Many times in kittens, they pick up the herpes virus from the mother. Lysine works by lessening the severity and possibly shortening the duration of a herpes viral infection. Duralactin with Lysine is the supplement I recommend to help treat the infection which can be found online. If the infection worsens, a nebulizer may help and sometimes antibiotics are nebulized in severe cases. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

My cats have URI. Is Doxycycline working, or is it a viral infection?

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