My cat has a stuffy nose. How do vets test for respiratory infections?

Question

My car has had a mucousy stuffy nose for a week. Im going to take her to the vet tomorrow to determine if she may have an upper respiratory tract infection. Can you help me understand how they test for this? And how do they determine if it's bacterial or viral? I want to go into the visit informed. I feel like my vet makes mistakes sometimes.. Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Female | spayed | 3 years and 9 months old | 11 lbs

Ana M, DVM · Accepted Answer

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Nadu. Sometimes a respiratory disease panel can be submitted to a reference laboratory. A swab is generally taken from the throat and eye. This will use PCR to test for a variety bacterial and viral infections. If the nasal discharge is thick, green or yellow, this typically indicates a bacterial infection. The can start as a viral disease and have secondary bacterial overgrowth or as a primary bacterial infection. I hope this information helps!

My cat has a stuffy nose. How do vets test for respiratory infections?

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