apologies if this becomes a ramble
in the weeks leading up to xmas my cat Milky started sneezing. ordinarily this wouldnt concern me over much but as i have a kitten who had a very poorly beginning i was keeping a close eye on developments. usually Milky wouldnt let a simple sniffle stop him from going about his business but this time he seemed quite down. he spent the week sleeping (and sneezing) in the wardrobe, only coming out to eat and use the kittens tray (very unlike him as he likes to be out all day). none of the other ctas were showing any signs of catching his cold and on xmas day, after a particularly violent bout of sneezing, i discovered why. he had what initially took to be a bit of snot hanging out of his nose so i grabbed a piece of kitchen roll and ended up pulling a 4 inch blade of grass out of his nose
. as i'd felt some resistance and a snap i knew i hadnt got all of it so later in the evening i held him while my mum had a look (she has longer fingernails
). there was a little bit of grass visible so she gently pulled it and it slid out nice and easily, another 3 inches. the next day he was fine, tail up and off out as normal. however, he was still sneezing but nowhere near as much or as violently as before. i assumed that his nose was maybe irritated (he wouldnt let me touch it) or that being so down had lowered his immune system and he'd picked up a cold. this was reinforced by the fact that by now little Mouse was sneezing also (something i really didnt want to happen). yesterday i was speaking to a friend whos rabbit was diagnosed with osteomyelitis. the rabbit was on regular AB injections and the prognosis wasnt good. after a few months my friend decided to stop the injections as the swelling in his face wasnt improving. she started using echinacea drops in his water to boost his immune system and his recovery has been remakable. she suggested that i try it on Mouse. i was skeptical as i thought that echinacea was usually used as a preventitive measure rather than a cure and thought no more of it.
Mouse has been to the vet and is on ABs for any secondary infection and the cold hasn't affected his behaviour one bit. he was eating as normal and running around with Merlin (my other kitten) like a loon. this morning he was curled up next to me on the pillow and his snotty breathing woke me up, i felt so sorry for him i decided to do a bit of research into whether echinacea was safe for cats. i couldn't find anything very helpful so i decided to search for cat people instead, hoping that somebody could give me an answer. well i found this place and got quite distracted by the stories so i didnt notice that sometime during the day Mouse stopped snuffling. however, Milky was struck by another violent episode and low and behold this evening i pulled another 4 inches of grass from his nose. since then he has let me stroke the top of his nose without flinching and hasnt sneezed once. 2 little miracles on the same day i found this lovely little community. is it magic?
