Cat flu - any experience?

[crunchyfrog]

9 week old kitten we've had for a week (he was a surprise gift from Dsis for DD.)

Took him for vax on Monday there, and he has cat flu. He's completely fine in terms of weight, eating and drinking, seems very happy. Just does a lot of sneezing and has runny eyes.

He's been vaxed anyway, vet said it might make him sicker but no effect yet.

Apparently it can return throughout their lives? I think I should contact the person dsis got them from, as they're clearly not vaxing their (farm) cats.

My cat had flu when we got him. He came from Battersea but had only been there for 4 days. He'd been in a family home before that.
Battersea had vaccinated him but they (and my vet) said he must have had the virus a long time ago & it had reactivated because of the stress of being in kennels.
He was sneezing a lot & had runny eyes but apart from that was fine.
He gets sneezy whenever he goes into kennels now & also when we had builders in for 3 weeks, so at stressful times.
I would contact the breeder & talk to them but presumably they know they're meant to vaccinate & choose not to.
Hope he's ok soon.

Even vaxxed cats can get it :). My rescue cat is a cat flu girl and it does not effect her life at all. Mine well a bit when I have to wipe her snot off the wall but other than that she is fine :)

Seniorboy has it crunchy - or rather he gets bad URIs because he's pretty old so his immune system is probably lousy. He generally needs an antibiotic injection every few months to give his system a helping hand when it flares up. (The vet thinks he may have a little nasal damage or something because it's always on one side of his nose/face but he's too old now for anything but palliative care.) He's a happy and fairly healthy cat apart from the odd bout - and it's worth noting that he didn't get flare-ups until he was over 17: his immune system seemed to take care of things before that age.

Here's some guidance on the topic.