Upper respiratory infections in cats are pretty common, and knowing how to cure them at home is not only relatively easy but also much more affordable than a costly vet visit. I’ve had to go through it a few times with my cats and will share my two best treatments that have worked to get rid of them quickly.
My first line of defense against URI symptoms
In most of the cases where I’ve had a cat with symptoms of an upper respiratory infection like sneezing and/or nasal discharge, I was able to cure it quickly and easily with a mixture of apple cider vinegar (ACV), which as a rule, I always keep on hand, and colloidal silver (CS), which I also always have.
Due to how many benefits CS provides, I make my own, but if you are unfamiliar with it and all of the benefits, you can read about them in an article I wrote here. Before I started making my own, I used Sovereign Silver with 10 ppm with great success as an entry-level option to colloidal silver. Occasionally, I bought Silver Wings in the 500 ppm option when I needed it to go further by diluting it with distilled water using this conversion table. For treatment in this case, to make 1/4 cup of 10 ppm using the 500 ppm Silver Springs product, add 24 drops of it to 1/4 cup of distilled water.
In addition to using the ACV and CS mixture, I’d also add L-lysine into the affected cat’s food. In most cases where I caught the symptoms pretty early, using these two things combined worked quickly and well. Below are my mixing instructions and dosing for both.
Mix 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 1/4 cup colloidal silver (CS). Can use water alone if you don’t have the CS or use 1/4 cup water with a couple of droppers of at least 10 ppm CS.
Saturate a paper towel in the liquid and then generously wipe it on the front paws and sides of the cat. This is done so the cat will then lick off the mixture and by doing so, ingest it and start the healing process. When you are done wiping, you can squeeze some of the liquid from the paper towel onto the skin between the shoulder blades as well and rub it in.
Do this twice a day.
L-lysine: 250 to 500 mg mixed into food twice a day for up to a week.
Plan B (when the first treatment plan isn’t working)
As with any medical treatment, what works for some doesn’t always work for others and pets are no exception. While the apple cider vinegar/colloidal silver and L-lysine protocol had always worked the few times I’ve needed to nip some upper respiratory symptoms in the bud, it didn’t work for my latest rescue, Ty.
Ty was a 10-week old kitten I’d adopted from the humane society that came underweight with a diarrhea issue and lots of previous conventional medical treatments. My other cats that had always responded well to my initial treatment were older and otherwise healthy due to being fed a quality diet with both limited vaccines and toxin exposure.
When Ty started sneezing a few months after I adopted him, I started him on the apple cider vinegar/colloidal silver mix and L-lysine regimen that had always worked. Unfortunately, due to his young age and with a probably compromised immune system from all the vaccines, poor diet, diarrhea, and other medications he’d gotten as a young kitten, Ty’s sneezing escalated into sneezing with bloody discharge.
Seeing that Ty wasn’t getting better with my first treatment plan, I began referencing my holistic vet books for another treatment. I decided to try an Echinacea & Goldenseal extract to help his immune system.
Luckily, the echinacea & goldenseal protocol worked quickly. Because the echinacea & goldenseal extract is a human version, which is my preferred version for anything I buy, it can be used on everyone in the house. I bought this Horbaach formula here. Below is the cat dosing protocol I used.
3 or 4 drops of the liquid extract twice a day. Because Ty was under 10 lbs., I opted to only give him 3 drops.
Mix the drops into wet food, mashed up sardines (the ones packed in water) or a treat like Churu. Being a raw feeder, adding medications of any kind to pieces of meat can be tough. I’ve found when I just need a little bit of aromatic wet food to get someone medicated without potentially messing up their digestion from changing up their diet so drastically, I like these Wellness Core packets. Being frugal, I’d divide the packet into two portions for the two dosings.
Word of caution
While the Horbaach echinacea & goldenseal extract doesn’t contain any alcohol, being ‘Super Concentrated’ it is very potent. One of my cats, Rosie, who is between 9-10 lbs. and has the most sensitive stomach of all of my cats, didn’t care for the taste at all and ran away after tasting the food with it in it. She had a cough and I wanted to see if the drops would help her. That experiment failed due to my not taking her particular nature into consideration, and instead, treating her like Ty.
Looking back, with Rosie’s delicate stomach, I should have only given her one drop to start with mixed in plenty of tasty food to help hide the taste and slowly worked my way up. I recommend the starting slow method of dosing with a cat that tends to have a sensitive stomach or is extremely food picky so you don’t get a similar reaction from your cat.
Also, in the vet book I referenced, it cautions that echinacea is not to be used long-term without breaks. Because it boosts and normalizes the immune system, using it indefinitely can overly stimulate and exhaust the immune system.
If you are using echinacea for a long-term condition like sores that won’t heal, Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), or Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), my holistic vet book suggests using it for two or three weeks, stopping it for a week or two, then resuming on that same schedule, if needed. In more severe cases, my book advises it can be used for three weeks and then stopped for a week.
Conclusion
Fortunately, Ty, who was still young and growing, and had a voracious appetite, didn’t hesitate to eat the food with the extract, and I saw results quickly. Since Ty, I haven’t had to use the extract on anyone else for an upper respiratory infection, but it will definitely be another thing in my arsenal to combat them in the future. I also like having it on hand for myself, since sick days aren’t an option in my house.
While I wrote a post back in 2017 here reviewing holistic pet books that I own, I recently got a new book that is old (published in 1999) that I’ve really enjoyed and used in this post in treating Ty. It’s called ‘The Veterinarians’ Guide to Natural Remedies for Cats’ by Martin Zucker. I really like it because it has a variety of treatment options from a few different holistic vets that gives names of products, amount/dosages, and additional helpful information. Like Dr. Goldstein’s book that also shares product names and dosage amounts and that I also recommend as a good reference book for a pet owner, some of the products are no longer available. Luckily, that’s rare and doesn’t negate all the good information it contains.
For my list of favorite things I (mostly) own and/or recommend to fellow pet parents and occasionally random strangers, including the products I referenced in this blog post, you can visit my Amazon store page here, https://www.amazon.com/shop/savingscatsanddogswhilesavingcash. I’ve included little notes about the products also.
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Pam Roussell, of Purrrfectly Holistic, has this to say about CS:
“From my own personal experience:
When my cat Rocket struggled with chronic rhinitis and sinus infections I would use colloidal silver to help clear up the infections. I thought I was doing the right thing by using something more “natural” but in the end I fear I contributed to his weakened immune system somehow. He ultimately developed a nasal polyp which we had removed. Despite trying everything holistic that I knew at the time and working with a homeopathic vet, the polyp regrew.
When the nasal infections wouldn’t clear up despite using silver, it became apparent something more severe was going on.
I took him to Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists in Houston, TX, due to the bleeding from his nose and suspected new polyp. To my shock when I got his blood work back, his SILVER levels were OFF THE CHART. And he was diagnosed with Renal lymphoma…the nasal lymphoma had spread to his kidneys. He lasted 4 more weeks before passing.
What I have learned since: even too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Heavy metals, including silver, are stored in the body in various tissues, and metals are toxic to the body. The immune system I was trying to heal was only getting weaker, and I believe I contributed to that.
I have also learned that Dr. Karen Becker, world renown integrative veterinarian, does not recommend internal use of colloidal silver long term–short term use only if necessary. From what she shared, CS molecules kill both good and bad gut flora. Yes, they can help attack pathogens. But at what cost?
When using CS, are you monitoring heavy metal levels in the body? Are you detoxing the heavy metal AFTER using it to help with an infection with supplements specifically tailored to remove heavy metals? If not, I highly recommend doing so. You can also do a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis test to determine if CS is building up in the body.
I would also recommend adding a fiber source to feed healthy gut flora alongside a source of probiotics.
Instead of using colloidal silver internally now I prefer to use OxyCat by Feline Essential. It works just as well with no heavy metal exposure.
I have no issue with using colloidal silver externally for various issues.
I wanted to share this as food for thought as I know there are many people who promote the use of colloidal silver. Best practices would be to monitor and test for metal levels, use discriminately only when necessary and make sure to implement measures to help eliminate what isn’t useful.
Losing Rocket was a painful lesson for me, and if I can help one person avoid the same mistake and provide some points to consider, this post has been meaningful.”
You can ask her about this, too. She is a very kind person.
support@purrrfectlyholistic.com
This is Pam’s website:
https://www.purrrfectlyholistic.com/
Hi Tamara,
That’s an interesting and very sad story and one about colloidal silver I’ve not heard before, so thank you for sharing it.
There are a lot of details left out like what the ppm she was using was. The brand she used may also have played a role. Her story makes it sound like she only used the CS when her cat had an infection of some sort, so kind of sparingly, maybe?
While I don’t doubt her story at all, I do hesitate to immediately cross CS off my list of products I use or recommend because of one story that could have other variables involved that caused the outcome. It is definitely a topic I’ll keep my eye on and if I find similar stories or have my own negative experiences, I’ll be the first to share a word of caution about colloidal silver’s use.
I still vividly recall the fear mongering over using colloidal silver after Oprah had the smurf looking “blue man” on her show decades ago. Many people remember that and are afraid to use CS when they see that turning blue is a possible side effect, according to the conventional online medical sources. That’s a shame because when used properly, CS is great at treating many things and the side effects are much less serious than most OTC or prescribed medications.