Rescue kitten arrived sneezing with gunky eyes, is this cat flu and will my other cat catch it?

We picked up our new kitten from a rescue on Saturday, she's about nine weeks and completely lovely, but by Sunday night she was sneezing a lot and this morning one of her eyes is half gummed shut with yellowish gunk. She's still bombing around and eating so she doesn't seem miserable exactly, but I feel awful, like I've brought home a poorly baby and not noticed.

The bit keeping me up though is our resident cat Pixie, who is 4 and up to date on her jabs. I've kept the kitten in the spare room but honestly the first day before the sneezing started they had a couple of nose to nose sniffs through a gap in the door. Have I potentially given Pixie whatever this is? And is this cat flu? The rescue did say she'd had a snuffle but that it was clearing.

Feeling like a rubbish cat mum right now. What do I actually do.

Breathe, you're not a rubbish cat mum, this is incredibly common in rescue kittens. Ours came home sneezing too. It's stressful watching but most of them come through it fine with a bit of nursing. Get her booked in with your vet this week though, the gummy eye especially is worth them looking at.

The isolating instinct was the right one. Keep going with it.

When we had this a friend told me "oh once it clears up she'll be immune and that's that," and I repeated it to my vet who very gently corrected me. Apparently they don't clear it out of their system the way you'd hope, it kind of stays with them and can pop back up when they're stressed. Wish I'd known that going in, I'd have panicked less every time our boy sneezed the following winter.

Practical stuff that helped: separate food bowls and litter tray for the kitten, wash your hands between handling the two cats, and wipe the eye gently with cotton wool and cooled boiled water. And warm her food a little if she goes off it, the blocked nose puts them off eating.

Denise M. said:

is this cat flu? The rescue did say she'd had a snuffle but that it was clearing

That "it was clearing" line is so familiar, rescues aren't lying, it genuinely does look like it's clearing and then the stress of the move brings it roaring back. The move itself is a classic trigger. Doesn't mean you did anything wrong.

Vet moderator note, because this exact scenario walks through the door most weeks in kitten season. What you're describing, sneezing plus a yellowish, gummed-up eye in a newly homed rescue kitten, is very likely cat flu, the everyday name for a feline upper respiratory infection. In the large majority of cases it's driven by one of two viruses, feline herpesvirus or feline calicivirus, and the stress of rehoming is one of the most reliable triggers for it to flare, which is why "it was clearing at the rescue" and "it got worse the day after she came home" are not a contradiction at all.

On Pixie, the honest answer: yes, it's contagious to her, it passes between cats on sneeze droplets, shared bowls, bedding, and on your hands, so those nose to nose sniffs were a possible route. The reassuring part is that being up to date on her FVRCP vaccine is exactly the protection you'd want. It doesn't always stop a vaccinated adult catching the viruses outright, but it very reliably makes any illness milder and shorter, so a well vaccinated four year old is a completely different risk picture from a nine week old kitten. Keep them separated while the kitten is actively sneezing, separate bowls and tray, hands washed between them, and you've done the sensible things. millie-and-otis is also right about the bit people get wrong: most cats that recover from herpesvirus carry it quietly for life and can have milder flare-ups under stress, so "cleared up and gone forever" isn't quite how it works. It's manageable, just worth knowing.

The line that matters most for the kitten herself: nine week olds have very little reserve, so a few things move this from nurse-at-home to see-the-vet-promptly. If she stops eating or drinking, if an eye is fully sealed shut or looks cloudy or bulging, if her breathing looks laboured or fast at rest, or if she goes flat and quiet rather than bombing around, that's a same-day call, not a wait. A bright kitten who's still eating and playing, as she sounds now, usually just needs a vet check this week and good nursing, but kittens can tip over quickly so keep a close eye. The site's guide to cat flu symptoms and treatment sets out the home nursing and the red flags in full, and bringing home a rescue cat covers the settling-in side. None of this is a diagnosis of your particular kitten or of Pixie, a forum can't examine either of them, so let your own vet confirm what's going on and steer the treatment.

Update and thank you all so much. Vet saw her Thursday, confirmed cat flu, gave us an eye ointment and said keep nursing and keep her separate for now. The eye is nearly back to normal and the sneezing is way down. Pixie has stayed completely fine, not a single sneeze, which the vet said was the vaccine doing its job.

Reading that they can carry it for life was the thing I didn't know and I'm weirdly glad I do now, at least I won't spiral if she gets a snuffle next winter. Feeling much less like a rubbish cat mum today.