Has anybody ever had a cat catch distemper also know as panleukopenia?
I took my 11 week old kitten into the vet for a FELV test and it came back negative. Now after some serious research online I found an article by Drs. Foster & Smith about feline distemper. My kitten has all of the symptoms of the dangerous disease except for seizures. She is recovering very slowly since she has made it past the critical 2-3 day period of the virus attacking her immune system after being vaccinated for the first time on September 29th. Ginger is being spoon fed bland foods such as baby food and is given pedialite for all of the electrolites that her body so desperately needs because she became very dehydrated from vomiting alot of body fluids on an empty stomach. The vet gave her an anti-nausea injection and now she is keeping fluids down and digesting solids as well.
Comments
No - because I'm a responsible pet owner who keeps her cats indoors and who always makes sure they're up to date on their shots. Why didn't you?
Distemper has an extremely low survival rate, my sister lost all her barn cats to this several years ago.
If the FeLV test was negative (and the test is accurate for leukemia) your cat did not have FeLV. However many many symptoms are shared by different illnesses, plus toxic exposures. Was she given flea meds? Could she have gotten into the chemicals under the sink? Was she exposed to wind drift from lawn treatments? Any of these can cause the same symptoms and illness in a cat, especially young ones.
My dog found 2 kittens in the woods that I took home to nurse back to health. They were happy and playing for about a month when suddenly they woke up and wouldn't eat and had watery eyes and were sneezing a lot. The little girl died and the little boy died the next day. I brought my cats to the vet afterwards to get them checked and they gave me an antibiotic. Sadly I lost one of my sweeties also. The autopsys all said distemper. This was one of our closest cats and it was a heavy price to pay for trying to help 2 kittens. I truly wish you the best of luck. The best advice I can give is keep him inside. If he goes limp try shooting corn syrup down his throat. Make sure he stays hydrated. if you have other cats keep them seperated and get them antibiotics now as distemper is airborne and spreads like wildfire. Good luck.
Hope the kitten is better soon.
I've never experienced it as mom cat was always given her shots (purebred breeding) and the kittens started their shots at 8, 12, and 16 weeks.