My cat is sick. :(

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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:20 am

I got a phone call about a cat that my mother owned since 2001. She's a tortoise shell manx we named Kitty and we bought her at a parking lot from a lady sellin a liter of kittens. We enjoyed the cat's company for the last few years, but apparently she now has some type of kitty cold/flu that might be fatal. Doctors are doing are doing everything say they might have to put her down to contain the disease. I really don't want her to go this soon in her life.

Anyone here have any experience with this type of crisis?

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:43 am

Sorry to hear about the kitty

My parents use to have a ginger tom and their cat caught flu, they were told the same as you, might have to be put it down.

However the cat was kept wrapped up and indoors and got over it, had a runny nose and slept alot.

He didn't like having its temperature taken at the vets.

Was soon outdoors sorting the other cats out.

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:46 am

Is it cat flu? Why do they want to put her down to 'contain' the disease? Something similar happened to my cat many years ago. The vet wanted to put her down (we found her at about 8 weeks old in a hedge and she had cat flu). We had only stopped the car for the driver to have a cigarette and we were miles from anywhere. The vet said that the mother cat had probably taken her and abandoned her away from the other kittens because she was sick. There wasn't a house in about 20 miles.

it was a sheer co-incidence that we stopped our car in the snow right next to the hedge and heard this tiny kitten.

Anyway it cost us a fortune but we didn't put her down and she suvived for another 19 years once we had got her through those difficult few weeks while she was sick. All we had to do was to keep her away from other cats and be obsessive about washing our hands after we'd touched her. She survived and she lived to be 19 years old.

Good luck with your little guy. I'll be thinking about you!

419Eater is my life Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 403

sounds like Feline Leukemia... a Highly contagious disease that can affect any cat that has spent ANy amount of time outside. All my cats (I have 4) are indoor cats and have been tested.

FE-Luke (Sounds like Flu) is 100% fatal, it leads to various cancers and organ failures.

I had to put 2 of my cats down for it in the last few years. And they were indoor cats... How they got it I dont know...

Good luck with Kitty...

Simon

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:30 am

As long as she's not suffering or contagious to other animals, try to keep from putting her down. We just lost one of ours, kid left the door open. Crying or Very sad

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:42 pm

@Ex., anyone who has ever been owned by a cat feels your mother's pain. I don't know about Kitty's ailment, but I know what it's like to lose a pet. Even my brother, who never cries, broke down when he lost his cat.

I do hope that the suggestions given above help the little one recover. I will be sending healing thoughts her way. Smile

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:02 am

Sorry to hear about your Mom's loss EX. @Sir scam alot, I am sure that the cat is doing just fine. Just a little lost out there but it either found a new owner or has gone feral. I am just getting over the loss of our Leuke. T.S. Elliot said that all cats should have three names. Leuke was short for Leukas and Leukocyte. Leuke was given to me as a middle aged abandoned cat while I was recovering from a bone marrow transplant for someone with leukemia 8 years ago. Leukas died because a fumigator left a door open. About 4 years ago Leukas suffered kidney failure and almost died. I took him to the vet and when I brought him back home a neighbor asked me what was wrong. I told him that I had too much money and the vet fixed that right up. My kids are in the military and do not know that Leukas died. Four weeks ago I bought home a dumped kitten partly so that we would be back up to three cats when the kids came home for Christmas and also because it was really good looking. Its been to the vet twice so far and its not even been fixed yet. I thought that the test for FE-Leuk was a scam but it really is best for everyone.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:56 am

Ex--I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties. Unfortunately, I have way too much experience...I have lost foster kittens to FIP, panleukopenia, severe respiratory diseases, and dealt with a huge variety of illnesses (and seen many fatalities) in a shelter setting.

Feline Leukemia, FIV, and FIP are the three most common of the ultimately fatal feline illnesses. Symptoms tend to come on pretty gradually. FIP usually results in a gradual decline, or a gradual growth of the stomach as fluid builds up in the wet form (normal time to death is 2-11 months). FIV/FeLV often show up as a gradual decline (weeks to months) or recurring bouts of sickness. There is no major need for virus "containment"--these viruses are not airborne, and FeLV and FIV generally require direct contact to spread--grooming, mating, fighting, mom to kitten transfer, and a few very isolated cases have been attributed to food/water bowl or litterbox sharing. They just need to be kept away from uninfected cats, no sharing of food/water dishes or litterboxes. Some households have both FeLV positive and negative cats and with simple segregation by rooms have kept the virus from spreading (a friend of mine did that). Cats with these diseases can be maintained, treating infections as they arise, until the cat can no longer have a quality life--that time period can vary tremendously. There are tests for FeLV/FIV, but no real test for FIP (some vets claim they have one, but it has very low specificity)--but FIP symptoms are sometimes very clear.

Panleukopenia is probably the quickest acting and most likely fatal of the common viruses (mortality up to 90% in kittens, 50% in adults), but it leads to high fever and GI symptoms, generally not much in the line of respiratory. Normal vaccines protect against it, but no vaccine is 100% anyway. Supportive care (often including IV fluids and antibiotics) and isolation from other cats while it runs its course are the only real treatment options, but I would certainly try it (we have pulled some through the virus and lost some to it). This would be the first thing I would think of when you talk about flu symptoms and high mortality.

If it's any of the standard respiratory illnesses--rhinovirus, calicivirus, chlamydia, or bordetella (actually bacterial)--in my experience these are rarely fatal unless the cat has something underlying like FeLV, FIV, or FIP.

Some strep infections can be very dangerous and sometimes fatal, and a vet might be concerned about containment in this case.

Either way, the best thing your mom can do is ask questions and not give up without exploring her options.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 4

Sorry to hear that Ex. I just watched B.A. go through the same thing. It's never easy. Good luck to you.

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:59 am

Just got off the phone (at 2 in the morning nonetheless) with my mother. They gave her an antibiotic shot that has a good chance of fighting off the disease. There's a decent chance she'll survive and revert to full health. Something of this nature happening doesn't surprise me since this year is the first year the cat is being forced to live outside as she couldn't be tolerated inside (which she has been for 7 years). This demonic piece of fur has done so many things to us its a surprise we haven't stuffed her and mounted her on a plaque already. Below are some pictures of the evilness: