Kitten Sick...distemper...Help Please

So we adpoted a pair of tokinese kittens about 4 months ago who were rescued and very young (about 5-6 weeks) The first cat passed due to kitten distemper around 8 weeks old. his brother is now almost 6 months old but has been sick on and off never being well for more then a month at a time. Usually he would snap out of it after a week and starting eating and drinking again but not this time. The dr beleives him to have distemper as well

He has now been sick for almost 3 weeks now but we have been giving him water and food thru a syringe and feeding it to him which he seems to accept in small amounts. I know he has distemper but I dont udnerstand why some days he is more energetic then others. He has eaten a couple times on his own but has not drank water by himself for weeks now. We decided that we will have to put him to sleep but thought we may wait for him to get worse before doing so because as much as he doesnt eat or drink by himself he is atleast letting us give him food and although he is sleepy most of the time he still does wander around the house and has no problems jumping up on counters and is not stumbling around. We dont want to give up but see no other option as there does not seem to be anything else the dr can do. He does not appear to be suffering which is another reason why we figured we would wait until he gets sicker. Anyone have a similar experience or can offer some advice?

I am sorry your kitty is so sick.

I do not have any knowledge of distemper, but would urge you to do two things (you may have already done this): 1. Consult more than one vet for a second or third etc.. opinion. 2. Research this online and from multiple resources.

I have never researched this, but knowledge is power in these situations.

I will pray for you and kitty.

I thought, but I'm not positive, that distemper was a disease that was more fast acting, and if I remember from years back, I thought one of the things that animals with distemper did was lay in their water because the disease makes them hot? Let me take a look and see what I can find on it.

How long did you say your kittens had this?? From what I can find on the web, distemper usually acts very quickly, and if the kitten survives it, is then immune with generally no side effects.

Did you vet do a white blood cell count?

Here's the link to what I saw on the web. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/feline_distemper.html

I'm not entirely sure that I agree with your vet that this is distemper and I'm thinking take your kitten to a different vet for a 2nd opinion, and quickly.