One of my kittens has limping kitten syndrme?? Anyone familiar with this strain of Calici?

catwoman707 said:

Laurie thats good to know, I often times need to prompt kittens to eat and use the gerber chicken. I don't recheck the label assuming it stays the same. Good to know!

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Yeah - I have NO idea why I checked! :dk: Glad I did.

I know exactly what you mean, I have had a very rough kitten season too. This year has been full of loss. I also had a mother cat eat two of her kittens, she ate one and seemed fine with the rest so I left her alone with them and a few weeks later ate another one so I pulled them all away. That was Delilah's litter so it just got worse from there. I know how hard is to get past a mother eating kittens. I have never had so much loss in such a short period of time and wondered if I was doing something wrong at times. I even lost a perfectly healthy bottle baby at 2 ish weeks old. He ate well and I put him back to sleep and 2 hours latter he was dying and I have no clue why. So I don't think you over worried at all. I would have been very worried too. I am so glad that your babies will be just fine. Hopefully everything will be much smoother from here.

Laurie your posts always bring a huge smile! So colorful and full of emotions, I adore you! 

Catnamedpanda, so sorry it's been a rough year for you. 2 years ago I wasn't on tcs yet, but it was so bad I was nearly suicidal with so much sickness and loss, it feels devastating, discouraging, heartbreaking. Almost at times think it's too much to bare. The pain we take on to save them.

But it goes on, because without us all, little innocent lives would be filled with suffering, and most would end tragically.

There will be easier times, promise! Each loss I have had is another learning experience, for instance my feral mom eating her seemingly fine 3 week old baby. It's so hard to understand, and I lost lots of sleep, but I understand now, it's nature, it must have been so painful for her as well, she surely LOVES her babies, but the survival instinct was even stronger, she did what she thought she had to do, remove the weak link to save the rest and herself.

If she were not caged, she would have taken the baby away and left it to die, but caged she did what she thought she had to. As hard as it is to absorb for us......

Bottle babies...there's another one...my first loss was at 3 weeks old from pneummonia. I know, as much as I didn't want to, that pneummonia was caused my me. To know it was my error that caused this to happen was extremely difficult, and since then I have become quite the expert bottle feeder, saving countless babies. Btw, bottle babies die often, it's just that way, despite all. Again, it's nature and we can't change that. We accept it for what it is. Very powerful.

You are an angel for what you do, we all are here.     If we get discouraged it;s okay. We have to pick ourselves up, wipe the dirt of and go on...because there are so many more who will need you to help them.

I hope things settle for you too, as I promised, it really will be better. 

Thank you for your encouraging words. Sorry I didn't mean to be a bit of a downer on your thread. It is comforting in a way to know that someone else know exactly how I have been feeling lately. It truly is a learning experience with each thing that happens. I have learned so much on how to care for sick ones and give them their best shot at recovery. Bottle babies I am used to losing the sick and preemies, but I have heard that seemingly healthy ones can go like that too. Your right though each loss hurts, but it comes with the joy of saving the others. The survivors are the ones who make it all worth it. You are truly the angle for not just taking the time to tell me about your experiences but how much you do for all of your babies.

EVERYONE who works in rescue is an angel, IMO. But those that take in the mommas and their babies have to face the most heartbreak. :heart2: :heart2: :grphug2:

How are the babies doing today? :cross:

They seem to be recovering nicely! Funny, but this past few days it's been over the top hot, which happens every year, we get this week of 100 degree weather, sending summer out with a bang I guess...so everyone is alot less active, just so hot despite the fans, etc to try to keep the temp in the cat room down as much as I can, so the lack of activity is throwing me off.

I can say that everyone is back to eating/drinking on their own, which is def. a big sign of recovering.

Yay! and whew    is all I can say!

Another cute thing, after all the babying with each one of them through this, they must have loved it because now when I open their cage I have a symphony of purring and at least 3 of them patting my chest asking to climb out into my arms. I could hardly get out of there last night! I LOVE that. 

Yay it sounds like everyone is feeling much better! Hopefully it cools down soon, I wouldn't be very happy if it was that hot. Awe, I love when the babies ask for love.

Me too!! They're all so darn cute

I don't do hot weather well at all either! California has VERY mild summer weather, except for maybe 1 week in the summer it gets in the 90's, actually winter too, and I'm in the bay area where the fog rolls in just about nightly to cool it off. Thats the best to me, I use a down comforter all year long.

I remember back east it was so hot and humid all night long, I don't miss that at all!!

Thanks!

I meant to reply to your post catnamedpanda, apologizing for being a downer on this thread is rediculous, any of us who have suffered in rescue knows all too well how it feels.

And yes, I'm sure it's helpful to know that you are not alone, been there more than I'd like to remember...

Whether it's fighting to save a baby who's chances of surviving are low from the beginning,  but we still try our very best, give it our all, or losing a seemingly perfect one out of the blue, it's loss, heartbreak, disappointment, a huge sense of failure.

I can't tell you how many times I felt I can't do this anymore, I can't take the pain and stress. It takes over my life.

Questioning if there was something I could have done differently.

I mentioned before about losing a baby where it was my fault. That's happened twice. The one years ago at 3 weeks to pneummonia, I obviously caused with bottle feeding, and another one about 2 1/2 yrs ago I don't talk about still because it was so painful to me, Baby Bear, a little girl I rescued from an abandoned property along with 20 others, all between 3 and 5 weeks old. They all had calici, oh it was so awful. I had way too many here, and I was clearly overwhelmed.

Constant meds, eye meds, fluids, vet visits, disinfecting constantly, and so on. This med, that med, this supplement, etc.

I managed to pull them all through, it took about 2 months! Nearly lost a few eyes but got them healed, etc. All but 1, Baby Bear. She never grew, she was tiny to the end, she got pneummonia because I lost track of time with her needing her next covenia shot, a 2 week antibiotic I finally resorted to after 4 weeks of giving liquid antibiotics to so many. It was to prevent pneummonia.

She was 5 days overdue, and suddenly went downhill, fast. I knew but took her to the vet again anyway. She trusted me, counted on me to fix her. Always feeling sick, mouth, paw pad ulcers, every once in a while I would see her try to be spunky and hop up to another kitten wanting so much to play, then she would turn and go lay down again.that broke my heart for her. She wanted to be a kitten so much. And I failed her.

After all this time my eyes are filled with tears again now. I planted a baby pink rose bush on her grave.

One of the many lessons I've learned.

The thing is, if you think of a scale, one side with 100 saved cats and kittens, the other side with the 10 lost cats and kittens, somehow the lost tends to slightly outweigh the saved.

That's the heartache we suffer.

The only way to go on in rescue is to force yourself to move on, put it behind you but never forget. (my heart won't allow me to anyway) because there are so many who will need help. That will never end.

There's so much we take on, another of my personal issues I deal with is the cats and kittens who I know are headed to the shelter to be killed and I can't take them and have no foster who has any room either. For the most part they know not to call me once I tell them I'm full. But occasionally a volunteer or somebody will call or email about some who need saving, sometimes I can, but not always. Now that is awful...weighs on my conscience terribly.

Enough of that!

I just wanted you to know it's okay to feel discouraged, it's okay to make mistakes, we are only human.

I have a signature saying on all of my emails that reads: Saving one cat won't make a difference in the world, but it makes a world of difference to that one cat.

Remember that

Hello,

I know this is an old thread but hopefully you can still help me.

My 11 week old kitten had his second booster shot a week ago, and just a few days later I awoke to find him limping.  We took him to the vet, he gave him a non-steroidal anti-infammatory and said it was most likely because of the vaccine and that he should be fine within a day or two.

Well the following day, day 2, he was worse, had fever, very lethargic, not playing with his problem and shivering.  Back to the vet later that day, was given anti-biotic and cortisone shot.  Seemed to perk up a little bit.  

On day 3, sleeping a lot.  Back to get rechecked at vet, given another long lasting antibiotic shot and more cortisone.  He was back to himself that night, playing with brother, jumping, etc.

Now today, day 4, seems to be very lethargic again.  No purring.  Is eating, so this is a good sign and no fever but is just not the sweet Simba we knew.  He's very hesitant to jump.  Seems like he's still feeling pain in his joints.

I'm curious to know, how long did this last for your kittens???  I just want him to get better and not be in pain.  And I am very hesitant to continue administering all these pharmaceuticals.  I'm much more interested in holistic, natural health, even for my kitties.

Thanks for your reply!

Lisa

This sounds exactly like my 3 month old kitten Bertie. Yesterday morning he was fine, then he started limping. I naturally thought he hade hurt his front paw. However he ate nothing after breakfast yesterday and just hid in his bed. This morning he was wobbling and limping on the other paw and he seemed very hot. There were no other symptoms. I took him to the vet who seemed quite concerned and she gave him some fluids and a couple of injections - antibiotics and antinflamatory. She took his temperature which was quite high. She said if he didn't eat by 4pm I was to take him straight back. However he has had something to eat and drink since but is still very reluctant to get about on all fours as he is quite wobbly. Do you think this is the same?. The vet didn't give it a name and I am a bit concerned. I have another appointment tomorrow at the vets. 

It all seems to be the same, and it is called a form of calicivirus, although it looks nothing like the uri calici I am all too familiar with.

It acts like just a silent virus that hits suddenly, act like a child with the flu would but no vomiting, AND the added symptom of limping, not the same leg either, can change from one day to the next.

However, it does pass within 3-4 days after running it's course, and the biggest/main thing you have to do is be sure to keep kitten well hydrated.

Hi Linda,

Was your kitten vaccinated recently?  It sounds exactly what I went through.  Basically his body didn't create antibodies against the calicivirus when they injected him with it (vaccine) and he actually got sick instead of getting stronger like is intended.  Simba ended up recovering after 4 or 5 days.  His temp was high at 104 on day 2 so our vet gave him an antibiotic shot to bring this down.  Also a steroidal shot for the joints. I'm not a huge fan of medicating with synthetic stuff, but in this situation I was happy for antibiotic because his fever was really scaring me.

It really felt like such a long few days and I was tracking his every move just waiting to see improvement.  It amazed me how quickly I fell in love with him and how attached I got. 

I'm not going to vaccinate him anymore and I've since bought probiotics for cats to strengthen his immune system.

Let us know how things go!

Just a bit of advice lisarenee, you should still get his third vaccine, and his 1 year fvrcp.

Now that he has had 2 out of the 3 series he won't have this reaction again, and unless you can be absolutely sure that he will never get outdoors, he will be vulnerable to panleukopenia, which kills.

If he is indoor only, after the next vax and then one at a year old, he is good to only be vaccinated every 3-4 years.

Thanks for the advice but I live in Hong Kong where the leukemia virus doesn't exist.  There is no real threat of it.  Also they are indoor cats with access only to the balconies.

I just don't believe in vaccines, for myself or my animals.  I've done a lot of reading on them and their filled with aluminum, formaldehyde and other toxic substances.  I'd rather supplement with life giving medicine than something that causes my kitten to become very very sick.  This is just my personal decision and one that I've made with lots of thought and research.

But thanks again!

H

catwoman707 said:

One of my recent rescues was 10 kittens from one home, 6 were 3 1/2 wks, 5 were 4 1/2 weeks.
They had the same father, diff moms.
So, at the time of intake, I asked if any fosters were willing to take a few of the younger ones, I had my hands quite full!
A foster came and picked up 3.
She had them for 2 weeks, and brought 2 of the 3 back, keeping one behind (Clara) because she was not fully adapted to eating Babycat just yet. Fine. This was last week.
The day after she brought the 2 back, she called and said she didn't think Clara was going to make it. WHAT? WHY?
She described a limp, feverish kitten, not eating or drinking. I walked her through giving sub-q's, etc. and she perked back up to her spunky self.
2 days later she was back to her ol spunky little kitten playful self, so she brought her to me on Wednesday. Thursday (yesterday) I noticed she was limping, holding her right front paw up and not wanting to play, just lay around, but not too alarming, I thought she might have stuck her paw through the cage and maybe a littermate pounced on her, something like that. It happens occasionally, especially the volume of kittens that come through my home, eventually you see it all

However, today she was limping on the other foot, her left. She felt feverish and wanted to just be babied and held.
I gave her fluids but she is still just sort of hanging out, sleeping lots.

The fact that she switched paws alarms me. So I did some digging and apparently Calicivirus has several strains, one of them being limping and fever only.
How odd...especially since the Calici I am familiar with and have (Too much!) experience with in kittens is symptoms of an upper respiratory infection.
NOT a limping kitten!

Anyone know anything about this at all?
Thanks!

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Hey I know this was posted a while ago but 3 of my kittens have the symptoms of calci I found this post when searching about it. They are booked in at the vets in 2 hours but please can someone tell me if they will die from it or not I am in such a state

Hello not sure if my last post went through, my 3 kittens have been fine and in great Waltham then yesterday all the did is sleep all day now one of them is limping and the other can barely walk I have searched the symptoms and I found this. Can anyone help me I'm so worried please tell me they won't die

Hi kittyvonmeowza, I'm sorry your kittens are sick. Let us know what the vet says. As you can see from this thread, this can be a very serious illness, but also there is hope if you get them treatment quickly!

The only real danger right now is dehydration. They need fluids immediately!

I gave fluids to rehydrate, and liquid clavamox as well. 3 days and it works through their system just fine. They go right back to their little cute kitten selves!! Thankfully

Dehydration will take down a kitten very quickly.

Let us know!

We have one of our 11 inside cats with the limping and fever twice now - a rebound - and there was also some conjunctivitis as well.  I don't think that it is because, as you write, that this is a different strain.  We have had an epidemic here with our 11 with varying symptoms from cat to cat.  One cat right now, also a rebound, has ulcers on his tongue and bright red gums which is inflammation that is often characteristic of the calici virus.

Our younger cats fought off the virus unaided, but the older ones are taking Orbax because they could not (one was hospitalized with IV drip fluids for dehydration and he also had a 105% fever and was given a little Metacam for it and he also got Orbax - and he was anorexic, too but he got better)  and one required erythromycin vet eye ointment because the triple antibiotic ointment was not working.

Our limping guy is doing way better now that he is on Orbax.  No fever and less lethargy.

This is one nasty virus.