4 month old kitten recovering from unknown virus - "Don't underestimate a little scratch"

So my 3 to 4 month old kitten Monique looks like she is recovering from a very bad virus. She was seen by 3 different vets, not one of them knowing what she had since they've never seen anything like it before. I even did my own little research and couldn't even find a picture close to what she had.

So to start the whole story on what happened, I went on vacation for a week on the 29th on june and dropped my two kittens at a friend's home for babysitting. She was fine before I brought her there, except for a hurting paw that was something like 2 or 3 days old, but you know, she's a baby, maybe she just had a bad fall (spoiler alert, the paw had nothing to do with the disease she is fighting now, witch is good). When I came back, I got her and my friend told me something had happened (it was on a sunday so there were no vets opened near where I was and I don't have a car). When I saw my baby, I went black and white and every color since her entire head was swollen... She could's open her eyes, her ears were so tiny since everything around was swollen and she barely walked. Only good thing, her mouth was okay so she could breath and eat easily, but we forced fed and hydrated her for a whole 2 days because she wasn't doing enough on her own. 

Long story short, I went to sleep at my boyfriend's with both of my kittens and on monday, I rushed to the vet's with Monique who wasn't even being a cat anymore. She definitely had the will to go on but she had trouble doing anything. At that point, her left temple was so swollen it got pinkish red and she looked so week and tired. She was obviously malnourished since she didn't do anything on her own and I stopped feeding her moist food in case she had an allergic reaction to it (I never gave her moist food, the babysitter was the first to do so and continued feeding her that since she wouldn't eat dry food anymore). Instead, I was giving her dry food softened with water, witch I knew wasn't enough, but it was the best thing I though of at that time.

At the vet (8:30 am), everybody was petrified seeing her swollen face. The vets didn't come in before 9:00 am, but they rushed one to come and see us as an emergency. They said they had never seen anything like it. It wasn't food allergies since her mouth and throat were completely clear of any swelling. They thought at MOST she got bit by a bug and had an allergic reaction, but her head was so swollen they rejected the idea. She got 3 injections: water on her back to hydrate her over the day, antibiotics and anti inflamatory. The donated the high in protein food (I guess since they saw I was young and that putting her down wasn't an option (I was willing to pay anything for her to be a happy, bubbly kitten like she was)).
 

After 24 hours, her eyes started opening up again. She slept all day (pretty sure the whole thing had drained everything that was left of her energy) and didn't use the litter box, though peed on herself (witch didn't bothered me, I was happy she was peeing at all). I went back to the vet on tuesday (yesterday); this time I was scheduled, no surprise emergency. They gave me Prednisone to make the swelling go down even more. They told me she had some kind of unidentified virus and all we could do was give her what she needs to help her get well and hope for the best. It's now up to her immune system to do the job.

Today, she started going well again. She just has a couple of infections on her ear (the vet said to let them be since the antibiotics are supposed to work on these... we should just hope they don't make her worst), but she walks around, uses the litter box, asks for food and she even tried to eat dry food on her own (not very successful, but hey, she's trying). She didn't gain weight yet (except for her huge food baby going on haha). She could still take a turn for the worst, but she's showing alot of improvement and it makes me very confident.

Has anything like this happened to your cat? Does anybody think they might know what's been going on with her? I'm very happy she's doing so well compared to the other days, but can any of you help me on this?

Sorry for the long text 
P.S.: this is her yesterday. She was very much worst 2 days ago, when her head was a big balloon. She has swollen down to maybe two thirds, no exageration. She still looks like that right now. Her swelling down is also the cause of her lazy ears since they got all stretched out.
and this was her before all that happened
Thank you for reading

My first thought is that it wasn't a virus, but a reaction to physical trauma. 

From what I recall about antibiotics, they work on bacterial infections, not viruses. 

My guess is that there was a physical trauma of some sort resulting in severe inflammation.  The anti-inflammatory shot has probably been the biggest help.  The antibiotics will be helpful for the immune system to fight any damage as well.

 It is prednisolone right and not prednisone? My vet told me prednisone doesn't work in cats (isn't absorbed as well).

Anyhow,  prednisolone  surpresses the immune system. That is great if you are having an allergic reaction or swelling from trauma. Not so great if you have an infection.  If the immune system is overactive, than you give prednisolone to calm the immune system down.  Not a bad idea with the amount of swelling your cat is having.

It could be trauma, I would also suspect a bug bite. An allergic reaction can definitely cause severe swelling (3 ant bites and my hand will triple in size). 

I've never heard of a virus causing those types of symptoms. Your typical virus causes runny eyes, and nose, vomiting, coughing etc.  If she is keeping down what she eats, no runny stools etc. than I doubt this is a virus. A bacterial infection is possible.  Did they do bloodwork?

If you get bloodwork done it should tell you if this is an infection.  An increase in WBC's indicates infection.  An increase in eosinophils usually indicates that this is an allergic reaction (at least in people).

Is there any fluid in her ears or are they just lazy?  Did the house she was in have other cats? If she got a small scratch or bite on her head/ears, it could easily become infected with bacteria and cause an abscess. My cat was scratched by a feral cat on her side and got a 2 inch abscess which had to be drained.  Usually with an abscess though there is a fluid filled pocket which forms.   If this is the start of an abscess, antibiotics will definitely help, and may even prevent the abscess from forming and needing to be drained.

IF the swelling does not continue to go down, get bloodwork done as that will narrow things down for you.

I went to read the bottle again and it really is Prednisone.
I also did my research and knew about the side effects (fragile immune system), and that's why she got the shot of antibiotics, to help her fight any infection that would appear while she was recovering.

We checked for a bug bite of any sort, but she didn't have anything and we suspected a virus similar to juvenile cellulitis that happens in dogs, witch you treat by giving the body support do fight the virus and letting her body do the rest, since there is no known cure to stuff like that.

And the prednisone has really been helping. She does feel a bit knocked out when I give them to her ahha (I guess she simply doesn't like to be given medication) but her swelling goes down day after day and she gets more and more active. She even started to eat dry food in water (I didn't have any food left from the vet but I'm guessing she will be okay, since she's eating normally). What I guess is that the antibiotics are helping her immune system while the prednisone helps the swelling go down?

I will definitaly talk to the vet about the trauma, but you have to know, we've been up down and around everything on her case, and I don't think they forgot about trauma, and definitaly not about bug bite since it was the first subject we talked about and allergic reactions were totaly scratched from the list.

Thank you for the answers!

I-think-the-key,is-to-figure-out-what-exactly-happened,at-your-friends-house.

Saying,something-happened,is-way-unacceptable.She-was-there-for-a-week,so-ask-your-friend,exactly,when-did-he/she-notice-something-was-wrong,what-happened-before-that,does-your-friend-have-other-pets,who-comes-in-his/her-house,how-trustworthy-are-they,were-the-kittens-left-alone-with-other-people,did-the-kittens-get-out,does-your-friend-have-plants/flowers,could-the-kitten-have-gotten-into-something.I-would-polietly-ask-for-a-better,detailed-explanation.

I-came-home-from-a-show-late-Sun-night,to-sick-10-week-old-kittens,they-were-fine-when-I-left-on-Fri.The-other-adults-were-fine,not-sick.So-I-asked,what-happened,what-changed-in-3-days?The-ans-I-got,was-"nothing".Had-to-drag-it-out-of-them,under-"interrogation",they-gave-them-adult-food,instead-of-kitten-food.Their-bag,was-clearly-marked,Kitten-food.

Want-me-to-go-to-your-friends-house?I-will-get-the-story-out-of-them,LOL.

This-sounds-pretty-close.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2141&aid=152

I still don't think it's a virus, sorry it just doesn't fit.

My guess is there was an accident at your friends house, and they are embarrassed and feeling bad about it, but don't want to confess.  Accidents happen, a kitten is easy to get underfoot, they can also spook and run into things, any number of things could have happened to cause physical trauma.  Seriously, it really sounds like kitten hit their head (or something hit it), perhaps bursting some vessels, and it caused swelling.  My guess is that you aren't likely to get a true answer to what happened.

Very glad that the little gal is feeling better.

Thanks, I'm glad too. She was such a cute and bubbly kitten, I can't wait for her to get to her old self again, even if she keeps those floppy gremlin ears ^^ haha

She still eats her fancy wet food, I'm starting to think she's just snobing her old dry food haha... Is wet food bad for kittens' health if they keep eating only that for long? I'm all out of wet food from the vet so I'm now feeding her some biological stuff I got from my nearby grocery store (we only have a bio grocery store in my town so it's all I could find). It's basically pretty much the same thing, liver, chicken, etc. They even add some extra vitamins witch I guessed would be good for growing kittens. Since her old wet food was 50% water and she doesn't want to drink water right now (I still force her a couple of times a day), I figured mixing it in water would be good. It also helps it go through the tube I got to feed her (I don't know how you call it in english, it's like a syringe without a needle?).

I'll be talking to my vet soon, but can anybody reassure me that I'm doing everything alright?

Thanks again for all the comments, I love all the support people provide on these forums... It's really helping me out.
Even if I might never know how she got that (even if it is a trauma, I might never know the actual cause), I'm glad all of you helped with that.
What I actually think is that her sister hurt her or something. She really plays rough, more than any cat I've ever seen. I have to stop her sometimes so maybe she ran up to her and knocked her bad or something. I still keep her in my room by night to keep an eye on her, witch makes Nathalie pretty sad.

Also, for the ear infection, I put a bit of cream polysporin, since she can't lick herself on that spot. I won't do it allot, just trying to help her heal a little bit since I can't see the vet right now. She doesn't scratch it (not for what I've seen). I'm really doing my best to help her heal and start being independent again. Having to help her with everything 24/7 is really getting hard, for me and I'm pretty sure for her too, it must be hard to have to ask for every thing (going up and down fourniture, eating, drinking...)

Here are two pictures of her today. She's really getting better every minute.

I am glad that your kitty is getting better. Wet food is much better for all cats than dry food, so it's good that she likes it. She's a smart kitty! If you want to learn more about cat nutrition please go to www.catinfo.org. Written by a vet, it's full of great info.

Also, you're syringe feeding, I take it, using an oral syringe? I'm sure the vet told you, but it's very important when syringe feeding to put the food only a little at a time into the side of the mouth and let her swallow it. You need to be careful not to squirt any down her throat or you risk aspiration pneumonia.

Good luck and many vibes for a quick recovery for your adorable kitten.

Thanks for the info, I'll go check out that website!

And yes, it's oral feeding, but she mostly does all the work. She has trouble eating by herself now, but I think she just likes being treated like a princess and I don't blame her for now haha
She can move her mouth, so I fill the seringe and give her a bit at a time, but not down her throat, I'm just letting her get it by herself.
 

We started syringe feeding her because her head was so heavy, she couldn't get out of the bowl haha! Of simply fell asleep in it since she was so weak! But her mouth and throat were never swollen, we only helped her by giving her the syringe.

Thanks for the vibes, her big alien head received them, helping her get a better recovery! haha