Help, Feedback and Suggestions?

eabianchini

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Hello all, I am totally new to the site but found it in my search for information. My roommates and I are currently fostering two separate litters 4 females that are roughly 6-8 weeks old according to the vet that we got from my cousins who found them abandoned by their house; and we had two little orange tabbies males that are about 3 weeks old. we got from a foster house that we later discovered is not a licensed foster agency and has caused some problems for the vets in the general area with various diseases (panleuk, ringworm, etc.). They are all working to try to get the place closed down for good but it will be a long road. 

Wednesday night (two days ago) one of our orange tabbies (we'd named Rex) took a turn for the worse and we ended up at the emergency vet clinic where he sadly died and we were informed that he had panleukopenia. His brother (Sheldon) also ended up in the vet shortly thereafter with diarrhea but still just a feisty as ever. We brought him back home with the assumption that he also has panleukopenia and a two week course of preventative antibiotics and instructions to keep him hydrated. He is still alive as of today, very tired and has a low fever, not very interested in eating but still seems to be fighting the virus as best he can. 

The other litter we have is also starting to have a bleak outlook, two of them started throwing up white foam (spit looking stuff) this morning and I got them into the vet asap. Both have fevers as does the other two in the litter. The vet said its likely they also have panleuk but since we tried our best to keep the two litters seperate there's a chance its something simplier. Regardless, they were sent home with wormer and antibiotics as well and are are very sleepy and listless right now but otherwise the vet said they still look bright and she thinks they have a good shot at surviving with supportive care.

My question really boils down to: has anyone else ever had experience with panleuk and could give me any suggestions? I feel so bad for all these kittens because they really deserve a shot at a loving home and long life. 
 

denice

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Panleuk is extremely contagious, just keeping the litters separate isn't enough.  Many vet clinics if they have a kitty hospitalized there with it have one person taking care of that kitty.  That person doesn't do anything but care for that kitty and no one else takes care of that kitty.  We used to have someone here who worked at a vet clinic and when she was caring for a kitty with it, she would take off her scrubs before going in the house and go directly to the shower.  The stuff is also very hardy as far as surviving in the environment so even months after having a kitty in your home that has it, it can still be alive in the environment.

I dont' want to be too discouraging but it is rare for small kittens to survive it, older kittens can survive it with aggressive supportive treatment.  The mainstay of aggressive treatment is an I.V.  You could possibly give subQ fluids at home, but your vet is right to have a chance they have to stay hydrated. That is difficult because they are losing so much fluid through diarrhea and vomiting.
 
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eabianchini

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Thanks for reply. Unfortunately about a day after this was posted we lost the other 3 week old over night and the next morning one of the others went into respiratory failure and I was able to get her to the vet in time to put her down before she suffocated. After that we made the decision to also euthanize the remaining 3 before they met the same fate. It was very difficult to watch the two struggle to breathe and with such a high mortality rate for this virus we didn't want the rest to suffer any more. We gave them the best shot we could but it was just too much for them to handle. With assistance and advice from our vet we are in the process of disinfecting our apartment thoroughly now and can hopefully kill off the virus.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but Panleuk cannot simply be killed off


I refer you to THIS thread.  No need to read the original post, just jump down to the reply, it's heartbreaking, but I also know of a cat sanctuary who had to stop rescueing for quite some time while waiting for the Pankeuk virus to "die".  She did all the bleaching, etc. too.  And lost many, many kittens to the disease before all was said and done.  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/299350/3-week-old-kittens-with-parvo#post_3758987
 
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eabianchini

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Thanks for the link. Somewhat similar stories, and it's nice to know we're not the only ones that have had this happen. After a bunch of research and mainly recommendations from the vet, we have been bleaching the apartment from top to bottom and will probably continue to do so periodically over the next year. If we have the opportunity to foster again next summer we will sit down with the vet and carefully evaluate the safety of bringing in another litter. We are definitely not going to be able to take anymore this summer though. It was devastating because the two 3 week old kittens we took in from a local foster agency were the cause. The foster agency turned out to be illegitimate and the local veterinary clinics have been trying to shut it down for years because they refuse to admit that they aren't taking the correct precautions. We went to two different vet clinics with the two litters and both told us that something like this has happened many times before, mainly with panleukopenia but also with some severe cases of ringworm as well. We keep looking back on stuff we could have done differently (namely not taking those two kittens), but what's done is done and the vets even told us that we did everything correctly and sometimes crappy stuff like this happens when fostering.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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It's so terrible
  Here you were trying help, and now other helpless kittens won't get the help they need because of what happened
 

I just wonder how the Vet's are able to clean up after having a case in their offices.  Maybe because they have drains in the rooms and are so sparce they really CAN get the bleach on every single surface and into every crack. 

Anyway, I sure hope they can get that foster agency shut down
 

jdollprincess

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There's a type of disinfectant called trifectant that kills a lot of bleach resistant viruses including panleuk. At my vet we would spray down all exposed surfaces with trifectant 3 times a day for 3 days before any of those surfaces or rooms were used again.
 

denice

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I think vet clinics, the good ones are set up in such a way that makes it possible to disinfect thoroughly.  They have an isolation room for things like panleuk and parvo in dogs.  The animal stays in a stainless steel cage and everything that comes in contact with the kitty is double bagged and thrown out.  They also don't have things like carpeting, upholstered furniture or even wood back in the treatment areas.
 
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