3 week old kittens with Parvo

Hi,

I care for a feral colony of cats in my neighborhood. I have TNR'd 25 + cats, taken care of a few litters of abandoned bottle babies, and rehomed quite a few in the past few years of living in my neighborhood.

I noticed a new cat coming to eat on my front porch, and initially I thought she was pregnant. Her belly was swollen, nipples pink, and she was very friendly and hungry. After a few days of following her, I realized she had already given birth. She looked a lot smaller than she did a few days prior. I found her nest of three kittens and took them all into my bathroom. The mama cat had stopped lactating and she just seemed so frail compared to a few days earlier. She wouldn't eat or drink, and the kittens kept trying to nurse but weren't getting anything from her. 

A fellow cat caregiver took the mom cat to her home and I kept the kittens. I was feeding them KMR and noticed one kitten wasn't really responding to being fed. He seemed lethargic and disinterested. I basically was force feeding him and trying to feed him as much as his siblings were eating. The veternarians I took them to did a fecal and suspected coccidia, and though they didn't see anything in office, they insisted on sending out a sample to a lab and starting prophylactic albon treatment. 

A day later, the lethargic boy had watery, bloody diarrhea. I had to work that day, so the caregiver friend took them to a vet she knew who immediately put the sick boy on fluids. Another vet eventually diagnosed him with Parvo and, due to his condition, suggested euthanasia. I couldn't be there to be a part of that decision and I hate that we had to let him go. 

The other two kittens are not that energetic, but they were lethargic from the start. They're eating A/D now, diluted with plain pedialyte, with probiotics and a bit of goats milk added. They're also receiving Clavamox every 12 hours. I'm trying to feed them every 2-3 hours, even if they only take a small amount. 

I am totally heart broken at this situation. The kittens have only been in one room of my house, but since I already have 4 cats in my home and, though they are UTD on all of their vaccines, I'm paranoid about transmission. Everything I can think of has been bleached cleaned, the kittens are quarantined inside a large dog crate inside of a closed spare bedroom, with zero contact with any of my cats. I've now been changing my clothes when entering/exiting the room, but I wasn't doing that last week when I was told they had coccidia. I washed all of my clothes and linens in DuPont Virkon antiviral tablet wash. I've thrown away all towels involved with the kittens and plan to throw away any others they're currently in contact with. I'm bleaching door handles, the bottoms of all the shoes I may have worn last week, the floor outside the room, etc etc... I've been waking up every 2-3 hours throughout the nights so I feel like I'm going insane. 

I know the chances are slim for the kittens to survive, but I can't let them go when they're eating and walking around and sort of playing a bit. I have to give them a chance. The vets I've seen have been so blasé about the whole thing... I mean, they're feral kittens found outside in Baltimore City now diagnosed with Parvo, so of course the vets all think they're just going to die. To be honest I'm pretty upset that out of the three vet clinics they've been to, not one of them suggested testing for Parvo until a kitten was on the brink of death. I didn't even know Parvo was something a cat could get... I've only heard about dog Parvo. 

I'm just trying to give these little guys a fighting chance regardless of the statistics. Anyway, I guess I'm writing here for any insight, advice, experience anyone might have with this.   

Thank you in advance for reading all of this! 

Hi.

Well it's unfortunate that I am able to say that I have plenty of experience with parvo. In cats it's called panleukopenia. It is the "P" in the vaccines FVRCP. Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus, Panleukopenia. 

The first 2 are the most commonly seen upper respiratory infections.

Assuming the kitten who was pts was infact given a parvo test and it showed positive, it's no good hun. I need to tell it the way it is, and I don't mean to hurt you, but it doesn't do you any good for me to sugar coat this awful deadly virus.

First of all, your 4 cats are not in any danger what-so-ever of catching this if they were fully vaccinated as kittens and had their 1 year vaccine.

After that it is lifetime immunity, so no worries there at all.

What you do need to know though is, this is an extremely hearty virus, and any unvaccinated cats or kittens who come to your home for the next year and a half are susceptible, as it takes that long for the virus to finally die. It is sneaky and silent, it will live it a tiny crack waiting for it's next victim, and if one kitten is exposed, they will all get it.

It's deadly, VERY rarely, an adult cat might recover with hospitalization and care if found soon enough, but it's highly unlikely.

I'm sorry to say, the kittens will not survive this. They are much too young and have immature immune systems, you can imagine if I say how most all adults will die from it, that kittens surely all do.

It's one of the very worst possible things to encounter in rescuing, believe me how I know this one. There's nothing worse, I call it the BIG P.

It's not only horribly painful for us to lose entire litters, sometimes with mom as well, if she is present and gets it, which is usually the case when young kittens get it. But it is a horrible suffering way for a kitten/cat to die. 

Imagine how many homeless/feral cats there are living outside. One cat can have panleuk and it might take a week to die. Every time the cat peed, on grass, etc. it planted the virus there, it gets in to the seed of the grass and comes up in the spring all over again, despite winter snow/cold. Now that's hearty!

You can walk on a grassy area picking the invisible virus up on your shoes, walk in to the house and track it in that way even.

Not as likely as having kittens in your home with panleuk, leaving the virus behind hiding, but still possible.

I understand very well how it's impossible to have their lives ended now, I get that completely.

But do what's best for them, as well as spare yourself watching them go downhill, and the minute you see the playing stop, or eating stop, take them in right away. Don't allow them to go through the awful pain and misery that will soon follow. It's fast when it hits them, and will be here anytime now.

I am so, so sorry to have to be so blunt about it. I sure do feel for you, in fact I will not be fostering kittens this year since last year I had kittens bring panleuk who were found dumped at a park that an elderly couple brought to me, well having seen and experienced it before, I knew it very soon after that this was what I was seeing, and did everything to prevent it from spreading, unfortunately my husband, despite all of my hounding of him on what to do, how extremely contagious it is, etc etc, it got spread in to my cat room, and the only thing I can figure is that in the mornings before work, he would stop out in the cat room to make sure all had food/water, and his sweatshirt sleeve had swiped the sick kittens cage bottom the night before, he wore the same shirt to work the next morn ing and gave the virus to a gorgeous mom and her 4 beautiful healthy kittens, who just 2 days later I had arranged for them to go to another of my foster's homes just as a precaution, and sure enough, they all died, as well as her 2 kitten fosters, and 2 more from them going to our adoption events. We had to shut down adoptions for 3 weeks and put our entire rescue fosters on quarrantine, which was over 120 at the time.

So total lost from that contamination was 11 kittens and 1 adult before it was finally over. 

It's absolutely devastating.

I am happy to talk more about it or answer any other questions you have.

Thank you for your response, @catwoman707   I'm so sorry about your losses. That is a true nightmare.  Were any of the cats affected vaccinated beforehand?

I'm currently trying to care for the sick kittens the best I can while they are in ok condition, while at the same time preventing the spread of disease throughout my house. Though my cats are vaccinated, I still worry greatly. What a horrible virus  

Hi just wanted to write here that the 2 kittens and mom cat are still alive!  The kittens have been receiving daily IV therapy at a clinic and the mom cat has been given subQ fluids and started eating a little bit. They also received supplemental unflavored pedialyte mixed into their food, colloidal silver, probiotics with digestive enzymes, and clavamox for potential infection. I wanted to add lysine into the mix but things were just too chaotic at the time. 

During this process, the mom cat was given a blood test and she is Parvo negative. The kittens were tested with the canine fecal parvo antigen test and the kitten that passed away was positive, the living female kitten tested positive, and the living male kitten tested negative. Of course everyone has said if they have parvo they would be dead by now, but apparently at least one kitten has parvo and is alive so I don't know what's going on... 

It's been a roller coaster of emotions. Two of my indoor, fully vaccinated cats, 7 year old cats started developing parvo-like symptoms earlier this week. Ruby started getting sick on Monday and Agnes showed symptoms Tuesday night. Refusing to eat, watery diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy, one after the other.  Of course I totally panicked and rushed them to the vet. Their fecal test both showed negative for parvo, and comprehensive blood work/urinalysis shows that they are not experiencing a coincidence, so the conclusion is that somehow my indoor cats contracted another type of viral infection, likely a rotavirus. It is not uncommon for a parvo carrier to also be dealing with other pathogenic invaders. Perhaps the mom and kittens had parvo and rotavirus? Maybe they never had parvo at all? It's so insane to me... 

Either way, after a lot of testing, subcutaneous fluids, anti nausea injectable medications, my indoor cats that came down with this mystery illness began eating a small amount of wet food on their own tonight. I have also been giving (ahem, forcing) small amounts of unflavored pedialyte, mixing probiotics into food, and giving them colloidal silver. I've also given probiotics and colloidal silver to the other three cats in my house and they have not shown any symptoms of illness.

Ok, well, that's the update if anyone is interested! 

I am really wanting to write tonight but I am exhausted and hitting the bed now, but will be back tmrw am

Sounds like alot going on in your neck of the woods!!

I knew from your other thread that they were still hanging in there.  I'm actually shocked, and wondering how one kitten can be positive for it and the other not when they live in such close quarters and haven't been vaccinated yet. 

You must be thoroughly exhausted not only physically, but mentally too, with all that's going on, especially when your OWN little furkids started getting sick.  Wow, I bet that freaked you out.  Thank goodness they didn't test positive.   .

Is the kitten that DID test positive acting any different from the other one?  Can you tell which one is which  health wise? 

I'm sorry to hear of your added stress regarding your own cats coming down with a virus.

You are correct, that mom may have brought another virus in to the home as well, although it may have been coincidence too. Viruses usually will run their course and be gone in 3 days.

About the tests, while I have never had a cat test positive and not have parvo, I HAVE had and seen many who tested neg and still had it.

There are a few excuses for this, one is, the test is actually for dog parvo, but is used for cats as well, just doesn't have a 100% guaranteed accuracy by far.

Another is some techs do not go in far enough for a sample, just inside the rim is not enough and must be swabbed well from inside.

I had a tech do this and the kitten tested negative yet died the very next morning.

Depending on where they came from, it is possible for mom not to have it but the kittens do. But they would have to have been exposed to it somehow, and she has an immunity to it, whether by a former vaccine or prior exposure during her life.

If one tests positive, and is gone, and one live has tested positive, they very likely will all have it. I have only ever seen this happen twice in all my years in rescue, where one or two kittens from a litter never got it but the others did and passed away.

@catwoman707   and @mrsgreenjeens    Sorry for the way delayed response!  I wanted to follow-up and say that two out of the three kittens survived.  One kitten was euthanized by a pessimistic vet who basically compromised the possibility of treatment w/ astronomical costs. The other two kittens were treated by a far more empathetic vet, who ended up keeping one of the kittens bc he fell in love with her. The kittens were kept alive by receiving continuous IV lactated ringers fluids. A vet tech at the helpful clinic adopted the other kitten as well, so it's a pretty happy ending despite losing the one kitten. I wish he had been given more of a chance despite the odds. The female kitten - who eventually did test positive for parvo -  now has slight cerebellar hypoplasia. Both kittens are healthy and happy now. I guess they are now in that small percentage of kittens that survive... Without a doubt they would've died without the IV therapy. I have a newfound respect for IV and subcutaneous fluids!! 

My 5 cats all got sick as well, two of which I gave subQ fluids to help them stay hydrated. They are all recovered now but were symptomatic to varying degrees for about 2 weeks.  Definitely a stressful  whirlwind! 

Wow this is really interesting, the cerebellar hypoplasia happens in utero, if the mom is exposed to the virus, she will either self abort or if they are alive will come out with CH because the virus effects the cerebellum's development.

So how odd that the one who has CH now didnt have it before?

This is surely a different and unique situation!

Glad that 2 are here

Wow, I was thinking of you just the other day wondering how everything turned out.  I'm frankly shocked (in a good way ) that the two little ones survived.  So happy for you (and them naturally ) that after everything you went through, it was well worth it

Thanks for the uplifting update