Help please with a sick kitten

Hi everyone,

I am new here, as I just got a kitten for my wife and daughters.

She is 12 weeks old (we've had her almost 3 weeks now) and I bought her from a breeder. She is a purebred Bengal.

When I took her home she was doing great. She obviously had a little anxiety for the first 2 days. After that, she was running around, playing, keeping me up at night, and acting like a normal kitten.

Then one day (about a week ago) she was very lethargic, she was shaking, she had a fever, and she was having a lot of trouble using her hind legs. I knew this was bad so I took her to the animal hospital right away.

The Vet did a bunch of tests, but at the end of the day couldn't really tell me much. Most of her tests came back normal except for her CBC which showed her white blood cell count to be very high, along with a couple other things that were high as well. The Vet said that these results meant that there is some sort of inflammation going on.

So the Vet gave me antibiotics and sent me home, because she wasn't sure what else to do at this point. The Vet admitted that she was stumped here. She said this was very rare for a kitten to come in with these symptoms. She said we could admit her to the hospital and do more tests, but $1,100 in, I opted out of admitting her.

The Vet said this could be FIP, but she was not sure. She said to take her home and see what happens.

I took her home, and for several days she would not walk at all. I would hand feed her (her appetite is fine) and I would take her to the bathroom (she is fine in this area as well). Just lethargic, slight fever, and shaking from time to time. But she is very alert, will eat and use the bathroom. She just wouldn't walk at all.

Today she finally started walking, but it is a very slow and wobbly walk. I thought for a minute that maybe she has "swimmers leg's" and I will tape her legs to make a brace in order to correct the walk. But the fact that she has had fever, shaking, and the high white blood cells lead me to believe it's something else.

I am really hoping it's not FIP. From what I read, that is a death sentence.

Does anyone have any advice / suggestions for me?

If so, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

Kittens this young usually will develop the wet form of FIP and at this point there would be very obvious swelling  of the belly from fluid.  The symptoms are really odd.  There is a calicivirus that causes the lameness but there is usually the typical upper respiratory symptoms.  It is also a virus so there wouldn't be the high white cell  count.

Have you called the breeder and told him/her about these symptoms?  It may be something that he/she has seen or may have other kitties that have come down with whatever this is since you got your kitten.

if your kitten didnt eat food try to feed them thease are really good for apitite

This sounds like a bad case of limping kitten syndrome which is caused by a certain strain of Calicivirus.

How is her appetite now? Fever?

Limping kitten syndrome typically lasts about 3 days and includes high fever, lethargy, and muscle pain. The pain typically shifts from one leg to the other, however, I feel fairly certain that all limbs could be affected at the same time, especially if she were hit hard with the virus.

If it is this, I would expect you to see some improvement each day. I wouldn't expect her to get worse.

Hi Denice,

Thank you for the reply. My Vet agrees with you that the symptoms are really odd. That is why she is having a tough time diagnosing this.

The breeder is stumped as well. She has no clue and states she has never seen this before in all her years breeding.

I don't know what to do. My kids are crying, my wife is crying, it's a mess.

The kitten doesn't seem like she is in pain.

The Vet mentioned the dry FIP. But she is guessing because nothing else fits.

And as I mentioned, when she walks the back legs look like "swimmers legs." The legs give out on her after she wobbles around for a bit.

Thank you CatPack,

I believe the kitten had the vaccine for calcivirus a couple weeks ago.

She has had a good appetite throughout this whole thing. I just have to bring the food to her because she won't walk to it. Fever is on and off, but I feel like it's getting better than it was.

This has been going on for about a week.

I think she is getting better as she has now started walking, but it's only slightly better than she was.

Maybe it is limping kitten syndrome, but it's taking it's time to go away. How long could it last?

Thank you.

Calicivirus is close to the equivalent of our flu. There are different strains and the vaccine doesn't offer 100% coverage for all strains. Each individual cat will also vary in the amount of protection they have based on their own immune system and how their body uses the vaccine (does that make sense?)

If it *is* Calicivirus, the length of duration varies depending on the strain and how the cat's immunity is.

The best example I can give you is a personal one.

My cat Tyson acquired a Calicivirus when he was about 9 months old. At the time I also had 4 of Tyson's litter mates (brothers), 3 kittens that were 2 weeks younger (came from the same location as the boys, but were much sicker when I got them, also these kittens' mom is FIV+), another 2 kittens that were the same age as the previous, as well as 4 adult cats ranging in age of 2 1/2 to 13 years. All cats were current on all vaccines at the time. All cats were integrated and used the same litter boxes, drank from the same water bowls, ate out of the same bowls.

Tyson became horribly sick. Spiked over a 106 temp and went into acute kidney failure due to a mucous plug (this resolved within hours, thankfully!) Tyson was completely lethargic for 3 days, so much to the point that I literally just carried him around. He barely moved much aside from eating and using his litter box.

Tyson was sneezy/snotty and developed blisters on his nose that caused the tissue to slough off.

He was sick and on medication for just about 4 1/2 months. He has brain damage as a result of the high fever.

On the flip side, the *only* other cats in the house that got "sick" were his litter mates. Each of the other boys only developed one single ulcer, either on the middle of their tongue or on the tip of their nose, just above their mouth.

So, this means that even the kittens that I knew had compromised immune systems didn't show a single symptoms of having Calici.

The few cases of Limping Kitten Syndrome I have heard about, the kittens didn't typically present with the URI symptoms of sneezing, coughing, etc...

Thank you so much for the help CatPack, I appreciate it very much.

I am hoping this is calcivirus and limping kitten syndrome (and not FIP), and maybe it is just taking longer than normal to resolve itself.

When I looked up limping kitten syndrome online, it really sounds like what my kitten has. At least it's the closet thing I have found to it.

If it is limping kitten syndrome, is it likely the kitten will kick it out of her system forever? In other words, will she be completely normal again after this? And what are the chances it returns at some point?

Thank you very much once again.

Ok, so the kitten is walking again today. It's still not a great walk, but at least she is getting around now by herself. She will, go to the food bowl and will use the litter.

If this is indeed "limping kitten syndrome" from the calicivirus (which I agree it is) when should the kitten be running and playing again?

It's already been a week and a half since she came down with this. I am happy she is progressing, but still concerned about her walk. It's still very weak.

Can calicivirus last 2 weeks?

Thank you everyone.

Depending on the strain of Calici and your kitten's immunity, it can certainly take a good 2 weeks to completely recoup.

It took Tyson 4 1/2 months to "fully" recoup (obviously due to the brain damage he wasn't back to the way he was prior to the illness.)

Also, I will also mention that certain strains of Calici can cause damage to the heart or other internal organs (much like our flu virus can cause organ damage in a small percentage of people.)

It was recommend to me to either run a ProBNP or do a heart echo on those cats that are moderately to severely affected by Calici just to be on the safe side. (2 out of 5 cats that we have had (including in the rescue) that had severe illness also had heart damage.) We have mostly opted to do the ProBNP blood test as we run a fully CBC/Chem panel before spaying/neutering our cats and the full ProBNP test we get is only $1 more.

Interestingly, I learned about the connection from our veterinary ophthalmologist rather than our primary care vets.

I am glad to hear she is continuing to show improvement! If it is LKS, I would expect her to continue improving some each day.

Thank you so much for all of this info CatPack.

I really do appreciate it.

Will definitely keep you posted on her progress. Hopefully this goes away without causing any damage to her heart.

Thanks again for being so helpful!