Dying kitten

[ut0pia]

RIP little kitty

Do not worry for the other cats if they have been vaccinated,and all kittens are normally vaccinated for this starting at 8 weeks and the vaccine I have read other members of this forum say is 100% effective....
I am surprised by this who situation also. I am wondering why the kitten was allowed to be away from the mother at 6-7 weeks and even if the mother died or was a feral, a kitten this small requires extra special care and should not be fostered at all IMO. Don't they normally keep kittens like this at the humane society until they are old enough to be adopted??? What a risky age, most vets don't vaccinate until 8 weeks, so to get sick at 6-7 weeks is really bad luck..

 

[white cat lover]

The catch on kittens being vaccinated - they probably won't have immunity until they've had the distemper booster (meaning, here, they get the first shot, then need the booster 3-4 weeks later, and one week after that they have full immunity - so usually approx 10 weeks of age have immunity, if not later). And I've even seen fully vaccinated adult cats die from distemper in the right circumstances.

Kittens that young at a humane society are very susceptible to everything - we normally foster out as many kittens as possible as the ones at the shelter get sick rapidly. Here, bottle fed kittens are always in foster care, and we get many in at 4 weeks we put into foster care as they don't get the care they require in a cage at the shelter.

 

[celestialrags]

Originally Posted by ut0pia

RIP little kitty

Do not worry for the other cats if they have been vaccinated,and all kittens are normally vaccinated for this starting at 8 weeks and the vaccine I have read other members of this forum say is 100% effective....
I am surprised by this who situation also. I am wondering why the kitten was allowed to be away from the mother at 6-7 weeks and even if the mother died or was a feral, a kitten this small requires extra special care and should not be fostered at all IMO. Don't they normally keep kittens like this at the humane society until they are old enough to be adopted??? What a risky age, most vets don't vaccinate until 8 weeks, so to get sick at 6-7 weeks is really bad luck..

Originally Posted by white cat lover

The catch on kittens being vaccinated - they probably won't have immunity until they've had the distemper booster (meaning, here, they get the first shot, then need the booster 3-4 weeks later, and one week after that they have full immunity - so usually approx 10 weeks of age have immunity, if not later). And I've even seen fully vaccinated adult cats die from distemper in the right circumstances.

Kittens that young at a humane society are very susceptible to everything - we normally foster out as many kittens as possible as the ones at the shelter get sick rapidly. Here, bottle fed kittens are always in foster care, and we get many in at 4 weeks we put into foster care as they don't get the care they require in a cage at the shelter.

That is exactly what I was going to say. Young kittens have a much better chance in a foster then in a shelter cage where many cats come in sick and pass it on to every one else, and the kittens get sick very easy in a shelter invironment

 

[indyboo]

Hi,
This is IndyBoo's grandma. I just read my son's comments about our foster kittens. Just wanted to clarify a few things about the care they were receiving. We got a call from the county animal shelter to foster 3 kittens that had been abandoned. We have fostered around 5 litters in the past few years alternating with puppies. The animal shelter does not have the funds/staff to properly care for sick or young/unweaned kittens and needs all the volunteers they can get. They ask that volunteers keep them until they are well enough to have had all of their vaccines which we take them back for at given dates. When we picked up the kittens we noticed one had a runny nose and a little bit of an eye infection so I asked for Clavimox which they gladly gave us along with eye ointment. 2 of the kittens came down with URI symptoms within a few days. The third kitten Ella seemed healthy and thriving. All 3 kittens were receiving meds 2x daily and after 5-7 days the 2 were doing much better. By the 7th day Ella had started to show signs of the URI and we thought it was just running it's course with her. Within 2 days, she had lost her appetite and seemed to be getting worse. We called the volunteer coordinator on Monday and asked her opinion and she suggested we continue meds and syringe water/food as often as possible to keep her hydrated. Tuesday she seemed a little better so we continued keeping her warm, keeping her nostrils open w/vapors and moisture from the bath along with syringes of oatmeal, water, salt, solution. By Wed. afternoon she still had no appetite and continued to get worse through the evening even though we were keeping her hydrated. The volunteer was aware and we knew we would take her in as soon as their vet was on call after 12pm. We have had healthy young kittens take a quick turn and the vet had said it was failing kitten. As soon as I got her there she was tested and found to have Panleuk. Sadly they had to put her to sleep since there was no cure and she did not need to experience the pain of her organs shutting down. We do have to take the other 2 healthy, thriving kittens in to be tested tomorrow. This is very hard to do and breaks my heart. The virus is highly contagious and the shelter said they are likely to have the disease or will have it soon. This breaks my heart but then again, I know we have given them a few weeks of love and care that they would not have gotten sitting in a 2 x 2 cage alone while getting sick or worse not given a chance because of not enough room at the shelter. Our other cats have been vaccinated but I'm double checking to make sure they are updated for PLV tomorrow with our vet.

 

[white cat lover]

I hate to say it - but the odds of the remaining 2 kittens surviving are not good. You will need to prepare yourselves for the worst, but it sounds like you may be already.

A couple of thoughts....it is remotely possible for your fully vaccinated adults to get it despite vaccines, so talk to the vet about that risk tomorrow (see what they think the risk is). You cannot foster kittens now for awhile, without risking them getting distemper/panleuk, unless you've been keeping these guys pretty "contained" (hard to do at that age!).

I brought home some distemper kittens to do what I could overnight, but sadly none made it to the vet in the morning to be euthanized.

At least they did not die in a cage, but I kept them in my bathroom. The entire bathroom was bleached to high heaven, and none of my foster kittens have been in there since then (and I continue to bleach it down very well).

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by IndyBoo

Hi,
This is IndyBoo's grandma. ..

Thanks for the clarification and extra information. I for one was wondering what the devil was going on.

Also, thank you for your volunteer work. It sounds like your help is desperately needed in your area and you are doing a wonderful job.

I'm sorry the outlook isn't good for the remaining kittens. I hope they beat the odds. They are lucky to have you and your grandson to care for them.

 

[kittyl0ve4]

WOW.. i feel sorry for you guys and the poor kitten who didnt make it

. Good thing they know that these things happen sometimes, and that this was not their fault. Despite the fact that the remaining kittens outlook doesnt look too good, im sending for the babies, that they make it through ok.

 

[mews2much]

I do not want to scare you or anything but one of the pounds in Sacramento had a big outbreak of Distemper and they had to have most the cats and kittens pts.
They were looking for the people that adopted cats and kittens from there.
It was a big mess.
I posted it I think in breaking news when it happened.

 

[catsknowme]

Originally Posted by IndyBoo

This morning, we took it to the shelter and they said it had Feline Panleukopenia or fpv which is an extremely contagious virus that attacks the immune system. The other 2 kittens most likely have it and it can lay dormant for up to a year. This sucks for my other 2 house cats. We are keeping the two in quarantine and bleached/pinesolled the entire house along with a butload of vacuuming. We are taking the others to the animal shelter tomorrow. As for the other kitten, she is now an

.

Bless you for all the valiant work that you have done for the precious kitten

Sending prayers and vibes that your other house cats remain safe, & that, one way or another, the other kittens do not suffer from the FLP virus
Although the outcome was a sad one, the experience you gained from caring for her will serve you well in helping future kitties - she did not die, suffering alone in a field or an abandoned lot somewhere, but rather, spending her too-short life with you, knowing comfort and love; in a sad way, her life was given to advance your skills as a cat rescuer. Heaven will reward her for this, and you too

You didn't give up and when the time came, you made the courageous sacrifice of allowing her a peaceful passing instead of "hanging on" until all options expired

Keep up the good work

Susan