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Kitten with Rabies
Hello. I e-mailed someone who suggested I join this group to get my
question answered. I will give as many details as possible and would greatly appreciate any advice. We took in a kitten when it was about eight weeks old. Supposedly, the mother was healthy and had her shots etc. We brought the kitten into our home and had it here for two or three months. It was mostly inside but got outside a few times. I believe she got left outside all night once - accidentally. Anyway, we had another kitten that had an abcessed eye (we were treating her) - then we noticed Callie's eye had clouded over. We assumed that she got it from the other kitten. We also noted that every once in awhile, Callie seemed slightly unsteady. She didn't fall or anything like that, but she sort of had an odd gait that looked like one of her hind legs might not be functioning properly. Even though she was eating, she started losing weight. We brought her to the vet, and at approximately six months of age, she weighed 2.3 pounds (this was in November). We had also noted that there were small spots of urine on the floor that had an orange/red tint, and we thought she was doing that. (Now we aren't sure because one of our adult male cats started doing the same thing so it could have been him all along, but we were pretty certain it was Callie). We started giving her antibiotics. She saw the vet on Thursday, and she seemed rather lethargic on the weekend. Sunday morning, she was out eating her dry cat food. She jumped up on the counter where the food was and ate at least some. Later that day, I heard a terrible yowling and crying coming from under my bed. She was in a storage box under my bed having what seemed like seizures. She was shaking and trembling, and she was soaking wet. My husband said she had a terrible odor as well. He picked her up, and she was mostly limp. We put her in the carrier and brought her to the vet's immediately. On the ride to the vet's, she laid on her side and was mostly quiet except for those times when she would cry out for a minute or so. The vet thought she had distemper and treated her with fluids, warmth, antibiotics etc. The following morning, she died. Now I am wondering - what are the chances that she could have had rabies? There have been documented cases of rabies within a mile of our house. I have a friend whose daughter had been here around early November, and she is concerned about her daughter and wondering whether or not she should get treatment for rabies exposure. (My children and I are already being treated for exposure to a stray cat w/ rabies). I had not considered rabies at the time, but now I am very concerned about the possibility. I do not know enough about rabies to be able to determine this. I know that noone can be certain because the cat was not tested. This is causing incredible stress and trauma, and I would welcome your advice and opinions. Thanks. Rie |
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Kitten with Rabies
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#3
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Kitten with Rabies
No it sounds like panleukopenia (distemper) which is what the vet said it
was. I hope you have vaccinated the rest of your cats for this as it's very contagious and very difficult to clean up after. The panleukopenia virus can live in the environment (off the cat) for up to a year and requires a 32:1 water to bleach solution to clean it up.I believe Phil P. said the trifectant will kill the virus as well. Household cleaners and disinfectants will not work. http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/heal...eukopenia.html It doesn't matter if the mom was vaccinated or not. Each cat/kitten should have a series of distemper shots starting at around 8 weeks of age (I think 6 weeks is the earliest) and a rabies shot at 12 - 16 weeks. After the initial kitten series they need to go back for shots the following year and then in many places they are giving shots that are effective for 3 years after that. W wrote in message ps.com... Hello. I e-mailed someone who suggested I join this group to get my question answered. I will give as many details as possible and would greatly appreciate any advice. We took in a kitten when it was about eight weeks old. Supposedly, the mother was healthy and had her shots etc. We brought the kitten into our home and had it here for two or three months. It was mostly inside but got outside a few times. I believe she got left outside all night once - accidentally. Anyway, we had another kitten that had an abcessed eye (we were treating her) - then we noticed Callie's eye had clouded over. We assumed that she got it from the other kitten. We also noted that every once in awhile, Callie seemed slightly unsteady. She didn't fall or anything like that, but she sort of had an odd gait that looked like one of her hind legs might not be functioning properly. Even though she was eating, she started losing weight. We brought her to the vet, and at approximately six months of age, she weighed 2.3 pounds (this was in November). We had also noted that there were small spots of urine on the floor that had an orange/red tint, and we thought she was doing that. (Now we aren't sure because one of our adult male cats started doing the same thing so it could have been him all along, but we were pretty certain it was Callie). We started giving her antibiotics. She saw the vet on Thursday, and she seemed rather lethargic on the weekend. Sunday morning, she was out eating her dry cat food. She jumped up on the counter where the food was and ate at least some. Later that day, I heard a terrible yowling and crying coming from under my bed. She was in a storage box under my bed having what seemed like seizures. She was shaking and trembling, and she was soaking wet. My husband said she had a terrible odor as well. He picked her up, and she was mostly limp. We put her in the carrier and brought her to the vet's immediately. On the ride to the vet's, she laid on her side and was mostly quiet except for those times when she would cry out for a minute or so. The vet thought she had distemper and treated her with fluids, warmth, antibiotics etc. The following morning, she died. Now I am wondering - what are the chances that she could have had rabies? There have been documented cases of rabies within a mile of our house. I have a friend whose daughter had been here around early November, and she is concerned about her daughter and wondering whether or not she should get treatment for rabies exposure. (My children and I are already being treated for exposure to a stray cat w/ rabies). I had not considered rabies at the time, but now I am very concerned about the possibility. I do not know enough about rabies to be able to determine this. I know that noone can be certain because the cat was not tested. This is causing incredible stress and trauma, and I would welcome your advice and opinions. Thanks. Rie |
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Kitten with Rabies
I agree.
Gail "Wendy" wrote in message . .. No it sounds like panleukopenia (distemper) which is what the vet said it was. I hope you have vaccinated the rest of your cats for this as it's very contagious and very difficult to clean up after. The panleukopenia virus can live in the environment (off the cat) for up to a year and requires a 32:1 water to bleach solution to clean it up.I believe Phil P. said the trifectant will kill the virus as well. Household cleaners and disinfectants will not work. http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/heal...eukopenia.html It doesn't matter if the mom was vaccinated or not. Each cat/kitten should have a series of distemper shots starting at around 8 weeks of age (I think 6 weeks is the earliest) and a rabies shot at 12 - 16 weeks. After the initial kitten series they need to go back for shots the following year and then in many places they are giving shots that are effective for 3 years after that. W wrote in message ps.com... Hello. I e-mailed someone who suggested I join this group to get my question answered. I will give as many details as possible and would greatly appreciate any advice. We took in a kitten when it was about eight weeks old. Supposedly, the mother was healthy and had her shots etc. We brought the kitten into our home and had it here for two or three months. It was mostly inside but got outside a few times. I believe she got left outside all night once - accidentally. Anyway, we had another kitten that had an abcessed eye (we were treating her) - then we noticed Callie's eye had clouded over. We assumed that she got it from the other kitten. We also noted that every once in awhile, Callie seemed slightly unsteady. She didn't fall or anything like that, but she sort of had an odd gait that looked like one of her hind legs might not be functioning properly. Even though she was eating, she started losing weight. We brought her to the vet, and at approximately six months of age, she weighed 2.3 pounds (this was in November). We had also noted that there were small spots of urine on the floor that had an orange/red tint, and we thought she was doing that. (Now we aren't sure because one of our adult male cats started doing the same thing so it could have been him all along, but we were pretty certain it was Callie). We started giving her antibiotics. She saw the vet on Thursday, and she seemed rather lethargic on the weekend. Sunday morning, she was out eating her dry cat food. She jumped up on the counter where the food was and ate at least some. Later that day, I heard a terrible yowling and crying coming from under my bed. She was in a storage box under my bed having what seemed like seizures. She was shaking and trembling, and she was soaking wet. My husband said she had a terrible odor as well. He picked her up, and she was mostly limp. We put her in the carrier and brought her to the vet's immediately. On the ride to the vet's, she laid on her side and was mostly quiet except for those times when she would cry out for a minute or so. The vet thought she had distemper and treated her with fluids, warmth, antibiotics etc. The following morning, she died. Now I am wondering - what are the chances that she could have had rabies? There have been documented cases of rabies within a mile of our house. I have a friend whose daughter had been here around early November, and she is concerned about her daughter and wondering whether or not she should get treatment for rabies exposure. (My children and I are already being treated for exposure to a stray cat w/ rabies). I had not considered rabies at the time, but now I am very concerned about the possibility. I do not know enough about rabies to be able to determine this. I know that noone can be certain because the cat was not tested. This is causing incredible stress and trauma, and I would welcome your advice and opinions. Thanks. Rie |
#5
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Kitten with Rabies
Thanks to those who have helped so far. but I feel a little like I
have to defend myself here. The cat had a rabies shot. She also had a distemper shot but that was just a couple of days before she died. All of our other cats are up to date on rabies and distemper vaccines, and we got the two youngest boostered again for distemper just because the vet was pretty sure that was the problem. I noted that the kitty was losing weight and was quite thin, but honestly, she didn't seem sick other than that. I had tried several things to get her weight up from changing her food to giving her a seperate food dish to feeding her in a seperate room. I had given her eyedrops for her cloudy eye, and we thought it was because of the other cat who had been to the vet's several times for her eye. We probably should have followed up on that more. This was not over months and months here so it isn't like I let her get continually sicker over time and didn't do anything to help her. When I wrote to a web-site about my question, that woman said there were many knowledgeable people her who could probably give me some indication about the rabies issue etc. Wendy wrote: No it sounds like panleukopenia (distemper) which is what the vet said it was. I hope you have vaccinated the rest of your cats for this as it's very contagious and very difficult to clean up after. The panleukopenia virus can live in the environment (off the cat) for up to a year and requires a 32:1 water to bleach solution to clean it up.I believe Phil P. said the trifectant will kill the virus as well. Household cleaners and disinfectants will not work. http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/heal...eukopenia.html It doesn't matter if the mom was vaccinated or not. Each cat/kitten should have a series of distemper shots starting at around 8 weeks of age (I think 6 weeks is the earliest) and a rabies shot at 12 - 16 weeks. After the initial kitten series they need to go back for shots the following year and then in many places they are giving shots that are effective for 3 years after that. W wrote in message ps.com... Hello. I e-mailed someone who suggested I join this group to get my question answered. I will give as many details as possible and would greatly appreciate any advice. We took in a kitten when it was about eight weeks old. Supposedly, the mother was healthy and had her shots etc. We brought the kitten into our home and had it here for two or three months. It was mostly inside but got outside a few times. I believe she got left outside all night once - accidentally. Anyway, we had another kitten that had an abcessed eye (we were treating her) - then we noticed Callie's eye had clouded over. We assumed that she got it from the other kitten. We also noted that every once in awhile, Callie seemed slightly unsteady. She didn't fall or anything like that, but she sort of had an odd gait that looked like one of her hind legs might not be functioning properly. Even though she was eating, she started losing weight. We brought her to the vet, and at approximately six months of age, she weighed 2.3 pounds (this was in November). We had also noted that there were small spots of urine on the floor that had an orange/red tint, and we thought she was doing that. (Now we aren't sure because one of our adult male cats started doing the same thing so it could have been him all along, but we were pretty certain it was Callie). We started giving her antibiotics. She saw the vet on Thursday, and she seemed rather lethargic on the weekend. Sunday morning, she was out eating her dry cat food. She jumped up on the counter where the food was and ate at least some. Later that day, I heard a terrible yowling and crying coming from under my bed. She was in a storage box under my bed having what seemed like seizures. She was shaking and trembling, and she was soaking wet. My husband said she had a terrible odor as well. He picked her up, and she was mostly limp. We put her in the carrier and brought her to the vet's immediately. On the ride to the vet's, she laid on her side and was mostly quiet except for those times when she would cry out for a minute or so. The vet thought she had distemper and treated her with fluids, warmth, antibiotics etc. The following morning, she died. Now I am wondering - what are the chances that she could have had rabies? There have been documented cases of rabies within a mile of our house. I have a friend whose daughter had been here around early November, and she is concerned about her daughter and wondering whether or not she should get treatment for rabies exposure. (My children and I are already being treated for exposure to a stray cat w/ rabies). I had not considered rabies at the time, but now I am very concerned about the possibility. I do not know enough about rabies to be able to determine this. I know that noone can be certain because the cat was not tested. This is causing incredible stress and trauma, and I would welcome your advice and opinions. Thanks. Rie |
#6
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Kitten with Rabies
On Thu 07 Dec 2006 09:12:10p, wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav
roups.com: Thanks to those who have helped so far. but I feel a little like I have to defend myself here. Please don't feel like you have to defend yourself. You are here to learn more, so maybe it doesn't happen again. I sure do know the feeling. It's sad, and it's a helpless feeling when you don't know if you should have done something different, or if you found out something *after* the fact that no one could know before a little life dies. I'm so sorry for your loss. They can be so fragile when they're young. My little girl, now about 2-1/2 years old, was a sickly kitten, and even at about 6 months of age I thought I was going to lose her. She had a recurring herpes virus, and I even had to keep delaying her spay surgery because she just couldn't get well. Her brother (littermate) was sickly early, too, but he outgrew it earlier than her, and grew huge very fast. His neuter surgery was on-time, but my female went into heat before being spayed, and it was scary to have it done when she was still in and out of illness. She even had complications after surgery, and even now when I look at pictures of her at that age, I'm amazed that she lived through it. Please don't defend yourself, and please don't doubt yourself. It's so very easy to do that after a death, but know that you can learn from it, and we aren't born knowing everything. What we do learn to do is trust our instincts. If something seems wrong, something probably is. And we have to act on it. Be kind to yourself. -- Cheryl |
#7
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Kitten with Rabies
Why would you be worried about rabies if the cat had been vaccinated for
that? When did the kitten receive the rabies shot? Was it at the same time she got her panleukopenia shot or before? W wrote in message oups.com... Thanks to those who have helped so far. but I feel a little like I have to defend myself here. The cat had a rabies shot. She also had a distemper shot but that was just a couple of days before she died. All of our other cats are up to date on rabies and distemper vaccines, and we got the two youngest boostered again for distemper just because the vet was pretty sure that was the problem. I noted that the kitty was losing weight and was quite thin, but honestly, she didn't seem sick other than that. I had tried several things to get her weight up from changing her food to giving her a seperate food dish to feeding her in a seperate room. I had given her eyedrops for her cloudy eye, and we thought it was because of the other cat who had been to the vet's several times for her eye. We probably should have followed up on that more. This was not over months and months here so it isn't like I let her get continually sicker over time and didn't do anything to help her. When I wrote to a web-site about my question, that woman said there were many knowledgeable people her who could probably give me some indication about the rabies issue etc. Wendy wrote: No it sounds like panleukopenia (distemper) which is what the vet said it was. I hope you have vaccinated the rest of your cats for this as it's very contagious and very difficult to clean up after. The panleukopenia virus can live in the environment (off the cat) for up to a year and requires a 32:1 water to bleach solution to clean it up.I believe Phil P. said the trifectant will kill the virus as well. Household cleaners and disinfectants will not work. http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/heal...eukopenia.html It doesn't matter if the mom was vaccinated or not. Each cat/kitten should have a series of distemper shots starting at around 8 weeks of age (I think 6 weeks is the earliest) and a rabies shot at 12 - 16 weeks. After the initial kitten series they need to go back for shots the following year and then in many places they are giving shots that are effective for 3 years after that. W wrote in message ps.com... Hello. I e-mailed someone who suggested I join this group to get my question answered. I will give as many details as possible and would greatly appreciate any advice. We took in a kitten when it was about eight weeks old. Supposedly, the mother was healthy and had her shots etc. We brought the kitten into our home and had it here for two or three months. It was mostly inside but got outside a few times. I believe she got left outside all night once - accidentally. Anyway, we had another kitten that had an abcessed eye (we were treating her) - then we noticed Callie's eye had clouded over. We assumed that she got it from the other kitten. We also noted that every once in awhile, Callie seemed slightly unsteady. She didn't fall or anything like that, but she sort of had an odd gait that looked like one of her hind legs might not be functioning properly. Even though she was eating, she started losing weight. We brought her to the vet, and at approximately six months of age, she weighed 2.3 pounds (this was in November). We had also noted that there were small spots of urine on the floor that had an orange/red tint, and we thought she was doing that. (Now we aren't sure because one of our adult male cats started doing the same thing so it could have been him all along, but we were pretty certain it was Callie). We started giving her antibiotics. She saw the vet on Thursday, and she seemed rather lethargic on the weekend. Sunday morning, she was out eating her dry cat food. She jumped up on the counter where the food was and ate at least some. Later that day, I heard a terrible yowling and crying coming from under my bed. She was in a storage box under my bed having what seemed like seizures. She was shaking and trembling, and she was soaking wet. My husband said she had a terrible odor as well. He picked her up, and she was mostly limp. We put her in the carrier and brought her to the vet's immediately. On the ride to the vet's, she laid on her side and was mostly quiet except for those times when she would cry out for a minute or so. The vet thought she had distemper and treated her with fluids, warmth, antibiotics etc. The following morning, she died. Now I am wondering - what are the chances that she could have had rabies? There have been documented cases of rabies within a mile of our house. I have a friend whose daughter had been here around early November, and she is concerned about her daughter and wondering whether or not she should get treatment for rabies exposure. (My children and I are already being treated for exposure to a stray cat w/ rabies). I had not considered rabies at the time, but now I am very concerned about the possibility. I do not know enough about rabies to be able to determine this. I know that noone can be certain because the cat was not tested. This is causing incredible stress and trauma, and I would welcome your advice and opinions. Thanks. Rie |
#8
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Kitten with Rabies
Well, the obvious answer here is to get the recommended kitten shots at
the recommended kitten ages - not months later. Getting an intial distemper vaccination at just about six months of age - especially with a young kitten who gets outdoors and is exposed to other cats - is a problem - and would have been a problem had the kitten not caught distemper - feline leukemia would also have been a large risk for an unvaccinated kitten. If you got the kitten at 8 weeks, the kitten paid a high price for not getting the needed vetinary care for several months. I'm sorry for your loss ... |
#9
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Kitten with Rabies
wrote in message ps.com... I am wondering - what are the chances that she could have had rabies? There have been documented cases of rabies within a mile of our house. I have a friend whose daughter had been here around early November, and she is concerned about her daughter and wondering whether or not she should get treatment for rabies exposure. (My children and I are already being treated for exposure to a stray cat w/ rabies). I had not considered rabies at the time, but now I am very concerned about the possibility. I do not know enough about rabies to be able to determine this. I know that noone can be certain because the cat was not tested. This is causing incredible stress and trauma, and I would welcome your advice and opinions. Thanks. Rie I doubt if your cat had rabies, but the only way to have a definitive answer is to have the brain tested. I think it is highly unlikely, but this is a question to ask your vet. That is something that I think your vet would have immediately considered if he or she saw any of the typical signs, especially since you say that there have been documented cases of rabies in your area. Did you have a necropsy (autopsy)? This is very important when there are other cats in the household. Also, all of your cats should have their shots up-to-date, especially since your cats occasionally get outside. I am also concerned about what sounds like a considerable delay in getting your cat to a vet. She should have been treated at the first signs of illness, not after so much time elapsed that she could not be helped. In the future, please do not delay. This group can be very helpful, but we are not substitutes for veterinary care -- and even a vet cannot be of much help if the illness is allowed to progress too far. MaryL |
#10
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Kitten with Rabies
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