Upper respiratory infection

Cricket in mid-sneeze.

Little Scarecrow in the cat facility brought us what I call the sneezles, but is actually a viral upper respiratory infection. (Read that link, please!) About a third of the cats in the facility immediately got it. Because the discharge from nose and eyes was minimal and clear, I assumed that it was a virus. I did start Scarecrow on antibiotic to ward against secondary bacterial infections, and it had no effect on the progress of the sneezles. None of the cats have an elevated temperature. So the rest of the infected cats sneezed and snorted their unhappy way through the illness this past week without medication, and adoptions were ceased.

I used to throw antibiotics at my cats everytime they sneezed, when I was rescuing out of my house. Finally, after opening the facility and keeping more than two or three cats at a time (we have 19 at this time) I was convinced (just as the books say) that viruses aren't touched by antibiotics. However, my kittens all get a full round of antibiotics for any upper respiratory infection, because I did have one kitten in 2001, and a litter in 2002, come down with secondary infections that were life-threatening.

Problem is, you can't know what antibiotic will touch the "possible" bacterial infection a virally-infected kitten "might" get exposed to. In the case of the litter of kittens, once they started to spike a fever, three were started on Baytril, and one received amoxicillin because my emergency supply of Baytril (to be used on recommendation of a vet only) was only 3/4 of a pill (Baytril dosage for a cat is very small). The temp on the three kittens who received Baytril immediately dropped. The temp on the fourth kitten who received amoxicillin remained high, and he developed pneumonia and ultimately was euthanized after hospitalization. Obviously the bacteria they were exposed to was not susceptible to amoxi.

Worse yet, once cats are "better" they can still shed the virus and infect new cats, even while appearing healthy. So probably any of my facility cats can infect a new cat, even when every cat has been healthy for months:

Most cats infected with feline rhinotracheitis virus or calicivirus will become chronic carriers of the virus. This means they will continue to be infected with the virus but not show any signs of the disease. In the case of rhinotracheitis (herpes-1), cats will often shed the virus in secretions from the eyes and nose after they have been stressed, e.g., boarding, moving, new addition to the household, nursing kittens, etc. Cats with calicivirus will shed the virus continually for years. Cats who have been vaccinated for calicivirus and then exposed to an infected cat may become infected with the "wild" virus (the strain of virus that occurs naturally and can cause disease, not the vaccine strain), never show signs of disease, become carriers of the wild virus, and continue to shed the wild virus.

Another problem with illness in the cat facility is that it can become illness in the house cats, too. I call myself the Great Fomite, because between the adoptables and the house cats, I am the object that will carry sickness. I've tried changing clothes, taking showers, etc. but every now and then...

Well, poor Cricket became the next "every now and then." Five days ago she started sneezing. And she's a "ten-sneeze-in-a-row" cat. It's very pathetic to see her balancing on her three legs, sneezing away. She hasn't lost her appetite, but she's not eating dry because she can't smell it, so she's getting Fancy Feast canned food in the bathroom. So far no one else has come down with it, and I'm watching her carefully to be certain she's getting better, not worse.

No one else in the house has started sneezling. So perhaps we'll be lucky and it will stop with Cricket.

Illnesses and parasites are a fact of life with cat rescue, and a good relationship with a vet (or more than one!) is a necessity. If your relationship with your vet is semi-adversarily...no good. A vet who will tell it to you like it is, without beating around the bush, and whom you can talk to without too much fear of criticism, is gold, gold, gold. I'll save vet relationships for a future post.