11/09/2022
I am always amiss in keeping current with our information page, and for that I sincerely apologize . I have to admit that I have never quite gotten the hang of, nor the understood the intense interest in social media. I do believe it is a very efficient media for getting information out, but typically I don't particularly pay much attention to all the sharing of personal thoughts and experiences. Must be the generation gap, who knows??
With that said, I do think that this particular information that follows is very important to share with not only our current clients, but that it is shared with anyone who has cats as pets or even "just feeds" a group of strays.
White Pine County is currently experiencing a severe outbreak of Feline Panleukopenia. This disease is also known as Distemper and Kitty Parvo. This is appearing to be a particularly hot strain, even infecting young cats that are vaccinated against it. The disease is caused by infection with this parvo virus. It affects mostly young cats/kittens, is highly contagious and nearly almost always lethal. In my experience, the mortality rate in unvaccinated cats under a year of age, the mortality rate approaches 90-95%. This being said, the vaccination is fairly efficacious if given before the pet is exposed. The virus can remain in the environment for long periods of time and may even be resistant to freezing. The majority of the stray cats are unvaccinated and therefore can perpetuate the disease through those that survive. It is spread via f***s and vomit of infected animals and has a short incubation time of 2-5 days before the appearance of clinical signs. This is virus is so virulent that affected animals may only appear lethargic and vomit once before expiring.
We have received many calls from all over the county about dead and dying cates. This is indicative of a nasty strain and severe spread. It has been multiple years since I have seen such an outbreak.
What can you do to protect your pet?
While this virus mainly affects young animals, it can still hit your adult cat if it is a slightly mutated version. Keeping your pets vaccinations current is your best defense. If you have a young (less than 1 year old) cat/kitten, they will need an initial vaccination at 8 weeks and boosted about 1 month later. Adults should receive yearly boosters until about the age of 10.
Cats with suspected or confirmed exposure should wait about a week before vaccinating. Vaccination during the incubation period will not prevent the disease, in fact it will often make the disease more serious as immune system simply cannot respond to multiple insults at the same time.
Treatment is very often not successful, but consists of IV fluids and supportive care only. Antibiotics are given to prevent secondary bacterial problems.
Please share this important information with everyone you know
I hope this will answer any questions about this disease and maybe save some lives
Any other questions can be answered by either calling our office at 775-289-2423 or through this media
