Distemper

Feline Distemper, known as feline panleukopenia, is a highly contagious and deadly disease. Feline and canine distemper are two different diseases. Dogs and people cannot catch feline panleukopenia but raccoons, minks, and possibly skunks and otters can, and transmit it as well.

Symptoms

It is estimated that between 50% and 90% of cats who contract distemper will die. Symptoms usually show up ten days after infection, and the disease progresses very quickly at that point. If you cats shows any of these symptoms get medical attention right away.

• Loss of appetite
• Sudden high fever
• Depression
• Vomiting
• Anorexia
• Diarrhea
• Severe dehydration.
• Convulsions

Diagnosis and Treatment

Distemper is diagnosed by ruling out other diseases and testing the stool. Cats who have recently vaccinated will show a false positive result.

Panleukopenia is incurable, and usually runs its course in about a week. Treatment involves minimizing the impact and keeping the cat alive until the virus has run its course. Fluids given with IV’s keep the cat from dying from dehydration. Antibiotics are used to address bacteria in the intestine created by the virus.

While being treated for the disease, cats should be kept in a warm, draft-free environment. They often lose the will to live and need lots of love, petting, and attention and should be hand fed when they can eat.

Cats who survive for more than five days will usually recover. Full recovery can take several weeks.

How Panleukopenia is Spread

Panleukopenia is transmitted by all bodily secretions including feces, vomit, urine, saliva, and mucus. Contact with infected cats or food dishes, bedding, and kennels used by infected cats can spread the disease. People cannot catch it but can infect cats when their hands or clothing become contaminated. Fleas and other insects can also spread distemper.

Outbreaks are common in animal shelters, kennels, and catteries.

The virus can survive up to a year outside the host, and is resistant to most disinfectants and freezing. Households where distemper has been present should throw away all dishes, bedding, and kennel used by the infected cat and still should not introduce a new cat for at least one year. A ten minute treatment with bleach and water solution (1:32) will kill the virus.

Panleukopenia and Pregnancy

If a pregnant cat catches the virus she will usually lose the kittens. Kittens who survive are born with damage to the cerebellum called Cerebrellar hypoplasia (CH). The cerebellum is part of the central nervous system and affects coordination, balance and movement. CH cats are not mentally impaired. Some CH cats live a fairly normal life, but others are severely debilitated. Vaccination during pregnancy can also cause CH.

Preventing Distemper

Nearly all cats will be exposed to the Panleukopenia virus at some time in their lives. The best defense against it is a good diet and healthy immune system.

Avoiding exposure to strange cats and wildlife by keeping your cat indoors and finding out if previous tenants have had sick cats, before moving into a new house, can help reduce the risk.

In reality the virus is so hard to kill, and so easy to spread, that you can easily become contaminated without knowing it and bring the disease home to your cat yourself.

Vaccination

Vaccination is very controversial, and with all of the conflicting information it can be hard to know if you are protecting or harming your cat by vaccinating. It is important to understand that vaccination is not an all or nothing issue and there are many factors to consider.

• Unlike many vaccines which have a high failure rate, the distemper vaccine is very effective in preventing the disease.
• Recent studies show that if a modified live virus distemper vaccine is administered after six months of age it is effective for life, and that revaccinating a year later does not improve immunity.
• Research at the Colorado State Univsersity has shown that the distemper vaccine can cause chronic renal failure, a common cause of death in cats.
• The killed virus vaccine is known to cause fibrosarcoma, a form of cancer.
• Distemper virus is hard to kill, hard to avoid, easily spread, and kills half or more of the cats who catch it.

Keeping all of these facts in mind, vaccinating for distemper with caution, in moderation, and only using the modified live virus, has a good chance of saving your cat’s life while minimizing the harm caused by the vaccine.

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