Introduction:
Feline panleukopenia is a highly contagious, often fatal, viral disease of cats being especially severe in kittens. The disease is seen relatively uncommonly by veterinarians, presumably as a consequence of the widespread use of effective vaccines. However, infection rates remain high in feral and other un-vaccinated feline populations.
Etiology, Transmission, and Pathogenesis:
Feline panleukopenia is caused by a parvo virus called feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) which infects and destroys actively dividing cells of all feline species and some members of related families such as raccoons, mink, coatimundi, and kinkajou.
In pregnant queens, the virus may spread transplacentally to infect rapidly dividing embryonic or fetal cells, which leads to embryonic death, mummification, abortion, and stillbirth.
Most free-roaming cats are exposed to the virus during their first year of life. Those that develop subclinical infection or survive acute illness usually mount a robust, protective immune response.
Clinical Findings: Many infections are subclinical or not obvious. Those cats that do manifest signs of illness are usually young.
Typically, fever, depression, and anorexia develop after an incubation period of 2-7 days. Vomiting may develop 1-2 days after the onset of fever; it is usually bilious and unrelated to eating.
Diarrhea tends to begin a little later.
Extreme dehydration develops rapidly, even in the face of continued drinking.
Physical examination reveals severe depression, dehydration, and sometimes abdominal pain. Abdominal palpation may induce vomiting.
In young animals where the brain is affected, the patient will act drunk or be ataxic. Mortality is high, especially in young kittens; losses of 25-90% are typical.
Differential diagnoses include other causes of profound depression, panleukopenia, and GI signs. Salmonellosis, feline leukemia virus (FeLV), and feline immunodeficiency virus infections should be considered.
Lesions seen on pathology or necropsy: There may be few gross lesions in patients that die soon after contacting the virus, although typically, dehydration and emaciation are marked.
The earliest changes are edema and necrosis of the thymus and mesenteric lymph nodes. The bone marrow may appear semifluid and fatty. The bowel walls are usually thickened and turgid; excessive gas may be present in some bowel loops. The serosal surfaces of severely affected bowel loops may be hyperemic, with ecchymotic or petechial hemorrhages.
Histologically, the intestinal crypts are usually dilated and contain debris consisting of sloughed necrotic epithelial cells. Blunting and fusion of villi may be present. Degeneration of hepatocytes and renal tubular epithelial cells is seen. Eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies may be found in tissues in which viral replication has occurred.
Treatment: Successful treatment of acute cases requires careful monitoring, antibiotics, vigorous fluid therapy, control of nausea, and supportive care. Electrolyte disturbances, acidosis, hypoglycemia, hypoproteinemia, anemia, and systemic infections commonly develop in severely ill cats infected with FPV, and appropriate treatment should be administered.
Prevention: Excellent inactivated and modified live vaccines are available for prevention of FPV infection. Live vaccines should not be given to cats that are pregnant, immunosuppressed, or sick, or to kittens less than 4 weeks old.
Most vaccine manufacturers recommend that kittens should be vaccinated at 8-10 weeks of age and again at 12-14 weeks, with annual revaccination thereafter.
I’ve written this web site mostly to share my love of my profession … taking care of the medical and behavioral problems of pets.
But I have three other hopes:
To help animal lovers make sense out of the details and confusion of veterinary care
To encourage pet owners to be more responsible in the care of their pets
And I was really hoping to somehow raise money to keep our No Kill Pet Shelter running.
Our shelter is staffed 100% by volunteers and has been successful at finding homes for 200-300 pets a year that would otherwise be euthanized.
We take pets that are often filthy, full of parasites, suffering from diarrhea or colds or injuries. We clean them up, test and treat for heartworms, intestinal parasites, and leukemia.
Our pets are socialized, vaccinated, spayed or castrated, and treated with love and compassion until we can place them in a suitable home.
Please help us. Here’s How:
1.BiLo Grocery Stores generously donate 1% of all purchases to charities that they have approved.
We are on this approved list of 501c, tax deductible charities.
If you’ll print out the bar code below and take it to BiLo to scan; every time you use your BiLo Bonus Card, 1% of your purchase will be donated to our No Kill shelter. This will help us a lot and not cost you a cent.
2.People from our community donate all sorts of craft items and home made pet clothes that we sell at our shelter. And we also store a huge amount of garage sale items that people donate to us for our annual fund raising sale. We are now selling these items on Ebay to raise money. Please click here to check out our new Ebay Store. 100% of profits go to our No Kill Shelter.
3.And finally, for those of you who are especially kind, we can now accept straight forward donations in a secure fashion using a credit card through PayPal. If you’re willing to help by donating any amount, simply click on the Donate Button below.
Thank you so much. Your help is much appreciated and your donations will be used wisely, effectively, and with compassion.
