Cat owners warned of deadly virus

File photo: Dr Tracy Dicks, a veterinarian at Tears in Noordhoek, said some of the kittens had shown no symptoms.

File photo: Dr Tracy Dicks, a veterinarian at Tears in Noordhoek, said some of the kittens had shown no symptoms.

Published Jun 24, 2015

Share

Cape Town - At least 24 kittens in the south Peninsula have died in the past two months from a virus that is so deadly it can kill an animal within hours.

The panleukopaenia virus, also known as feline parvovirus, is highly contagious and extremely resilient. Unless killed off with disinfectant, the virus can remain in an area for two years.

There is no specific treatment available.

Dr Tracy Dicks, a veterinarian at Tears in Noordhoek, said some of the kittens had shown no symptoms.

“They were fine in the morning and dropped dead at lunchtime.”

After a spate of kitten deaths, which were in foster homes, Tears sent the bodies for post-mortems which came back positive for panleukopaenia.

The virus causes severe damage to the lining of the intestine and travels via the blood to the bone marrow and lymph glands. In very young kittens it can affect the brain cells.

Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea and then dehydration and death.

Dicks has been in the welfare field for nearly a decade and said it was not something she had seen very often.

She intends notifying all vets in Cape Town to be on the alert.

Dicks said the virus wasn’t new but people had become slack about vaccinating their cats which resulted in outbreaks.

She said the parvo virus was first diagnosed in 1970. Eight years later a new strain was discovered which came from a mutation in the panleukopaenia virus that allowed it to infect dogs. Initially it could not re-infect cats. However, it changed again and now, under some circumstances, can be spread from dogs to cats and vice versa.

Dicks has appealed to people to vaccinate their cats – not just when they are kittens but every year.

Tears is embarking on a vaccination drive for July and August.

Cape Argus

Related Topics: