VERY DANGEROUS Virulent Calicivirus strain

[kb2yjx]

Thanks Pat for the info. I will ask my vet about this.

[phesina]

Please let us know what your vet says, Sandra.. thanks..

I'm surprised I had never heard about this before, if it's been around since the late 1990s, is as contagious and deadly as they are saying, and until now there was no vaccine for it.

Pat

[Taz_Zoee]

I did not see this thread sooner and did a search on Calici to find it. I just took Taz to the vet last night for his vaccines and they told me about this. I had not heard of it. I missed this thread or I would have been more informed. I am glad Pat already got it out there (as did someone else sometime back, I think). It sounds very scary. Even though Taz is an indoor only cat, he could still get this nasty virus.

[catmandu]

The sad thing is that a friend of mine was going into that Burlington Store and adopt a Siamese Mix but she had car problems , and by that time the infected Kitten made all the 8 Ctas so ill that they had to be PTS.
I will have to be very vigilant around the Porch Cats from now on.

[phesina]

I did ask the person who told me about the vet who had the bad reactions of several cats to whom she'd given the new vaccine, if she had reported it to the company. I was told she did, of course, right away.

I haven't heard if she got a response from the company or if anything else has been learned or determined about it.

I still worry about this.

Pat

[lvpets2002]

Oh my this sounds just Horrible Pat.. I have never heard of it before.. Thanks for the info..

[phesina]

Cindy, what did your vet say about it? Did he/she know about or say anything about the supposed vaccine?

As for the vet who had severe reactions from cats she administered the vaccine to, either she or someone else (a vet tech maybe) later told me they had had previous bad experiences with Fort Dodge, some of their vaccines and/or the company itself, and did not trust either the company or its products.

That is really sad, Gary, about the cats in the Burlington store. Do you know if they closed the place and decontaminated it (see below) after the affected cats were PTS? And did they have others that did not become ill but presumably had been exposed? What happened to those?

Thanks, Helene, I wanted to help spread the word. Please pass it on! I still wonder why this is not more widely seen or at least known about if it is SO contagious and SO fatal.

Cindy and Gary and everyone, from what my vet told me and what I've picked up on line so far, cats who are totally indoor are not necessarily safe from this. The following is paraphrased from what she said and from the UC Davis Vet School's Shelter Medicine program web site
http://www.sheltermedicine.com/porta...tml#prevention:

If you or anyone else in your household or your dog or any other inhabitant who goes in and out so much as brushes up against hair from an infected cat.. it is so highly contagious, you or they could pick it up from that, then carry it back into the house, where your cats will pick it up.

This has been nightmarish at shelters and vet clinics where it has taken hold. Affected animals must be completely isolated (sick animals separately from exposed-but-asymptomatic ones, too), and those caring for them must wear protective covering over clothes and shoes, which must then be removed before handling healthy cats or leaving the facility. Several negative viral cultures must be obtained 1-2 weeks apart to confirm eradication, after which the facility must be thoroughly decontaminated and quarantined for at least TWO WEEKS before allowing entry of cats again.

This site and the ones I listed above also give info on symptoms to watch for.

If I find out anything more, I will let everyone know here (or should I post it under Health?). And if anyone else learns more, please let us all know.

Let's see what we can find out about this and what we can do to keep our precious babies safe... Thanks...

Pat