Panleukopenia Scare with Sumac 1 and 2

 Posted from Facebook:

"Wow so these new kittens are the most feral of any kittens I've worked with. The little girl is so scared that she won't even come out of the carrier to eat. I left the carrier so that they could have a cave to retreat to (instead of behind the toilet or the laundry hamper). The little boy will come out to eat the wet food and use the litter box, but if I even look at him or turn his direction he hisses and hides. I can't tell if the little girl has eaten anything since I brought her home yesterday evening and I'm worried that I'll have to force feed her some gruel; I just worry about how traumatic that might be if she's already so terrified.

On the bright side I am slowly teaching them that hands are not bad. Last night I took turns holding both of them very securely on my lap and petting them until they started purring. Little girl started purring about two minutes in; little boy took a bit longer, but he started purring after about five minutes. This morning little girl started purring the minute I put her in my lap; little boy was more interested in the food and actually explored a tiny bit while I was holding his sister.
So yeah, it's going to be a long road with these two! They look really rough and obviously both have bad ringworm and possibly both have an upper respiratory infection. Little girl has a nasty gunky eye and little boy is working on one to match it."

I ended up having to take both kittens back the shelter the day after bringing them home: I found bloody stool in the litterbox. Bloody stool is usually one of the major warning signs of Panleuk and, despite the fact that the kittens had just been tested the day before, the shelter staff wanted to test them again. Luckily the second test also came back negative. Panleukopenia (also known as Feline Distemper, Feline Parvovirus, FP, FPV, or FPLV) is very often fatal.

"Of affected kittens that are two months or less of age, 90–95% die regardless of treatment. Kittens that are more than two months old have a 60–70% mortality rate with treatment and a nearly 100% mortality rate if not treated. Adult cats have a 10–20% mortality rate if treated, and an 85% mortality rate if not treated."

     -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_panleukopenia

 So that means that only 20%-30% of kittens who are Panleuk positive will survive, even with agressive treatment. My new foster kittens are extremely lucky that they do not seem to have the virus.

Unfortunately kittens under six months of age can often have a false negative when tested for Panleuk, so my kittens are not out of the danger zone yet. I'll have to keep a close eye on their eating and toileting habits to make sure that I don't see any more of the warning signs.