Dear Einstein,

I’m the luckiest cat in the world. Sam, my Siamese neighbor, tells me that yesterday, his humans took him to the cat clinic for shots. The vet poked holes in him, and you don’t even want to know what she did with that thermometer. My owners love me too much to do that to me. Where do I go to nominate them for Cat Owners of the Year?

Signed,
No Immunizations for Me

Hey Immi,

Be careful what you ask for. It might come back and bite you in the butt. You may think it’s cool that that your owners don’t put you through all the uncomfortable things other cat owners do to their kitties, but before you start handing out awards, there are a few things you (and your people) should know. Personally I’d nominate them for the Cat Owners’ Medal of Dishonor.

The 1970s are back. Bell bottoms are in. So are hippie fringe and cheesy peasant dresses. But more dangerous 70s trends are returning, too, and one of them is Feline panleukopenia (FP), also called feline distemper and Cat Plague. In its day, this disease wiped out felines by the thousands. Finally, someone developed a vaccine that protected us kitties.

You and your folks may think you don’t need to worry about distemper because all has been quiet on the virus front. Unfortunately, like those ugly fashion trends, it’s back—at least in certain regions. One frustrated animal control guy in Texas told this reporter he thought it was making a comeback cuz people weren’t bothering to get their cats vaccinated. If it's not a threat, why get waste money on the shot, right? What’s the big deal anyway?

The big deal is that distemper is a very contagious virus caused by the feline parvovirus. As much as I’d like to, I can’t blame FP on the dogs. Even though this virus comes from the same family as pooch parvo (and has the same name), it’s a different disease. Neither your humans nor the family mutt have to worry about catching FP. But our feline brothers and sisters should worry about catching FP from blood, poop, pee, puke, snot, spit or even fleas from an infected cat. And just because you’re an indoor cat doesn’t mean you’re getting off Scot(tish Fold) free. You don’t have to have whisker-to-whisker contact with another kitty. Infected beds, cages, food or dishes can do the dirty trick. (So if your humans are garage salers, and they like to bring home cat furniture, carriers and bowls, make sure everything’s been properly sanitized before you give it a try.) Your people can expose you to FP by unknowingly petting a sick cat or touching a can of cat food at the pet store that someone else has picked up with dirty hands. As they say in the infomercials, but wait, there’s more! The FP virus is as indestructible as Godzilla. It’s resistant to many household disinfectants, including acid and alcohol. Neither hot or cold temperatures in the environment phase the virus unless it’s hotter than 132.8°, but it still takes at least thirty minutes in the heat to nuke it. It can even survive freezing. The good news is a 1:32 dilution of Clorox Bleach will kill it too; but it takes soaking the area for at least twenty minutes. Without our good friend Clorox, the virus can survive inside the home for over a year.

Like so many other kitty diseases, FP can be tricky for vets to diagnose because the symptoms vary from kitty to kitty and they can mimic other conditions. A cat with FP may show his third eyelid or have a dull, clumpy-looking coat. He might throw up or get a bad case of the runs. Because he ralphs up anytime he eats or drinks, he may hang over the water dish rather than taking a drink. He’ll often sit hunched over like a meatloaf with his head between his front paws. He could be depressed, maybe even lethargic. Pregnant moms who get distemper may give birth to kittens with brain damage.

The kitties who aren’t going to make it usually keel over in the first five days. A cat who survives longer than that, and doesn’t get dehydrated or develop bacterial infections, should recover. Adults usually survive if the owners get them to the vet early enough for “supportive care.” That means getting fluids under the skin so he doesn’t get dehydrated, force-feeding and beating down infections with antibiotics. Unfortunately, most FP kittens under 16 weeks end up meowing with the Choir Eternal, often without ever showing any signs of illness.

Sick kitties should go into strict isolation, but only in a clean, warm room that’s free of drafts. There aren’t any magic pills (or shots) that can kill the virus. So the owner and vet have to work as a team to keep the kitty alive until his own antibodies and white blood cells can mobilize to defeat the invader. The owner needs to play Nurse Nightingale because according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) the cat will need “plenty of tender loving care." AVMA says distemper kitties “may lose the will to live, so frequent petting, hand feeding, and good nursing care by the owner are essential.”

While any kitty can catch distemper, it’s usually young kittens, sick cats and unvaccinated cats who are most susceptible. FP even kills big cats like lions and cheetahs. Raccoons can get it too; so outdoor kitties beware and get your shots. Kitties who may have been exposed to the FP kitty need to be watched closely.

To find out if you have distemper, your vet will change from Dr. Jeckyll to Mrs. Vampire to check your corpuscles; FP kitties have a very low white blood cell count. As long as the vet’s doing unspeakable things to you, she might as well foist other indignities and break out a SNAP puppy poop test for canine parvovirus. A lot of vets use it to help confirm feline distemper, too. One thing for your vet to remember, if you’ve gotten a FVRCP shot in the last 12 days it might cause a false positive.

In decades past, FP was one of the leading cat killers. Today, it’s pretty uncommon mostly because the shots are so effective. But that has lulled cat owners like yours into a false sense of security. If you aren’t vaccinated, you aren’t protected.

Those docs at American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) recently changed their shot schedule for kittens. That means for three months kittens get turned into pincushions. They now recommend that kittens get the first FVRCP shot (that stands for Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus and Panleukopenia) as early as six weeks, then have boosters every three to four weeks until they’re 16 weeks. If a kitty gets his first shot when he’s older than four months, then he should get two shots, three to four weeks apart. They’ll get another shot a year later. After that kitties can get shots every three years.

If your people don’t think little guys need all those shot, they might want to learn a lesson from a pal o’ mine. Leggo recently caught distemper even though he’d had the two shots the vets used to recommend. He wasn’t just knocking at death’s door, it was open, he was looking around inside. His owners now swear by those new pincushion guidelines.

Immi, vaccinations are the safest and cheapest protection from distemper. If you get sick with FP it’s going to cost your chinchy owners a lot more than the price a shot. It takes a week or two before you’re protected, so they shouldn’t bring in a stray cat for a while after you get your shot.