Sumner went the ER Vet- fever
Sumner went the ER vet
Aug. 9, 2004
Sumner didn’t seem to be himself the past two days, but by this evening it was clear something was really wrong. He was very lethargic the whole day, his inner eyelids were showing pretty much all the time, he ate almost nothing, and when after several hours of his just lying in the same spot looking poorly I put him near the litter box, he climbed in and urinated. That really got me worried as he apparently needed to go but must not have had the energy to get over to the box.
We figured we better not wait until morning, so took him to the ER Vet. He had a 104 degress fever (101 is normal for a cat). The vet did some blood work and a repeat test for FeLV/FIV just on the off chance one of the fosters might possibly have spead something even though they tested negative, or that he had it since he was a kitten even though his mother tested negative (we couldn’t remember if we ever had him tested since he was born in the house). Sumner’s tests only showed an elevated white count indicating infection. So the diagnoses is some kind of virus.
The vet said even cats in single cat homes come down with viruses. But it could also be that our new foster cat, Sparky, had just gotten over a virus and passed on germs to Sumner. Except it would have to have been an airborne virus and Sparky only made one little sneeze in the past three weeks that I heard, and two vets in the past two weeks declared Sparky healthy, so I don’t think Sparky would be spreading germs. Sumner has sneezed a little bit here and there this week. Oh well, germs can come in on people’s shoes even, so who knows how Sumner got sick. Though Simon was sick with some fever and sneezy thing a few weeks ago, before Sparky came, so maybe it’s the same germs.
He’s has some antibiotics to take to keep any secondary bacterial viruses from taking hold. It’s orange flavored liquid. Why do they do that for animal medicines? Cat’s don’t like orange. How hard would it be to make chicken flavored liquid medicine instead of orange? BTW, the vet said to NOT put liquid medications down the back of the throat and especially never squirt it full force down the back of the throat as it will make the liquid get into the cat’s lungs, where it can cause pneumonia. He said liquid medicines are to be gently squirted, slowly, in the side of the cat’s mouth so the cat can swallow it without gagging or aspirating. It doesn’t need to all go in in one fell swoop.
Sumner with 104 degrees fever
Here is what a cat with a 104 temp looks like.
It’s hard to tell he’s sick, except that you can see something doesn’t look right with his eyes, even though the inner eyelid is not showing here. He stayed all curled up or hunched up all day long. Poor little fellow.
Aug. 10 2004
By around 9:00 this evening, Sumner was about 70% better! He’s eating ok, not with his usual appetite, but good enough. His eyes aren’t “bleary” and squinted like yesterday and he’s moving around a bit more. Seems to me the fever must be gone since he is noticeably perked up. It was good to see his big round eyes wide opened again.
His neck looks weird though, as they shaved it in order to find a vein to take blood. I guess they couldn’t get it from elsewhere, the way he flails his legs and twists all over when one tries to do “something” to his legs (or the rest of him actually). They probably had to swaddle him to make his stay still and not flop around. Even sick, he will twist and flop to avoid needle sticks and meds shoved in his mouth.
Sumner with shaved neck
One interesting thing that I now know is true, after having read about it, is that the skin under a cat’s fur (at least on Sumner) somewhat matches the fur above it. Where they shaved his neck, under the gray stripe fur his skin is dark, and under the white fur it is pink.
Oct. 25, 2004
As a point of interest, it turns out that our foster cat Sparky was tested for Bartonellosis (Cat Scratch Fever) in the middle of October by his new vet at his new home, and was found to have it with a high positive. He would have to have had it already when he came to me in the middle of July, as I can’t see how he would get in sequestered in our guest bedroom at first with no contact with other animals (expept human animals) and he did not have fleas.
Sparky did develop a deep cough a few weeks after Sumner had the fever. Sparky also had a sore throat, and enlarged lymph glands when we took him to the vet due to the deep cough.
From what I have been researching about Bartonella, it can be spread to other cats through scratches, bites, and licking, but also from sneezing, and hissing or spitting in the face of the other cat.
I had been puzzling over how Sumner got sick, since he is an indoor cat, and now I think it could be that he got Bartonella from Sparky having sneezed. It still could have been “some mystery virus” of course, but now knowing for sure Sparky does have Bartonella, it seems that could be the cause of Sumner’s short lived fever (well, short lived due to having had antibiotics). Sumner is acting even better than ever these past few days, so there was not harm done to him.