Cat flu

• Cats are obligate nasal breathers
• What are the pathogens for cat flu?

  Feline herpesvirus

  Feline calicivirus

  Chlamydia felis (Chlamydophilia)

  Mycoplsma felis
• Feline herpesvirus

  ‘Flu’ signs

  Damage to nasal bones (kittens can become chronic snufflers)

  Ocular ulcers

  Herpetic dermatitis

  Once you have herpes you can not get rid of it, most cats get it very young from there mum.
• Herpes transmission

  DNA virus (FHV-1). Enveloped virus. Stress related recurrence. Enveloped virus means that it is harder to kill.
• Chronic rhinitis

  can be a sequel to cat flu, can have multiple different causes. Rule-out non-viral causes.
• Nasalpharyngeal polyps

  Polyps tend to grow from the back of the nasopharynx, causes coughing, diagnose with endoscopy.
• Retropharyngeal stenosis

  This stenosis is congenital, it didn't develop very well at birth. The animal can cope with this pretty well for a while but respiratory distress can be triggered by stress etc…
• Feline symptoms

  Tongue ulcers, synovitis in kittens (floppy kittens). The vaccine is live so animals can become lame after the vaccine. General respiratory symptoms - ‘flu’ signs.
• Feline calicivirus viral components

  Fast evolving virus, very hard, shed by >80% of cats in multi-cat environments, can be shed without disease. environmental contamination, closely related to norovirus.
• Feline chronic gingivitis stomatitis FCGS

  Associated with FCV, causation not established and very frustrating to treat, dental treatment, antibiotics. full mouth extraction, corticosteriods, interferon. all treatments will be expensive and will need to be long term.
• Virulent systemic FCV

  Spontaneous outbreaks of severe disease. Can affect adult healthy vaccinated cats. Has a 50% mortality, spread through fomites. Cats can become severely jaundice, ulcerated.
• how can virulent systemic FCV present?

  cats can be admitted to the vets with dermatological problems, problems with their pads is a common presentation.
• chlamydia felis

  Intracellular bacterium-like organism. Close contact for transmission. Can initially appear unilateral. Can be this even if unilateral presentation.
• how do you treat chlamydia felis?

  Treat the patient and the animals in contact. Tetracycline family for antibiotics. DO NOT use doxycycline as it causes stricture because is has a very specific salt types which creates a low pH, which can affect the oesophageal soft tissue and cause structures.
• How to diagnose cat flu

  Only really diagnose when it will change management (individual vs population). Oral or ocular swabs. Viral transport medium. Virus isolation (FCV/FHV). PCR. If testing with swabs can only use it to confirm herpes, any negative does not mean that here’s is not there.
• supportive treatment of cat flu

  eye drops - anti herpes, off license designed for humans, can not use them for calicivirus. interferons will modulate your immune response, can be very expensive. pick the correct antiviral, acyclovir very useful for herpes but will not work on calicivirus.
• symptomatic treatment of cat flu

  NSAIDs, ulcers can be very painful. Mitazapime stimulates the appetite
• nutritional support for cat flu

  nasogastric tube

  oesophageal tube
• prevention of cat flu

  hygeine, barriers, ventilation
• control of cat flu

  cat-cat transmission. stress, disinfectants - FHV very labile, FCV more resistant; quaternary ammonium compounds not effective. Herpes is very easy to kill but calicivirus is very resistant, not all cleaning products will work.
• core vaccinations for cats

  Feline Panleukopaenia Virus (Feline Parvo virus, FPV, Feline Infectious Enteritis).

  Feline Herpes Virus.

  Feline Calicivirus
• Non-core vaccinations for cats


  Chlamydia/ Chlamydia felis

  Bordetella bronchoiseptica

  Feline Leukaemia VIrus

  Rabies Virus