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 respiratorydistress 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 lowpH, 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.