Bad News

Last week I received some very upsetting news. Scruble was diagnosed with Panleukopenia on Sunday. I have talked about Panleuk before in my blog, but if you need a refresher there is a really good article right here.

The news came as quite a surprise considering Panleuk is not something that he could have picked up from me, my cats, or my house. We do have some kittens at work that have the virus though, and the Sunday before last Scruble went to work with me to get his check up. The only people who came into contact with Scruble that day were myself, the certified vet tech, and the vet herself. Sunday I did not work with and was not exposed to Panleuk, so I could not have been the one to contaminate him. I trust the vet that was working that day because, well I just do, she is an awesome vet and I trust her completely. The only person I don't trust that handled Scruble that day was the vet tech. She isn't even a vet tech yet, she is an ex tern from Purdue University who is not even a real certified vet tech yet as she is still in school. I especially do not trust her because she has been reported by three different people on three different occasions to not be wearing gloves when medicating the animals in the shelter. Completely unacceptable! We take our cleanliness, and especially quarantines, very seriously at the shelter because our biggest concern is that we aren't making more of our animals sick. Well guess what, Scruble got sick and I'm 99.9% sure it is all the ex tern's fault.

Not that pointing the finger helps anything. The first thing they had to do was start treatment. He was given an IV as well as antibiotics and GI medication. I am off today but from the reports I have been getting he is "hanging in there". He could recover but he could still get worse. I am a nervous wreck. Mostly Scruble has been hanging with my cats (as well as my other foster, Shamy) for the last week and now that they have all been exposed my house is on lock down. Sunday night after my ten hour shift I was up until 2:30am steam cleaning and bleaching everything in my house, putting all linens into garbage bags to be washed, and bathing all my cats in hopes that I could wash the virus out of the house. If in two weeks none of the other animals show signs or become positive for Panleuk then we are safe. Unfortunately this means two weeks of being completely on edge for me. So far though, everyone is okay. My cats are older and have had more vaccinations so there is a higher chance of them not getting the virus. I am really worried about Shammy though. Today he vomited once (one of the symptoms) and I freaked out. I have tests at home though and he tested negative. His appetite is good and he has been playing all day so I am trying to calm myself down. I just keep praying that no one else will pop positive. I don't know what I would do if one of my cats got sick. Most vets won't even treat it and to actually treat the virus is very expensive. Panleukopenia has a 70% mortality rate in kittens.

This sucks. But all we can do is hope and pray for Scruble and the rest of my cats.