Cat Diseases and Explanations

Cat Diseases and Explanations

Here you will find a list of the most common and known cat diseases. Descriptions of the sicknesses and an explanation about what you can do to protect your cat against this diseases.
The descriptions are being updated when there is new research information available.
Whenever your cat died of someting undeclarable ask your vet to perform section. This will sometimes brings more information about the cause of death.
These descriptions are purely informational, so when you are in doubt please visit your vet immidiately!

What You Should Know about (FIP)

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a progressive and ultimately fatal corona virusinfection cats caused by a coronavirus. This sickness is very hard to discover because there's no test for it. Only after dying, section can proove that there may be a change that the cat has died because of FIP.

There is still little known concerning this sickness. There are forms of lethal FIP are effusive (wet) FIP, non-effusive (dry) FIP and combinations of both.
The wet type causes a peritonitis or a pleurisy. The cat can have very large amounts of fluid in her belly. These cats can also be short of breath. The dry form can affect any organ in the body.

The FIP virus infects only cats and kittens and transmission occurs through contact of a cat with another infected cat or by contact with the saliva, urine and feces of an infected cat. Contact with feces is the most common route of infection. Factors that increase the risk of infection include young age, multiple-cat households and concurrent infection with feline leukemia virus (FeLV) or feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).

There are many cats who carry the coronavirus. But most of these cats do not have FIP.

FIP is developed whenever the coronavirus mutates in a much more dangerous version. The chance a cat develops FIP sometimes has a genetic background, but also stress can be a factor.

Because no preventive tests and/or trustworthy vaccinations exist it is sometimes hard for a breeder to avoid this sickness. Pedigree lines in which cats have died because of FIP are sometimes stopped before further distribution can occur. At this point, this is the only known way to reach a healthier race.

Diagnosis

There are no specific tests to diagnose FIP. Your veterinarian will take a complete medical history and perform a thorough physical examination to facilitate diagnosis. Most cats presented for veterinary attention already are sick and several other diseases produce similar symptoms. Consequently, your veterinarian likely will recommend certain tests to rule out diseases other than FIP. These tests may include the following:
FIP titer (serum antibody test). It is important to note that this test identifies the presence of antibodies against coronavirus but cannot determine with certainty that the antibodies are specifically against the coronavirus that causes FIP. A specialized molecular diagnostic test called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) recently has become available for the diagnosis of FIP but requires more widespread testing to determine its usefulness.

What You Should Know about Panleucopenia

Panleucopenia is the most well known infection to the cat. The virus is know everywhere in the world. Unfortunately, this disease is very contagious and almost always mortal to cats. This virus is even dangerous out of a body for a long time.
That's why a cat can become sick trough other cats, clothing and hands very easily.
When a cat isn't vaccinated against this virus, the digestion system is the most touched part of the body. Also the bone marrow and the lymphatic system are being touched. The cat's strength against other diseases is gone which occurs in other infections which makes the cat even more sick. Happily vaccines against this virus are existing for a long time. The only way to protect your cat against this disease is to vaccinate every year.

What You Should Know about Upper Respiratory Disease

Upper Respiratory disease is the most existing disease. Within grown up cats this is a deadly disease. Within young cats this disease can also be fatal. Upper Respiratory disease can occur by a variety of viruses. The most important is FCV and the Rhinotracheïtis-virus (FVR). The symptoms are so alike that it is difficult to know which one's active. Chlamydia plays an important role within this disease. Cats can be vaccinated against the Upper Resiratory disease, but this doesn't mean that the cat can't become sick anymore of this disease.

What You Should Know about Worms

There are two types of worms. Roundworms, like the Hookworm and the Whipworm, and Tapeworms.

Kittens get can get Roundworms through the mothers milk.

Grown up cats can get these worms via shoe's or catched mice or other animals. After approximately three weeks the eggs of a worm are fully grown.
At their turn they lay a large number of eggs their selves. People cannot see an infection of a cat very easy unless the worms come out by vomit or defecation. When a cat has a lot of worms the cat is very thin and has diarrhia.
The worm eggs go into the digestion system. The eggs develop to be worm larvae's who will go trough the intestine wall. After that the worms make a long journey trough the body of the cat. Some larvae's will return to the intestines and become spool worms. Other larvae's don't develop and stay behind in a rest phase in muscle and fat tissue.
When the cat becomes pregnant the larvae's wake up and travel to the milk clumps. In this way they can infect kittens. Hookworms are more dangerous because they eat intestine tissue. Whipworms are satisfied with the food within the intestines. Roundworms are 5 to 10 cm long and yellow white and pink.
Tapeworms also live in the intestines of a cat. They have a head and shoulders and have a chain with eggs. This eggs develop until larvae's in a host. When a cat eats this host (a mouse or flees) the cat becomes infected. When a cat has a Tapeworms, it has to be vaccined against it. The larvae's develop until they are worms in the intestines of the cat. When a cat has a Tapeworm, the cat becomes thin and has white pieces of worm in the defecate.

What You Should Know about Cat aids (FIV)

Feline immunodeficiency virus, or FIV, is a widespread viral infection that attacks the immune system of cats and can be transmitted blood and saliva and mothers milk. Just like other infections this disease lowers the strength against diseases. By this, the cat can't fight against other infections.
Cat aids is always lethal.It is estimated that between 1 - 14 percent of the cat population is infected with FIV.
Transmission among household cats through normal contact is thought to be unlikely. Nor can the disease be transmitted to humans.

It is caused by the same family of viruses that triggers AIDS in humans and has much the same devastating impact on infected cats. It is often referred to as “feline AIDS.”

The virus devastates a cat’s immune system, stopping it from effectively combating other diseases and infections. Infected cats eventually fall prey to a wide variety of secondary illnesses that overwhelmingly prove fatal. There is no cure, but cats can live for up to 10 years – much of it in seeming good health – before succumbing.
FIV has three stages of infection:

Stage 1 – In the first stage the virus first causes infections, fever and swollen lymph nodes.

Stage 2 – During this stage, the virus is in effect dormant and many cats appear “healthy.” This is called the sub-clinical phase and lasts from months to years.

Stage 3 – In the final stage the cat suffers the infections and diseases that are often fatal within a year. It is called the chronic infection stage.

Diagnosis

An infected cat will often suffer from numerous diseases and infections, including anemia, infections of the gums and mouth, cancer and skin disorders. Many cats may seem healthy but they are still infected.

The key to diagnosing FIV is determining whether these problems are the result of a suppressed immune system caused by the virus. Your veterinarian will take a medical history, do a complete physical examination and administer an FIV blood test designed to see whether a cat has developed antibodies to the virus. If antibodies are present, it indicates the virus is present in the body.

This test is called ELISA or IFA.

It is a good idea to test kittens because they contract the virus when nursing, but it is also possible for a test to show wrongly that a kitten is infected; a nursing kitten can also carry the antibodies of an infected mother without being infected itself. A kitten that tests positive should be retested after six months of age, when it carries its own antibodies and test results will be more reliable.

A cat that tests positive or appears to have FIV will likely undergo further tests to measure its general health and the impact the disease is having on individual organs.

Treatment

There has been no proven effective treatment for FIV infection.
A vaccine has recently become available to help reduce the risk of your cat acquiring FIV. In addition to vaccination, eliminating interactions with infected cats and stopping your cat from fighting greatly helps reduce the risk. Keeping your cat indoors and neutering males are probably the most important keys to prevention.

FIV-infected cats should be isolated from cats that do not carry the virus. They should be quarantined to a separate area in a household away from other cats and should have no contact with FIV-negative cats. All bedding, food and water dishes, litter pans and toys should be disinfected. They should not be shared among cats that are infected and cats that are not.

What You Should Know about Cat leukemia (FelV)

Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is a viral disease of domestic cats. This disease is very slow but always lethal. Because of testing for this disease for 25 years the virus is not very common anymore. It is recommended to put to sleep any cat who has this virus. FelV is a disease with many faces. The virus is killing the blood cells. This can result in anemia, tumors, mating problems and nerve infections. The strength of the cat is lowering so the cat can be infected with another virus easily. There is a vaccination against this disease, but when you only use negative tested cats for your breeding program it is not necessary.
This vaccination is only preventive and not meant to cure the cat.
FeLV is transmitted by bite wounds, shared dishes or litter pans, or close contact (grooming). Kittens can be born with FeLV or acquire the virus through their mother’s milk.

What You Should Know about (PKD)

Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) is the result of an autosomal dominant gene, it is easy to track and eliminate from the breeding population. All breeding cats shoult need to have a DNA-TEST to detect the possible presence of kidney-cysts.
The quickest way to eliminate the problem is to neuter or spay the affected individuals and only breed with DNA - TESTED, PKD-negative cats.

A PKD-negative cat is also genetically PKD-free!

What does this disease cause in cats?

Polycystic Kidney Disease is a slowly progressive disease. It clinically shows up later in life (late onset), with enlarged kidneys and kidney dysfunction on average at seven years of age. The condition is inherited and cysts are present from birth. The size of cysts can vary from less than one millimeter to several centimeters, with older animals having larger and more numerous cysts. Problems occur when these cysts start to grow and progressively enlarge the kidney, reducing the kidneys' ability to function properly. The ultimate end is kidney failure.
Some of the clinical signs are depression, lack of or reduced appetite, excessive thirst, excessive urination and weight loss. There is a marked variability in how quickly individual cats succumb, with the possibility of the symptoms of PKD developing late enough in life that the cat can die of other causes before kidney failure. However, kidney failure is certain when and if the cysts grow and cause problems.

For detailed information about PKD and PKD-DNA Test ,
please, visits this link!