It's with heavy heart to say that we have heard sad news that our beloved kitten has an incurable disease (coronavirus) which they won't live for another year :(
My partner and I adopted a female kitten back in January from a cat adoption foundation. It hasn't been desexed yet at that time so an appointment had been made to get it done at the end of the same month.
I wasn't there but my partner was at the vet. She said they tested her temperature and it was normal. However, the temperature was higher than normal after surgery and the vet says it normal.
After keeping an eye on our kitten for 2 weeks so she doesn't lick her stitches, we took it to our local vet (not the same vet that we went to for desexing) for a checkup about 4 days later. I don't remember if the temperature they checked was normal or not but the stitches were ok and not infected.
A few weeks went by and we noticed there had been vomit on the floor and sometimes diarrhoea. The kitten had been litter trained from the foster carer so that wasn't a problem to begin with.
We took it back to the local vet and the temperature was higher than normal. A week later, we took it to the local vet again after the kitten had the same thing happen. Temperature was checked again and the temperature was high again and she was losing weight even though her eating habits seemed normal.
Blood tests were taken and an ultrasound was given. They found abnormal lumps in her abdomen but were told we need to give poo samples.
A few days later, the poo samples were given and tested. We were given the bad news that her samples were tested positive for coronavirus which has no known cure.
We are both heartbroken with the news. My partner had lived with pets all her life. I never had but the kitten and I had grown a strong bond with each other.
She has never been let outside except when we take her to the vet for checkups.
It seems too much of a coincidence that her fever started up after the desexing stage, so I was wondering if it's possible that she could of contracted it while the surgery was being performed?
I'm sorry, it's really hard to have a sick pet.
Is it possible the kitten was infected during surgery? Of course. It's also possible the kitten picked FECV up in fosterage, was born with it, or caught it while staying at your local vet. It seems that feline coronavirus is spread through fecal-oral contact, and then occasionally develops into the fatal FIP version (I assume this is the diagnosis).
:(