Answer: As in FIE, your vet may advise the intravenous administration of fluid to counteract dehydration, plus the administration of antibiotics, often in the form of syrups (which are easier to swallow) to control secondary bacterial infection. It may be necessary to resort to artificial in hospital, down a tube inserted through the side of the nick (pharyngostomy tube).
Nursing is of paramount importance in treating feline respiratory disease. Cats should be kept worm in well-ventilated surroundings and the discharges and saliva regularly wiped and bathed away, particularly when the eyelid are gummed together or the nostrils blocked. If the eyelids are not bathed until they can be parted and the discharges beneath them remove the damage done to the eyeball may be irreversible, resulting in blindness. Placing a smear of petroleum jelly around the eyes and beneath the nose helps to avoid the discharges scalding the skin.
Inhalation of water vapour or vaporized inhalants can be given to help unblocked the nasal cavities. Every attempt should be made to persuade the cat to eat, and regular grooming and attention are also important to increasing the cat’s sense of well-being and given it the will to fight back. Cats who suffer from difficulty in breathing should be carefully handled to avoid my worsening of their condition. Some chronic ‘snuffers’ improve if they are should outdoors. Operations are sometimes resorted to, to drain infected sinuses or removed diseased nasal bones, but often with disappearing results.
All feeding bowls, beds and bedding used by an infected cat, as well as its surrounding environment, should be thoroughly disinfected to limit the spread of the virus. Wearing rubber gloves, which are changed before handling each cat in colony and then disinfected, reduces transmission from cat to cat. An infected cat should be isolated from all others and new arrivals should be isolated for fourteen days (in case they are incubating the disease) to see whether signs of illness appear.
Cats that have poor immunity or are suffering from stress (e.g. poor nutrition, ill-health from other causes, low environmental temperature, abandonment) are more likely to become infected. Protection can be given by vaccination (usually as two shots three to four weeks apart) which can be combined with vaccination for FIE. Also available is a vaccine which is given as one does in the form of drops placed into the nasal cavities. This intra-nasal vaccine stimulates local immunity in the nose very quickly (within forty eight hours), thereby blocking the entry of virus by this route. It is believed that this local immunity will be produced even if the natural antibodies are still present in the blood. Later the cat will develop antibodies in the blood, provided maternal antibodies are absent.
However, although more complete protection is provided by the intranasal vaccine, about half of the cats receiving it show after effects of conjunctivitis and rhinitis (runny eyes and nose) and in same this lasts for two to three weeks afterwards. The vaccination fro cat ‘flu should be boosted at least annually.
Approximately 80% of the animals which recover from FVR continue to carry the virus in their bodies (i.e. become carriers) though they will not usually excrete it unless they are exposed to stress, such as other infections or poor feeding, etc. Between 10 to 40 % of cats recovering from FCV infection shed the virus from mouth or more afterwards, the higher proportion being in colonies of cats. 25 % cats at cat show have been found to excrete this virus. Some of then remain life-long carriers and excretes of virus. Such carriers are obviously an important source of infection for other cats, particularly since they may look quite normal and healthy, although fortunately tests are now available which can distinguish them.
At times even vaccinated cats may, if they are exposed to a really virulent strain of virus, become carrier.
