Just learned that one of the local shelters we pull from had an adult diagnosed with Panleukopenia, aka Feline Distemper. Likely explains why about half of the kittens we pulled over the past two weeks have died or been very ill, and some mysteriously so. Sigh. I don't fault the shelter because their hygiene is usually decent, but when you've got kitten season underway and something as contagious as Panleuk, a lot of them don't stand a chance.
Haven't heard much from the kennel manager but I feel her pain. The best way, generally, in a shelter environment to get rid of panleukopenia is to euthanize all the kittens (since they're the main vectors as they're least likely to have immunity), clean the heck out of everything, and start afresh. The last time I heard, they had well over 100 kittens at that shelter.
Some shelters have quarantine spaces...this building unfortunately does not have the facilities to properly try that. It's an old building and they're regrettably underfunded, as they're in one of our poorer neighbor counties. That means high intake rates, low funding, and not a ton of adoptions, which is why we pull from them so heavily.
I am so glad that serendipity determined I didn't pull any kittens from the shelter the last round. Having Harry and Henrietta along with the two C's and Paddy and Redbud on top of our three meant we were at full house status. So our house is clean, but some of our other foster homes are not....
Haven't heard much from the kennel manager but I feel her pain. The best way, generally, in a shelter environment to get rid of panleukopenia is to euthanize all the kittens (since they're the main vectors as they're least likely to have immunity), clean the heck out of everything, and start afresh. The last time I heard, they had well over 100 kittens at that shelter.
Some shelters have quarantine spaces...this building unfortunately does not have the facilities to properly try that. It's an old building and they're regrettably underfunded, as they're in one of our poorer neighbor counties. That means high intake rates, low funding, and not a ton of adoptions, which is why we pull from them so heavily.
I am so glad that serendipity determined I didn't pull any kittens from the shelter the last round. Having Harry and Henrietta along with the two C's and Paddy and Redbud on top of our three meant we were at full house status. So our house is clean, but some of our other foster homes are not....