Of the kittens I've fostered so far this past year, 3 at different times needed supportive care, fluids, IV antibiotics, and syringe feeding within 3 days of taking home to foster from the shelter. They were all labeled "fever of unknown origin" and treated by 2 different vet hospitals' internists initially. Two were 104 for 2 days, one was 105 for a day before starting to consistently decrease to a normal body temp.
2 of them were spry by day 2 on fluids, needing Ecollars to keep them from chewing their lines and catheters per their ICU nurses! They (the vets and nurses) say fluids make a lot of pets with fevers feel spry within a few hours. One of the 104 kittens, younger and smaller, was very lethargic for 3 days before improving. The regular vet of that particular rescue organization had some poor initial antibiotic recommendations, with only split Clavamox tablets (all out of foil, split and in a bottle...they had "spoiled" and were yellow from exposure) and a single dose of SC fluids as her initial treatment. The other two started with the specialty place on azithromycin (only avail as oral per the vet) and unasyn (broader ampicillin, a penicillin) IV, as well as their IV fluids immediately and were bouncy within hours in their supposedly "hot, lethargic" state, hahaha! They still had fevers but gradually decreased over 2-5 days. Only had those 2 on IV fluids for 2 days and nights, then home on azithromycin. One of them had a specialty doc that considered no AB to see if the fever was only viral in origin and could be treated with supportive fluid care only, but then went ahead with AB; I've had internists go back and forth with starting AB immediately vs waiting to see if resolves on fluid and saving initial swabs of nasal passage to culture for effective treatment before starting a general AB that may affect culture/sensitivity results.
The smaller younger kitten was hospitalized a total of 5 days before home nebulization, oral azithromycin and Veraflox, fairly new and very potent URI specific AB, syringe feeding, proviable probiotic and dewormers were continued at home. They cancelled the culture, as the result wasn't available yet by the time they were releasing her back to me, and the treatment was working; the rescue would have continued authorizing it if she had not improved so well by day 5. Their bacterial infections were all secondary to a primary virus per the different internists, and this is common in shelter or rescue cats coming from high population/traffic confined areas they both said.
Oh, and b/c of that , they're all on l-lysine amino acid twice daily too, to limit the virus' replication; both docs assumed herpesvirus as this is the most likely culprit that made the bacterial infections leading to fevers possible. Only one developed thick green discharge, as the antibiotics were started so soon when they had fevers. nebulization kept them all draining and clear, helping keep their appetite up with a good sense of smell, for about a week after they were released from hospital.
Good luck to your Zoey and just stay the course, even with ups and downs in fever and appetite unless she consistently doesn't want to eat or is lethargic for at least 8 hours. The subcutaneous fluids should be repeated in my experience so far, if she isn't going to be in hospital on IV fluids, as this is what helps decrease their temperature and hydrate them while fighting a fever. I took the straggler kitten in daily for outpatient SC fluids for 3 days while her fever was slower to consistently decrease, and she was always brighter afterwards, eating and zinging about at home, popping the older cat's paws if he stuck them under her door to "play."
2 of them were spry by day 2 on fluids, needing Ecollars to keep them from chewing their lines and catheters per their ICU nurses! They (the vets and nurses) say fluids make a lot of pets with fevers feel spry within a few hours. One of the 104 kittens, younger and smaller, was very lethargic for 3 days before improving. The regular vet of that particular rescue organization had some poor initial antibiotic recommendations, with only split Clavamox tablets (all out of foil, split and in a bottle...they had "spoiled" and were yellow from exposure) and a single dose of SC fluids as her initial treatment. The other two started with the specialty place on azithromycin (only avail as oral per the vet) and unasyn (broader ampicillin, a penicillin) IV, as well as their IV fluids immediately and were bouncy within hours in their supposedly "hot, lethargic" state, hahaha! They still had fevers but gradually decreased over 2-5 days. Only had those 2 on IV fluids for 2 days and nights, then home on azithromycin. One of them had a specialty doc that considered no AB to see if the fever was only viral in origin and could be treated with supportive fluid care only, but then went ahead with AB; I've had internists go back and forth with starting AB immediately vs waiting to see if resolves on fluid and saving initial swabs of nasal passage to culture for effective treatment before starting a general AB that may affect culture/sensitivity results.
The smaller younger kitten was hospitalized a total of 5 days before home nebulization, oral azithromycin and Veraflox, fairly new and very potent URI specific AB, syringe feeding, proviable probiotic and dewormers were continued at home. They cancelled the culture, as the result wasn't available yet by the time they were releasing her back to me, and the treatment was working; the rescue would have continued authorizing it if she had not improved so well by day 5. Their bacterial infections were all secondary to a primary virus per the different internists, and this is common in shelter or rescue cats coming from high population/traffic confined areas they both said.
Oh, and b/c of that , they're all on l-lysine amino acid twice daily too, to limit the virus' replication; both docs assumed herpesvirus as this is the most likely culprit that made the bacterial infections leading to fevers possible. Only one developed thick green discharge, as the antibiotics were started so soon when they had fevers. nebulization kept them all draining and clear, helping keep their appetite up with a good sense of smell, for about a week after they were released from hospital.
Good luck to your Zoey and just stay the course, even with ups and downs in fever and appetite unless she consistently doesn't want to eat or is lethargic for at least 8 hours. The subcutaneous fluids should be repeated in my experience so far, if she isn't going to be in hospital on IV fluids, as this is what helps decrease their temperature and hydrate them while fighting a fever. I took the straggler kitten in daily for outpatient SC fluids for 3 days while her fever was slower to consistently decrease, and she was always brighter afterwards, eating and zinging about at home, popping the older cat's paws if he stuck them under her door to "play."
I hope things continue to get better.
