If you notice any of the above symptoms in your kittens, particularly in combination with with one another (for instance, sudden lethargy and diarrhea), fill out the Neonatal Medical Request Form during regular business hours (11:30 am - 7:30 pm), or contact the clinic after-hours emergency line at 888-733-8840. If you are asked to bring your kittens in for a panleuk test, please remain in your car. DO NOT enter the building – one of our techs will assist you from your car!

 Treatment should be started as soon as possible, so acting quickly is very important. If your kittens do test positive, you have the option of treating the kittens yourself at home or having them moved to another foster. If you want to treat them yourself, we will train you!

There is no cure for panleuk. However, by providing supportive care in the form of hydration, medications, and hand-feeding, we can give kittens the best shot at defeating the virus. Reported survival rates vary, but in cats and kittens that are diagnosed and started on APA!’s supportive care package (“panleuk protocol”) early, we generally see a survival rate of around 70-75%. Without supportive care, up to 90% of cats with panleuk may die. Remember that although one or more of your fosters may not make it, you are giving them the very best chance they have, and their chances of survival without your help would be very very low.

The FVRCP vaccine is highly effective against panleuk (the P in FVRCP stands for panleukopenia). That means that cats and kittens that are fully vaccinated are well protected against the virus, so your resident cats should be safe as long as they're up to date on vaccines. Kittens under 20 weeks old are the most severely affected by the virus, because their immune systems are not fully developed.

APA!’s panleuk protocol lasts for five days and involves a combination of oral and subcutaneous medications. It can be a little intimidating the first time you do it, but most fosters get the hang of it pretty quickly, especially if they’ve already done injections before!

To learn more about panleuk protocol and which medications are involved, click here.

Because nausea and vomiting are common symptoms of panleuk, you may not be able to feed PL+ kittens according to our standard neonatal feeding protocol. Even so, it is critical to get food into the kittens consistently. 

If you find that your kittens are unable to keep food down, or are so ill that they are really fighting syringe feeding, here are a few tricks that you can try:

• Feed 2.5% of the kitten’s body weight at more frequent intervals. For example, if your kitten weighs 400 g and you would normally feed him 5% (so 20 g) every 4 hours, try feeding him 10 g every 2 hours instead.

• If your kitten does not tolerate 2.5% at a time, try feeding a smaller amount once an hour; for example: 1 to 3 g every hour.

• Try to time feedings so that you’re feeding ~30 minutes after giving cerenia and ondansetron, since these two medications help with nausea and vomiting.

Coming soon!

Once PL+ cats and kittens have completed the five days of PL protocol, they need to be retested. Panleuk fosters should schedule a retest appointment with the nursery on day 6 (the first full day after treatment finishes). It is important not to delay retesting, especially if your kittens are still experiencing symptoms. If your kittens’ retest is positive, the med team will prescribe additional days of PL protocol medications, and you will need to schedule another retest. If your kittens retest negative, they are considered panleuk-free!

Once your kittens test negative, you have a few options:

1) You can choose to keep fostering them through to adoption, like any other foster kitten.

2) You can choose to move them to another foster, to free you up to foster more panleuk kittens.

3) You can choose to move them to another foster and begin the six-month post-PL restriction period. During this time, you would still be able to foster post-PL cats and kittens, as well as any fully vaccinated cats and kittens over 5 months old.

Once your kitties are panleuk-free, there are two important steps to take before they can be treated like any other foster kitties:

1. Bathe Out

Post-panleuk kitties ALWAYS need to be bathed thoroughly before leaving your home – a process that we call “bathing out.” Bathing out makes sure that any traces of feces containing the virus are removed, especially from tricky places like the underside of the tail and between the toes. Most fosters bathe out their kitties at home, but depending on availability, the panleuk tech or another staff member may be able to bathe them out at the panleuk ward at TLAC. 

Kitties should be bathed out as the very last step before moving from your home to a non-exposed space, such as another foster home, the nursery or clinic for an exam, an on-site location, an adopter’s home, or potentially an unexposed area of your home in certain circumstances. 

2. Intake Exam

If your kitties have not yet had an intake exam, they will need one once they test negative AND are bathed out. We try to coordinate intake exams with post-PL foster moves, to prevent extra trips for fosters. For example, if your post-PL kitties are moving to a new foster and need an intake exam, we will try to arrange the hand-off and intake exam on the same day so that you can drop the kittens off at the nursery, the kittens can be intaked, and the new foster can pick them up after intake. Kittens up to 8 weeks old and pregnant or nursing moms will be intaked at the nursery, and all other adults and kittens over 8 weeks old will be intaked by the cat program at TLAC.

3. Cleaning & Decontamination

Once your kitties have left your home, there is one last step: cleaning and decontamination. The process is similar to what you would do between non-panleuk litters, but involves a few extra steps since the panleuk virus is so hardy and can survive for a long time in the environment without proper decontamination. 

If a kitten with panleuk passes away in your care, please know that you did everything you could. You gave the kitten a chance it wouldn’t have otherwise had. Sadly, some kittens are just not strong enough to overcome the virus. 

Since panleuk is highly contagious and persists in the environment, we need to take extra care when handling the body. Please wrap the kitten in paper towel and place it in a ziploc bag with the name and A number written on it. Bring the kitten to the main APA! clinic at 1156 W Cesar Chavez St. Call 512-466-0720 when you arrive, and let the person who answers know that you are dropping off the body of a kitten that had panleuk (or was panleuk-exposed, if that is the case). It is important not to bury the body outside.