Feline Panleukopenia (FPV) or Parvo Virus

Today kita akan berbicara tentang penyakit2 kucing.  Wah joko sungguh ayat.  As a cat owner, I rasa semua cat owners perlu aware yang kucing2 kita ni pun sebenarnya boleh sakit.  Betul, ade owners yang taktau.  Contohnya, me myself and I.  Time mula2 jaga Jert dulu, uncle kat petshop yang kitaorang beli cat food tu pesan kucing kena vaksin.  Kitaorang pun okay jela tapi taktau pun vaksin ape.  Bila pergi klinik, vet tu tanya nak apa and kitaorang cakap nak vaksin.  Dia pun kuarkan jarum and cucuk then kasi pil deworm (complimentary la konon padahal harga dah kira sekali) and kasi kad suruh datang balik after a month.  Done.  Tu je.  Kitaorang taktau pun vaksin ape yang diinject, untuk apa, and kenapa kena datang lagi lepas sebulan.  Bila Jert sakit, vet kat Animal Medical Hospital tu cakap suspect parvo virus and tanya kitaorang tak vaksinkan Jert ke.  We said we did.  So apa kaitannya parvo virus dengan vaksin nih?  Balik tu terus google.  Then baru la tau.  Actually kitaorang macam terkejut dan terkilan jugak sebab masih ada vet yang tau clients dia first time pet owners tapi still tak advice them on basic cat-care.  Nasib la kitaorang ni cepat melatah, pas kes Jert terus rajin wat research pasal kucing nih.  I personally think I spend more time doing research on cats than I did research for my thesis!

So back to the topic.  Parvo virus also known as feline panleukopenia (FPV) or feline infectious entrities (FIE) is a virus yang selalu menyerang kucing terutamanya anak-anak kucing yang berumur less than 6 months.  Parvo virus ni jugak punca utama kematian anak-anak kucing.  Nak tau betapa dasyatnya parvo virus ni?  Dalam 10 ekor anak kucing yang kena parvo virus, only 2 will survive, and the dying rate is within 4 days of infection!   Adult cats yang tak penah vaksin or skip yearly booster pun might be at risk of this deadly virus.  Virus ni takde cure tau kawan2.  Vet yang kat Animal Medical Hospital tu cakap kalau kucing tu cukup kuat untuk bertahan selama 5 hari, insyaAllah dia akan survive and dia takkan dapat dah parvo virus tu.  To make things worse, virus ni sangat2 la resilient  meaning dia mampu bertahan difficult environment and boleh survive up to a year outside host body.  So makna nya even kalau kita mop guna clorox sekali pun, chances untuk dia survive mungkin ade.  Virus ni transfer from one cat to another through feces.  Kucing yang ade virus ni akan buangkan feces dia yang ade virus so bila kucing lain ade kat feces tu, tu yang berjangkit tu.

So what are the symptoms?  The most common are 1) muntah-muntah, 2) body temperature increased, 3) inability to eat and drink and 4) diarrhea with or without blood.  Tapi ni yang common la.  But in Jert's case, dia takda symptoms ni pun except muntah2, itupun 2 hari sebelum dia passed away.  And 3 kali jek.  So if your cats murung and tak makan or minum, please check his hydration level by pinching his skin kat neck area.  Kalau skin tu back to normal cepat means okay, kalau lambat maknanya dah dehydrated dah.  Tapi kalau dia start tak makan tak minum then cepat2 bawak pergi vet sebab it could be anything.  Macam Jert, dia dah dehydrated sangat.  My current vet cakap sepatutnya bila I pergi klinik yang mula2 yang vet tu inject painkiller, sepatutnya vet tu dah tau yang Jert dyhdrated and if appropriate treatment was given at that time, he could be saved.  Tapi takpe la, dah ditakdirkan masa dia.  Tapi ralat la jugak.  Bila dah suspect parvo virus, cam mana nak confirmkan?  Usually vet akan amik sample feces and blood and hantar kat lab.  So hanya lab je yang boleh confirmkan parvo or not.

Ni la rupe virus tu.  Jahat sungguh awak ye!!

So, kalau virus ni deadly sangat, takkan takde langsung cara nak avoid dia?  Ade, mainly by vaccination.  Tu je.  Semua vaccines for cats akan ade untuk parvo virus sekali so you no need to worry =) Tapi kan, from my experience, dah vaksin pun tidak menjamin your cats tak akan dijangkiti virus ni, vaksin cuma MENGURANGKAN risiko berjangkit sahaja.  Take Blizzard as the example.  Dia dah divaksin tapi still kena.  According to my vet, selagi belum dapat booster, memang vaksin tu takde effect apa2 pun.  So don't miss your cat's booster!!  I lost my Jert one day before his scheduled booster, menyebabkan I tak jadi was2 dengan vaksin.  Normally vet will schedule the booster 28 days after 1st vaccination (refer to my vaccination post) tapi my vet cakap 3 minggu pun dah cukup.  So my other cats semua selang 3 weeks dah kena booster.

After 4 months of Jert's death, my household kena serang ngan parvo virus lagi.  This time Milo.  Tension sangat coz I wasn't strong enough for another loss at that time.  A day after that Doro pulak suspect parvo.  Nasib baik dua je coz that time we already have 10 cats.  Bayangkan if all 6 yang tak vaksin lagi kena parvo, tak ke pengsan?  Luckily my vet cepat dan tangkas bertindak and gave both Milo and Doro the best treatment and love they could give and alhamdulillah they both survived.  Now dah besar pun dua2.

So friends, please vaccinate your cats, it could save their lives.  Bukan mahal sangat pun, about RM100 per cat for vaccine and booster untuk tahun pertama meraka.  Then sekali setahun(about RM40 harga semasa).  Itu untuk kucing bawah 1 tahun la.  If lebih then sekali vaccine je, takde booster.  Then yearly booster.  Lain tempat lain harga eh, ni harga anggaran jek.  RM100 tu sikit nilainya banding nyawa si comel yang kita sayang.  Kalau tangguh2 pun nanti treatment dia lagi mahal about RM400 minimum.  So jom kita cepat2 pergi vaksin kucing sekarang yek!!!!

Ni plak rupe dia kat bawah microscope