November is my least favourite month on the yearly calendar. It’s the time when the temperatures suddenly drop in Muscat and brings with it the cat flu virus. For the past two months, I’ve been in an almost futile war against the flu epidemic.
At first there were a few coughs and sniffles — which is pretty normal and could be fixed with a course of antibiotics. But then there was a drastic change and the kittens started falling one after the other without further notice.
For almost a month, I woke up every single morning to find two or three kittens with blocked noses and high fever. Catching the majority of them was not an easy job as most of them were wild. I got scratched and bitten in the course — my finger was infected and swollen for a week, thanks to a weak looking kitten that attacked me like a shark when I tried to scruff him.
Unfortunately, the virus was not responding to normal antibiotics and was spreading like fire. The main target were vulnerable kittens with low immunity. I lost four kittens in the course which was heartbreaking.
The vet and I kept devising plans to try to control it. The first plan was to vaccinate the big cats to protect them from the epidemic. I bought the vaccination and decided to do it at home, as catching them was mission impossible. The hardest part was preparing the injections as I haven’t done it for almost two years.
It took me around twenty minutes to prepare five injections (drawing vaccine out with a syringe is a work of super heroes!) and another half an hour of chasing cats to get them vaccinated. The virus seemed to be taunting us as after the antibiotics course, the kittens were well for a week before relapsing again and we were back to square one.
When two kittens showed signs of Calicivirus (flu combined with mouth ulceration that is super contagious to other cats) we decided to try isolation as a measure of control. I used my own toilet to host the tiny kittens and the guest’s one for the bigger ones. The library was also used as a temporary residence till one of the toilets was free.
Recovering kittens were vaccinated after a short while to avoid the reoccurrence of the flu again. Isolation was also combined with what I called ‘group therapy’ where I had to add antibiotics to cat’s food to control the spread of the disease among them.
Convincing sick cats to eat the medicated food was hard and for some reason, healthy cats were enjoying it! I had to chase and corner some of the sick cats to make sure that they were having some of the food. This was done for a week.
The biggest surprise was that my vaccinated indoor cats were affected too. Poor Mansoor was congested for almost a week and I had to inject him for five days till he got a bit better. I’m happy to say that the situation at the moment is under control after two months of seeing no light at the end of the tunnel.
I’d like to thank Dr Petar Bogunovic and his team at Al Qurum Veterinary Clinic for their hard work and continuous support for the past two months. I’d just finished the group therapy on Tuesday and still have three kittens in isolation. Next week, I’ll share with you the story of Imlaq — the giant cat who appeared in my garden while I was tangled in the web of the vicious cat flu.
Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of: The World According to Bahja. rashabooks@yahoo.com
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