It’s never what you want to hear – that a disease could endanger the cats in our care. But that’s what we faced earlier this year.
Panleukopenia, or “panleuk,” is a virus that is 90% fatal in unvaccinated or minimally vaccinated cats, especially very young kittens. During a disease outbreak this summer, nearly 25% of the 178 kittens that arrived at SAFE Haven for Cats tested positive for this deadly disease. That’s when our excellent medical staff and team sprang into action. The kittens that tested positive were whisked away to be treated with intensive supportive care. We took it a step further, not just to treat the disease, but reduce the risk for all the cats in our care.
“This isn’t a new disease, but how we tackled panleuk is new. With just a simple test at admission and intensive, pre-emptive treatments, we flipped the script on how our shelter approached this horrible virus. I’m so proud of our shelter care team,” said Dr. Tiffany Kutner, the Medical Director at SAFE Care Spay/Neuter Clinic.
This level of care and prevention took a lot – financial resources, staff time, medication, supplies, and more. Staff had to feed the most vulnerable and sickest kittens four or more times a day by syringe. Fluids had to be given to keep these little ones hydrated. Though we don’t like to put a price on our services, it costs at least $25 per day in supplies and labor per kitten to save their life.
Through this intensive care, we were able to SAVE over 40 kittens this summer who tested positive for panleuk – that means that we saved 90% of those cats. Without the care of the SAFE Care Team, these kittens would have had a much more difficult time. We have so much gratitude to the SAFE Care team for their dedication to these kittens.
Your donation today can help us mount lifesaving efforts like these in the future. Can you donate $25 or more to save one cat’s life?
As a BONUS, your donation will be MATCHED before December 31! That means even more LIFE-SAVING power with every dollar donated. All donations will be put to work saving cats’ lives today with outstanding veterinarian care from the SAFE Care Clinic, but also allow us to always say YES to doing whatever it takes to save cats’ lives.
“When we were in the thick of it, we had days where we were discouraged and exhausted because there was so much sickness, but when we saw we were saving 90% of the very ill kittens, we knew we were doing something really special.”
