Mayhem was brought to us by one of our supporters in May 2006. She had been found straying, partially choking from wearing a collar that was far too small around her neck. She was approx 6 months old but was still wearing the collar she had been bought as a young kitten. She also looked as if she might be pregnant. Our supporter cut the collar off her and brought her to us immediately.
We took her to the vets for a check-up. The good news was that she wasn't pregnant; however, the bad news was that she had pyometra, a very serious bacterial infection of the uterus. She was treated immediately and underwent an emergency spay operation followed by a course of strong antibiotics. Without the operation she would have died in a matter of days.
With a normal spay operation, the cat is stitched up immediately and, with a bit of rest, the wound will heal. In Mayhem's case, they had to leave a drainage tube in and stitched her up around this. With the surgery out of the way, Mayhem should have started to improve immediately. Unfortunately, this was not this case. She had developed a systemic infection, wasn't responding to the antibiotics and she had become feverish. We rushed her back to the vets where they confirmed that she was running a temperature of 106.3°; a healthy cat's temperature should be 101°. If her temperature didn't come down soon, she would surely die. They put her on a drip to get fluids into her body in an attempt to bring the temperature back towards normal. She stayed in the vets for the best part of a week and her temperature didn't return to normal for a further week after that. The stress and strain on her little body must have been immense.
We now started to suspect that there was something more sinister going on underneath the symptoms she was displaying and so the vets ran some blood tests. We were all shocked and horrified when the results showed positive for feline leukaemia virus (FeLV). She was so young and had such a big personality - it was just so tragic that at such a tender age she has contracted a terminal illness.
With leukaemia, as with FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus), vets recommend that the cat is isolated from other cats to prevent the disease from spreading. With feral cats, this unfortunately means that the kindest thing you can do is to put the animal to sleep, since you cannot prevent contact with other cats. With tame cats, however, there is no need to put the animal to sleep unless and until the disease progresses to the advanced stages where quality of life starts to slip rapidly. The cat should, however, be kept indoors to prevent contact with other cats. (Remember, FeLV can be vaccinated against and FIV can only be spread by deep, penetrative bites so fully vaccinated, neutered/spayed cats will be protected - hence an infected cat need pose no threat to other vaccinated, neutered/spayed cats in your household).
The prognosis for Mayhem wasn't good. She could live for a matter of weeks or a matter of months - noone could know for sure. She would have to remain in isolation from other cats from now on and would be on antibiotics for the rest of her life. As a result of the leukaemia, Mayhem's immune system had been suppressed. This meant that she was far more susceptible to picking up any viral or bacterial infection or illness than healthy cats. The vets released her into our care under the proviso that when the illness advances such that she was in pain, we take her immediately to be euthanased.
The real tragedy in all of this is that the death sentence which Mayhem faced could EASILY have been avoided. Feline leukaemia, as with FIV, is transmitted via bodily fluids. Mayhem was not spayed, meaning that when she came into season, every tom cat from miles around was attracted to her. One of those cats was carrying this disease and has passed it onto her. Had she been spayed, the tom cats would not have shown any interest in her at all and she would not have contracted this awful, fatal illness.
This is one of the reasons why it is so critical that cats are spayed and neutered - it is an extremely effective way to vastly reduce cross-infection brought about via mating and, as a by-product, via fighting. Spayed female cats won't attract every tom cat for miles around and thus can't be infected by them. Neutered male cats don't feel the urge to travel for miles in search of females and thus won't invade so many other male cat territories, hence reducing the likelihood of fighting and thus the associated risks of infection. Find out more about neutering.
You can also protect against feline leukaemia by vaccination. Vaccination isn't expensive and would quite literally have saved Mayhem's life. Vaccinations won't protect your cat from everything out there, but do protect against some of the major killers - feline infectious enteritis (FIE) and feline leukaemia (FeLV). Vaccinations also protect against two strains of cat flu (which can, in extreme cases, be fatal) as well as feline chlamydia. Find out more about vaccinations.
Mayhem was officially adopted by Jacqui - one of the ladies who runs the shelter. Mayhem was given the run of 3 rooms upstairs in Jacqui's house - a bit like having her own penthouse apartment - complete, of course, with ensuite facilities! Mayhem became Jacqui's reading partner and they would cuddle up together at the end every day with a good book. And Mayhem would frequently wake Jacqui up around 3am for a good old-fashioned game of 'duvet-monster'.
Tragically, Mayhem became ill at the start of August 2006. She went downhill rapidly and we had have her put to sleep on Friday the 11th of August. We are all devasted. She was just such a perfect little cat, so loving and affectionate, playful and cheeky, intelligent and, as you can see from her pictures, just beautiful. Thankfully, she didn't seem to know that anything was wrong until the last few weeks of her life. We gave her as much love and affection as we possibly could and she returned it ten-fold. She will be greatly missed.
Find out more about feline leukaemia virus (FeLV).
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