Coping With Calicivirus

I have a beautiful chocolate burmese who had ten kittens six months ago. During labour she developed a mouth infection and I gave her clavolox but the next morning she was worse so I took her to the vet and he gave her long acting penicillan [penicillin] injection which had an effect and I thought no more about the incident until the kittens were six weeks old. Nine had survived and the chocolates and lilacs developed bad eyes and stopped eating. The browns were ok and one little blue had a heart murmer [murmur] (which can be normal). Back to the vets and he asked if anyone was sneezing to which I replied the mother. He then said she had calicivirus. All the kittens were given an injection the vet makes himself which consists of vitamins and antibiotics, drops for the eyes and told to go home and research the disease.

One lilac kitten lost the sight in one eye and a chocolate needed surgery for ulcers on the eyes. All the kittens grew up to be strong and healthy.

The Mother has recently been injected with the live Feline enteritis vacine [vaccine] over a period of 3 months and is now pregnant again. When she gives birth she will be given a strong antibiotic called zithromax for 3 - 5 days so the vet and I are taking no risks. I spoke to a visiting South African judge who has done research into feline immunity and he told me that in Britain all cats are blood tested prior to shows and 80% of them tested positive. So your cats can survive calicivirus and just remember that it usually develops when the cat suffers stress.