Coping With Calicivirus

My husband and I just adopted two adorable kittens from a rescue organization. The day after we brought them home, one of the kittens, Tesla, started limping a bit and became rather lethargic. That night she developed a fever of 105.5 degrees and was shivering intensely. We panicked and took her to an emergency animal hospital. They ran test but had no idea what was causing the symptoms apart from it being some type of infection. We took her home and tried to bring the fever down but had little success so the next day we took her to another vet, who also had no idea what type of infection it was. By this time, we called the rescue organization that we got the kittens from and they were immediately able to tell us what was wrong with Tesla. They said that they call it “the limping disease” and that there isn’t much one can do to treat it except keep the cat hydrated and well-fed while letting the virus run its course. They also let us know that it is not usually fatal and that the kitten should be better in about a week. We were relieved, but wished that the vet could have figured this out without running up a bill of over $600 by performing so many tests. Tesla is now on her way to recovering and is feeling much better, but now her sister, Aspen, is starting to show symptoms (limping and a bit of lethary). Now that we know what it is wrong, we sure won’t be taking her to the vet!