A sick cat

My neighbors youngest cat, 2 years old, started having drooling and seizures starting late last night. There are three other unaffected cats there as well. Neighbors took him to the vet where it started having seizures and they treated him for a bacterial/viral infection and are now thinking it has a feline coronavirus

The cat is not responding to treatment and I was curious if anyone here has dealt with similar illnesses in cats or had any idea what is wrong

My neighbor doesn’t 100% agree on the infection since the three other cats are fine. I have no informed opinion unfortunately

Any help is appreciated 👍🏻

If the vet thinks it is coronavirus, find a new vet.
The cat most likely ate something, maybe a D-Con filled mouse or drank some deliciously sweet anti-freeze.
Coronavirus is bullsh*t.

a reply to: JBurns

sounds like poison mate.

So are the symptoms synonymous with cat covid or is this the assumption because a cat is ill ?

I have read articles about vets using charcoal when they suspected poisoning.
It almost sounds like the vet has ruled out poisoning?

+1, sounds like poison.

This is why poison traps for mice are a BAD idea. The mice eat the poison, then instead of dying right away they get ill- and easy to hunt. Then the poison travels up the food chain.

I hope the cat makes it, but I've seen this before- even if it passes the poison over time, it likely won't ever be the same.


As for feline covid... yeah, find a new vet.

a reply to: JBurns

My dog got into some snail bait pellets and had similar symptoms.

She was a beautiful gentle natured kelpie cross, a true farm dog, well trained, and dearly loved.

We tried to cause her to vomit up the poison, and took her to the emergency vet immediately, but it was to no avail and sadly, she had to be put down as she would likely never fully recover (the poison is neurotoxic).

This was barely two weeks after my eldest son had also passed away after three years of fighting with cancer, and so I don't think I could even grieve for the dog properly.

These sort of things change you forever.

Some cats cannot fight off the cat coronavirus well. My daughters cat had it, she had four cats and three did get it but built up immunity. The one that didn't started turning into a bowl of jello, the virus created enzymes that destroyed it's cells and it loaded up with crappy smelling stuff in the area around the intestine, the vet had to suck it out. She gave the cat two weeks maximum to live. Since the vet said the coronavirus medication developed for that usually killed the animal and was very expensive, we tried what I know to help it, and we did have it live an extra month before the cat died, which surprised the vet, but the cat did die, and we could not give the cat a lot of bromelain and monolaurine because the bromelain in high enough amounts to destroy the viruses enzyme with that bad of an infection would kill the cat too. So it started to do better for about two three weeks or so but then it did reverse course and they had to have it put to sleep about week six. That is how I know that bromelain does work on coronaviruses, it inhibits the infection by burning the receptors and also it also destroys the enzyme it uses to get into the cells, if the cat was not so far gone it may have worked but it didn't. Before that cats infection I hit and missed research on the action of specific enzymes, but focused on helping that cat in my research for a couple of months. You can't give cats grapefruit and they won't eat it anyway, that would possibly have been stronger of a medicine. By the time I had started treating it it already had had some cavity drained and they sent it for tests...positive for byproducts, terminal. It was looking like our treatment was going to work, but by the time we started, most of the cats muscles had turned to mush around it's spine. I also did not know how much to give the cat, the monolaurin actually softens or permeates the shell of the virus so the immune system can better attack it, the bromelain cuts of replication in two ways, one is by destroying it's enzyme, the other by burning it's attachment proteins.

So, if the cat is not too far gone already, a small amount of a ground up bromelain tablet and a little monolaurin or coconut oil might help it last longer with more purring. Since it probably is to late, give the cat a lot of love during that extra time if it has already gone too far. Exposure to that cat helped protect her family, and me, from getting ill from the covid virus, it does not effect us, but it does boost our defenses against all coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV 2

I did not have enough time to test other things, The three weeks that it stopped progressing could not stop the damage already done by the disease from killing the cat. It is buried in our pet cemetary in an oak coffin.

originally posted by: ToddB
If the vet thinks it is coronavirus, find a new vet.
The cat most likely ate something, maybe a D-Con filled mouse or drank some deliciously sweet anti-freeze.
Coronavirus is bullsh*t.

That coronavirus in cats is actually not rare, if it's immune system is not great it can tear it apart. Most times cats that get it just get symptoms of a cold, but some are severely effected.

a reply to: JBurns

A couple weeks ago, my cat (18 years old) started drooling pretty bad. He hasn't cared much about hygiene for the last year or so either, so his cheek/chin and his paw(that he uses as a pillow) kept getting real nasty from the dried food/drool. I took him to vet a few days ago and she said it was some sort of mouth infection. I've been giving him antibiotics and he's doing much better now.

He also hadn't been eating very much. Also, he wasn't having seizures but he does have a thyroid problem that makes him jerk his head, quite a bit at some times. That jerking/twitching had also become worse again because of the mouth infection.

According to Cornell, feline coronavirus is usually a mild gastrointestinal infection. Seizures indicate something wrong neurologically.

Now, that doesn't mean it couldn't have started with a gastrointestinal infection. If the cat had really bad diarrhea and got dehydrated enough that it caused severe electrolyte imbalance, enough to disrupt nerve functions, then it might be what you're seeing.

The only time I've ever seen a cat go downhill really fast with seizures, it was mine, and he had a brain tumor.

I would go with theory that it ate something it shouldn't have. Chewed some poinsettias? Ate some chocolate? There are things around the house that can be tempting to cats during Holidays, in addition to any poisons or chemicals that may have been used outside or even inside the house

a reply to: JBurns

When my cat was slowly dying from a mass which we suspect was a tumor between his heart and lungs he had a hematoma episode where the cavity the lungs are in fills with blood. He did the wheezing drooling thing as he almost died. I was told by the vet the drooling is a sign they cant breath. So maybe its covid maybe its something else but I would expect they would have done some imaging and investigated for other lung related issues.

Thanks you for the great information and sad stories folks 🍺

I have passed your ideas along. The poor thing looks fairly uncomfortable at times and then cheerful and normal at others

Sadly we are no strangers to the death of cats around here all sorts of critters get them, the cold gets some and even cold heated individuals who treat them as nuisance animals and shoot them/shoot at them

It troubles me to think anyone would have poisoned one especially someone’s pet. But the accidental route that was described here makes sense. The neighbors confirm he does eat live mice or other catches

The coronavirus they did not say COVID, just a coronavirus but I do not know how they arrived at this. I think it was presented as more of a theory than a diagnosis

Hard not to worry about them even when it is not one of your own. Their kids adore that one

a reply to: chr0naut

Chr0naut, I am beyond words. Big big hug for you friend. Terribly sorry to hear about your son and beloved kelpie

It’s scary to think all these products out there designed to kill something may end up hurting someone totally unintended
I always try to avoid poisons, even killing weeds through controlled burns instead of chemicals, but I am always coming across raccoon traps or products designed to kill slugs or insects and it worries me one of our cats or dog might get into it 😧

I appreciate you sharing your story and information 🍺

a reply to: JBurns

As others here have mentioned, poison. You need a vet to check blood values to rule that out. It costs money. My cat was poisoned by my neighbour. Slug pellets. I almost lost her and it cost me 250 euro/dollar/pounds to get it tested. My cat lived after accurate blood tests and a short stay in kitty hospital. The change my cat exhibited in her behaviour was the big red warning sign, for me. Good luck.

ETA When in doubt, take the animal to a vet and explain. Please take your cat to a vet and explain.

a reply to: JBurns

It's no secret that cats and humans can pass their colds back and forth, and there are several coronaviruses that circulate as colds already in the human population. It's no stretch to think that the cat picked up a cold, but the idea that it's causing seizures indicates something went very, very wrong somewhere because it has to be impacting the nervous system.

a reply to: JBurns

I was going to ask jokingly if the cat has been tested for "covid."

a reply to: JBurns

Right before the Corona virus was “a thing” in Canada. My Savannah/serval cat, Nova, started drooling massively.
He then started a cough and when he would sneeze, it was like a humans sneeze when they are sick because it was accompanied by a lot of snot.

No seizures though, but he was very sick and congested.
Because of his breed, he’s not one for sitting still.
In fact, it wasn’t until he was 6 months old, that you could actually hold him without him fighting to get loose to run around.
It’s just non stop playing for this kind of feline.
But when he was sick he would lay down right next to me, and go to sleep for most of the day.
Waking up to cough and sneeze.

My wife boiled a pot of hot water. I help Nova with a towel over our heads and made him inhale the steam for 5.

It really helped him get through that