Tails Behind The Tales: Tippy Toes, Calicivirus and Growing Up

So as some of you may know if you have read my earlier blogs that my youngest cat/kitten Tippy has Calicivirus.

What is Calicivirus you say? Calicivirus is a virus that causes many flu like symptoms, there are varying severity of the disease and luckily in Tippy we caught it early! Tippy's symptoms were in the mouth, basically his gums were very red and swollen and he had multiple ulcers but the teeth themselves looked clean and healthy. He didn't show any other signs of the virus as hes young and the vet said that it is common in Calicivirus cats that their mouth is affected first. In many cases they are adults when someone notices they have Calicivirus and they may only notice because their cat has dental problems, many of these cats will need all their teeth out, but with Tippy as he was a kitten when they performed the dental they only had to take out two teeth and flush out the gums.

What happens now? Well hes on a 6 month course of Interferon which increases and helps the immune system, while destroying the virus cells in his body. Some people say that its chemotherapy for animals.

I took him to the vet on Tuesday for a check up as I was aware that he had started biting things again and was being very fussy with his food. The vet looked in his mouth and he has a slight secondary infection in his gums and he is quite a bit underweight, but the vet thinks that so far the Calicivirus itself is subsiding and the Interferon is working! Which is great news! As a kitten with Calicivirus the future for him is bright and after the 6 months we hope that he will be completely free of the virus and can live a full healthy happy life!

When we visited the vets, Tippy was given a antibiotic injection as well as a nausea injection and painkiller. Since last Tuesday its been a week and he seems to be eating more, on a good day hes eating at least 2 pouches and a half plus dry food! It makes me feel a little less stressed knowing hes eating at least!!

If there's anything else you would like to know about the Calicivirus or any questions in how we're dealing with it, feel free leave a comment with any questions you have!

Tippy has grown quite a bit! Only two months and he'll be a year old!

He's still very active and playful though and he loves going in the garden.

He's been getting out and going into neighboring gardens which at first I was scared about but he is coming home every now and again and often will just sit in the middle of the garden and sleep. I left him out on his own for the first time the other day when I went out, he knows how to use the cat flap so I knew if he got scared he would just run in and hide somewhere. My boyfriend was in and I got this text saying that Tippy had been attacked by next doors dog! A little Jack Russel called Tuga who we recently looked after while they went on holiday. Anyway I rushed home to make sure he was okay, he wasn't physically injured but he was really lethargic and i think he was a bit shocked. My boyfriend said he was bushier than he had ever seen him and that he had somehow found his way out of their garden but let out a high pitched squeel which is weird for Tippy as he cant even meow properly, but then suddenly appeared in the garden and ran straight through the cat flap and upstairs where he just laid down in the bedroom. The next day though he seemed fine and was back out in the garden after spending the rest of the previous day inside sleeping somewhere. He has been put off getting into the neighboring dog garden though and now goes the other way instead.