The American Cat Project - Feline Bordetella

In the summer of 2001, we took in many more kittens than we had in the past. Kittens were quarentined for two weeks, and then placed in the Cat Room with other, unrelated kittens.

Schubert was one kitten out of eleven (two litters from one site) I had captured early in the spring.

We had experienced a two types of minor upper respiratory infections (URI). Kittens were requarentined and treated. Schubert had a herpes-type URI at about ten weeks of age and received amoxicillin to treat possible secondary infection. He recovered without incident. Other kittens had and recovered from URIs through the summer. We felt lucky that by removing kittens quickly from the kitten room, we appeared to be keeping outbreaks to 1-2 kittens. For example, when two kittens developed a slight one-eyed squint, we snatched them out for treatment with tetracycline eye ointment upon direction of a veterinarian, and these two were the only ones to develop conjuntivitis. We knew this was merely luck, and that a kitten room was not an optimal way to manage disease.

One evening, I fed and checked the kittens at around 8:00. All kittens ate vigorously, and played after dinner as usual.

I came into the facility the next morning around 7:00 am and found Schubert in severe respiratory distress. He was lying prone, gasping for breath, semi-comotose, as the other kittens milled around him. This was a dying kitten.

I called the vet. She answered her page immediately.

Upon arrival, the vet aagreed that Schubert was simply suffering as he died, and she offered to put him down.

I asked the veterinarian if she would perform a necropsy. She tentatively diagnosed pneumonia and sent tissues off to Cornell for examination. She ruled out trauma. I had hoped perhaps the kittens had leaped from a high shelf but this was clearly not the case.

I hit the web looking for causes of sudden death in cats. Bordetella was mentioned often as a bacterial infection that, usually in concert with other stresses or URIs, was known for causing death with few warning signs.

Schubert's tissue tests came back. Pneumonia was confirmed, and Cornell had something to add: the appearance of the bacterial infection led them to think of bordetella.

My vet asked if I might want to have some of the other kittens in my facility cultured to check for bordetella, to determine whether we should vaccinate new kittens with the new bordetella vaccine now on the market. Two kittens, Two-Spot and Bug, had a cough; I thought they would be good candidates. I brought them both in, and the vet picked Two-Spot to culture, All it required was a swab taken from the back of the throat.

While waiting for the results on Schubert's necropsy and Two-Spot's culture, my facility erupted in coughs. At least 3/4 of the population, about ten kittens and two adult cats, exhibited a hacking, hairball type cough. Two Spot livened this up with violent sessions of a wetter, more gagging reverse sneeze/cough. His culture came back positive for bordetella.

By this time, some of the coughers had resolved their sickness without incident. Six kittens were still coughing, including Two-Spot. The six were put on Clavamox. Two adults had a periodic cough; we left them untreated and they quickly resolved to apparent health on their own. Two-Spot worsened, and six days later was placed on Baytril. He immediately improved, and in five days was cough free. Baytril was continued for a total of 14 days.

Schubert's death resulted in significant facility changes at our facility that summer:

Gone is the open room with cages for quarentine and a kitten room for healthy resident kitten. This is simply are not sufficient for a walk-in operation like ours. A few idle sniffs through the bars from a kitten that breaks free of the kitten room and quarentine is thwarted.
We immediately split the original quarentine room into three separate runs with vinyl flooring and tileboard walls, screen doors, and a removeable sneeze guard on the doors.
There is now a corridor between the kitten room and these smaller (4'x8' with a window) runs. There is a disinfecting footbath in this corridor so I hopefully will not carry viruses and bacteria back and forth.
If a kitten slips out of the Cat Room or a run, it will now be temporarily loose in the corridor, and unable to contact any animal in another run, due to the sneezeguard (plexiglass over the lower portion of the screen door). The sneezeguards are removable, so if very cold or very warm weather, circulation can be increased for heat or airconditioning.
We created a new quarentine area on the first floor, so that new kittens are entirely removed from current residents until their vaccinations have provided some immunity. Not only do we have to protect current residents from diseases new kittens may carry in, we now have to protect newcomers from old viruses and bacteria current residents may still be shedding! However, the first floor of the barn is not heated, so quarentine on that floor is not feasible in cold weather.
Finally, we started placing some new kittens in foster homes. We had to stop "going it alone" and ask for help. If kittens are friendly (for example, kittens rescued from abandonment along a country road) there is no need for them to be handled only by wildlife handlers. They can grow to adoption size in a normal home. This reduces the number of cats in our facility and contact between cats.

In addition, we have changed our vaccination protocol.

We have switched from killed injectible vaccines to the intranasal modified live URI vaccine and intranasal bordetella vaccine, for all new arrivals.

Modified live vaccines provide faster protection from disease that might already be in our facility. The extra cost of the vaccine is justified by (hopefully) the savings we should realize by not having to treat as many sniffling or coughing kittens. In addition, even when kittens are not seriously ill, no one wants a sick kitten. So these kittens must be kept and fed for a longer time, if they get minor or major ailments. An extra $90 for 25 doses of bordetella vaccine is far cheaper than meds, vet visits, and food for a gang of sick animals.

Below are some links I found helpful when researching bordetella. This infection is a relatively new phenomenon among cats. It is possible your vet will have heard of it, but journal publications have been few. Your veterinarian may need time to do research for you, if you ask him or her questions.

Links on Feline Bordetella