Feline Enteritis

FEU]SE ENTKiîiTis is au acute, specific, infectious, highly contagious disease of cats, usually young cats, commonly known as infectious gastroenteritis and feline distemper.^ It is also referred to as croupous enteritis, epizootic enteritis, malignant panleucopenia, infectious feline agranulocytosis, and feline typhus. The disease, which is world-wide in distribution, occurs in all parts of the United States in cats of all breeds and at all seasons, but it appears to be most i)revalent during the cold damp weather of early spring and late autumn. It is considered to be the most serious disease encountered in cats and takes its greatest death toll among kittens and young cats. It often occurs as an epizootic (corresponding to an epidemic anuj>ng human beings) affecting and rapidly decimating the entire young cat population in certain districts. The occurrence of the disease has recently been reported by Torres (12) in wild as well as domestic cats in Brazil. Feline enteritis is characterized principally by its sudden onset, highly contagious nature, rapid and violent course, profound alterations in the blood, and frequent fatal termination, and by its predilection for young cats. Although the symptoms are variable, those most characteristic are high fever, loss of appetite, enteritis (acute inflammation of the intestinal tract), a marked decrease of white blood cells, rapid loss of flesh, great depression, diarrhea, vomiting, and sometimes a discharge from the eyes and nose. Affected cats manifest extreme soreness of the abdomen and may assume a peculiar