A cat bite can cause a high fever, and the bite may not be evident right away. I had a barn kitten like that. eventually it abcessed, and ruptured. After antibiotics he was fine.
wow.this is strange…have been dealing with the very same thing with my former indoor, then barn cat, now indoor kitty since he got sick…
he is 8 yrs old, has never been sick, is fixed and UTD…
i saw him one day, running with a bird in his mouth…then .didn’t see him for 2 days, which is not unusual, as there are many cats here,and sometimes he just get lost in the shuffle…then, discovered him sitting in my car,which he does frequently, but wuldn’t come to me, refused canned food, and when i brought him inside, i could see how terrible he looked…sunken eyes, massive wgt loss…he would drink water, but no food…then hd a seizure…vetted, they ran every blood test avail, high temp almost 106…extremely high white count 3500, but no wounds…sent home with subq fluids and strong antibiotoc…calorie paste and feline ensure …for 5 days, he refused food, drank less and less water…i kept up the meds even though i had ittle hope…but he would still get up to walk to me and still put up a huge fight against meds…he looked like walking death
made an appt to euth on the 6th day…i walked into his room, he got up and walked over to food bowl that had some old crumbs of dry cat food and ate them!..i got all sorts of goodies for him, and he ate a bit, then a bit more…
took him to scheduled appt, now to be looked at ,not euthed…
vet couldn’t believe he was stillalive, but agreed he looked less death-like…take him home and hope forthe best, come back in a week if still alive…
that was a week ago, and he has returned for more blood work…white count much better, still anemic…checked for odd blood parasite, negative…ruled out renal and liver failure as well as pancreatitis…
he looks like a normal cat now, just not as chunky as before…he is eating,happy and playful, grooming himself and a buddy i let inside for company…vet is totally stumped, says keep him inside to monitor diet and health, or let him be a barn cat and let chips fall where they may…
i was trying to research what sort of bizarre thing he could have gotten from eating a bird,but not coming up with much…
symptoms and tests seem to be so similar to your kitty, and same “no results”…vet did mention doing a bone marrow, but if he was doing well, wasn;t going to push tht procedure…
all so disturbingly odd…
I don’t read this board often, but I’ve had two indoor cats with strange fevers. One in Oct, and the 2nd in Nov.
#1 is 2.5 years old, male, had a bout of severe anemia w/ enlarged spleen, truly negligible RBC count, and needed a blood transfusion or else would have dies. That was Feb/Mar 2012. Vets dx as either an immune system reaction due to vaccines, or more likely http://www.petside.com/condition/cat/bartonellosis-feline, acquired anemia. He lost lots of weight. remains on low dosages of prednisilone. RBC count is good.
But early Oct, he suddenly crashed with fever 104F and no appetite. Bloodword showed nothing abnormal. Treated w/ antibiotic and subq fluids, and chicken and fish b/c it’s all he would eat. Took 8 days to bounce back.
#2 10-yr-old male, hyperthyroid, 2nd week Nov, crashed the same way as the other cat. Fever 105.2F, whoopy asthma-type cough, absolutely zero appetite, dehydrated. Got same regimen of antibiotic, subq fluids, metacam to lower the fever, and still refused to eat. Is on an appetite stimulant now, because he still doesn’t eat right. He had a lot or URI symptoms. He’s still not 100%, but seems to be about 85%-90% recovered. Is eating somewhat better. Over 2 weeks and not 100% recovered yet.
These are two totally indoor cats. Vets said it’s some virus that they’ve picked up from people.
Cat #2 is about 95% today, a marked improvement. A week ago, I still thought I’d be taking him to the vet to be euth’d. Today, he actually tossed his plume of a tail up in the air and trotted down the hall, like his old self. Ate much better, too.
Whatever this ailment is, it’s scary. Cat #1 is fully recovered but it’s been 5-6 weeks since he had that fever. Cat #2, I would say has just fully turned the corner. I have never seen house cats get so sick. They are never outside, and not other pets have been in the house. They get regular vet checks, and have their immunizations up-to-date. Weird. And it hit fast. One day they were fine, and the next had 104F or 105F+ temps and were not eating.
it is disturbing…and now my cat is losing the fur on the bridge of his nose…well, actually, it is growing in and sorta pushing old stuff off, like sloughing skin…could that have been caused by the fever?
i keep looking at him anticipating a sudden crash…he is around nine, so not a spring chicken, and has always been very laid back, but every time i see him sleeping i wonder if he is tired from anemia, or just cat sleeping…
he really wants to go out again,he sits by the door with his nose to the crack at the bottom snuffing up outside air…lol…not a chance of his going out, unless in harness and leash
Cat #2, the hyperthyroid, is on oral meds for that. When he started with this fever thing, I at first thought it was a reaction to the med. He had hair loss and lesions or scratches at the temples, between the eye and the ear, exactly what the pics on the Internet show as self-inflicted from a cat digging at itself.
But it must have been all sinus or headache or itch-related from the virus. The lesions are healed and the hair has grown back. He’s not scratching at his head now, I guess. His med dosage is still the same, so it wasn’t the med.
I hope your kitty gets well soon. I can totally believe that his hair/skin loss is fever-related. My cats were knocked out, practically. They didn’t move around much for about 7-10 days. Took weeks for #1 to get his stamina back, and he’s the youngster.
How bizarre, I’ve just gone through two cases of “Fever of unknown origin” in the last 3 weeks myself! 11 yr old guy turned lethargic suddenly, scared the heck out of me, fever at vet 104. got on antibiotics, next morning he was almost normal, day after you’d never know anything had happened to him.
Was just recovering from worrying about Cat#1 when I discovered Cat #2 laying in my laundry basket, looking like hell. Took his temp myself, as it passed 105 I was too panicked to let it finish, rushed him off to vet. Same regime, same result.
Both boys look just fine now, but I am still a bit on edge. Not knowing what caused this is scary! Esp considering I have 11 other inside/outside kitties! But hopefully whatever it was leaves us alone now…
Good luck to all the kitties still recovering.
Mine have both bounced back. 
Yours are probably fine now, too. I’m wondering if it’s an actual influenza, since mine didn’t have herpes symptoms, but did have high fever + lethargy + breathing difficulty. The remaining two cats show no signs of any kind of illness.
http://www.sfgate.com/pets/yourwholepet/article/Are-you-ready-for-the-dog-and-cat-flu-Rapidly-2454256.php
12/14/12 Cat #2 is fully recovered. He got his appetite back. No cough, either. He was the sicker of the two. Both Cat #1 and #2 have their full energy and stamina back now.
Neither of the other two cats (#3 & #4) appears to be susceptible to this virus, whatever it was. One had a day or two of sneezing, both coughed occasionally. But no fevers.
It was a scary illness that came on very, very suddenly.
Me Too
My 4yo indoor only cat suddenly became lethargic. Took him to vet and had temp of 107.4 (highest she had ever seen). Gave subcutaneous fluids to cool him and injections of antibiotics. Hospitalized for support. By 2nd day in hosp. fever was 104.5 and normal by day 3. He perked up and went home fourth day.
Nothing unusual on bloodwork, but x-rays revealed an enlarged spleen. Diagnosed as fever of unknown origin. We are following up with specialists for the spleen and because he is now deaf and has poor balance which may be the result of the high fever. He still isn’t eating great and may have lost some sense of smell as well. But he is happy and home.
Has never been outside and his full sister, also indoor only, is fine. It helps to hear that we are not the only ones to encounter this bizarre phenomenom!
Bumping this old thread because I just went through this.
My 1.5 year old indoor cat’s highest temp was only 104.5 but she was very sick for about 8-9 days. I took her to the vet on day one (she was lethargic and reluctant to eat - EXTREMELY unlike her) and her temp was slightly high at 103-something but we took a subq fluids/wait and see approach. By day four she was not any better (still eating a bit with a ton of coaxing) so I dragged her back for a full blood panel, additional pancreatitis diagnostics, more fluids, and an antibiotic injection. All bloodwork came back completely normal.
By day 6/7 she was beginning to feel less hot to the touch and was actually finishing her small portions of food. By day 8 she was sassing the kitten and was a little more active. It took her a couple of days to return completely to normal but now it’s been about a week since I’d call her fully recovered.
Vet never figured out the cause. If she relapses at any point we’ll retest for FIV/FELV but she was negative a year ago and hasn’t been exposed to any positive cats so she doesn’t feel that it’s very likely, especially since the antibiotic helped.
Our best guesses are a passing virus or an infection from a hidden puncture wound from roughhousing with the kitten that didn’t drastically affect her white blood count.
I hope someone else finds this helpful! It was terrifying - I thought I was going to lose her.
Unfortunately, FUOs are not uncommon in cats. Quite often we never find the source of the infection. It’s kind of like when we get sick and there is no definitive diagnosis. You go to the dr, they take your temp, it’s elevated and they say it’s the flu. Treatment - rest, fluids, etc. But the diagnosis isn’t really definitive. They just know your temp is elevated. The vet will do bloodwork to look for source of infection, and other diagnostics - FeLV, FIV, looking for abscesses, etc. But again, most of the time we find nothing. FIP is almost impossible to diagnose until the animal is near dying and we can get a straw-colored fluid out of their abdomen.
Treatment is usually symptomatic. Hospitalization, fluids, antibiotics, etc. Most of the time, luckily, they go home. And we are left scratching our heads.
[QUOTE=sockmonkey;8335079]
Unfortunately, FUOs are not uncommon in cats. Quite often we never find the source of the infection. It’s kind of like when we get sick and there is no definitive diagnosis. You go to the dr, they take your temp, it’s elevated and they say it’s the flu. Treatment - rest, fluids, etc. But the diagnosis isn’t really definitive. They just know your temp is elevated. The vet will do bloodwork to look for source of infection, and other diagnostics - FeLV, FIV, looking for abscesses, etc. But again, most of the time we find nothing. FIP is almost impossible to diagnose until the animal is near dying and we can get a straw-colored fluid out of their abdomen.
Treatment is usually symptomatic. Hospitalization, fluids, antibiotics, etc. Most of the time, luckily, they go home. And we are left scratching our heads.[/QUOTE]
As I was going through this with my cat, non-veterinary people’s reactions were split about 50-50 between, “this happened to my cat and he was fine! We think it was just a virus” and “IT MUST BE FIP SHE’S DYING.” Not exactly reassuring!
That said, from the many people I talked to, this set of symptoms DOES seem to be relatively common and no one I spoke to actually had a cat with FIP. If you happen to be frantically Googling or searching the forum like I was a couple of weeks ago, anecdotally it seems much more common for a FUO to resolve after a week or two than be a fatal case of FIP, especially in the case of an indoor cat with a minimal risk of exposure.
