Dove had her babies in someone’s shed in May 2025. When we picked her and her kittens up on June 18th, they were all severely malnourished and sick. We got them into our shelter and started immediate care. They went into foster care shortly after to get treatment and extra love and care. Between the extra food and medications, they were just still not getting bigger. Unfortunately, one of the babies, Eric, passed away one night. After a few days, Dove started rejecting her babies, lashing out when they would get near her and refusing to nurse anymore. We took her back into the shelter and kept a close eye on her. The whole time we had Dove, she did not gain any weight. She kept getting skinnier and skinnier, and eventually lost her appetite. One morning, we noticed she had been vomiting excessively and looked more sick than usual. We decided to test her for panleukopenia, a very serious and fatal disease, much like Parvo in dogs. Unfortunately, she tested positive.

As she was dying at this point, our most humane option for her was to have her euthanized, as there is no cure or medication to help panleuk. We got her babies and the other cats that were in that foster home back to us so we could quarantine and monitor them very closely for the following two weeks, just to be sure they didn’t have it. We tested them immediately upon their arrival and they tested negative. Unfortunately, another one of Dove’s abbies, Erica, passed away overnight on July 13th. We reinforced food and supplements, and her two babies, Emma and Esme, survived, as well as the rest of the cats from that home.