Chlamydia in cats: my story.

In 2006 I found my first female kitten Layla, who came to us in Juli. She had had all her shots and was dewormed, and 16 weeks old. She had no trouble adapting and did not show any signs of illness.
Mid October I took her to a show in Bruges, she was 6.5 months old then, and she got her first EX1. Neither during the show or after Layla got sick.
A month after the show Frimel came to live with us. She sneezed a bit. She had had a cold, and so had her five sisters, from sleeping in a cold room one night. That was why she was not up-to-date with her vaccinations so I had to take her to the vet at 15 weeks for her second shot. These had to be done with dead vaccine, since the breeder had bad experiences with kittens being inoculated with live vaccines. They’d gotten very ill, and some of them had even died.
Frimel sneezed a watery spray, and Layla got sick after a few days; she got a throat infection, couldn’t meow anymore, and also got an eye infection (conjunctivitis). After a visit to the vet, a shot to keep the inflammation down and some antibiotics, both ladies got better quickly, Frimel never sneezed again afterwards.
It was a joy to see how good Layla felt with the new addition to our family, they played and slept together and were clearly happy in each other’s company.

Layla got in heat very often that winter, and I started a search for my own stud. Because this male would only be tested for HCM at the age of 1 at the earliest, and could only start breeding at that age, I reserved two stud services with the same cattery where I had bought Frimel. There was a nice choice in studs, they had not had too many kittens then, and the combinations had a low percentage of inbreeding. Perfect!

In the Summer of 2007, the girls had negative HCM, Fiv and Felv tests and were allowed to go for stud service. We were going on holiday for two weeks, so it was fabulous to know they would be staying in a cattery in the mean time. We called regularly, and I was very happy to hear that Layla had been mated almost immediately. Because she had lost a lot of weight, after a week she was removed from the stud’s quarters and placed in a group of queens and young males. Frimel had to get used to the other cats first, sitting in a bench. As soon as she got in heat, she was also mated. She did not get pregnant, though.
When I picked up the two cats, I also took our first own stud home. After a half year long search and the bad luck that a kitten I had reserved, had died, I had finally found a nice male kitten with the same cattery I’d gotten Frimel from.
Binck also had had a cold, and he sneezed. The breeder suggested she would keep him until he was completely better, but I thought I could nurse him just as well, so I took him home.

That same day I noticed Layla lost vaginal blood and I took her to the vet straight away. In a little over 2 weeks, she had lost weight from 2.6 kilos to 2.2, and she had a miscarriage and a pyometry.
She got antibiotics and some shots to make sure no foetal tissue would be left in the womb, because this could cause another pyo.
Our girl did nothing but sleep and eat in the following three weeks, and we all tiptoed around her. She gained weight again, up to 2.9 kilos, and started to play again and sit in her favourite spot in the sun.
Our vet advised us to have her mated with the next calling, to get the hormones back in balance, but it was only December before she got in heat again. Frimel did not get in heat at all, it had taken her a long time before and Winter is not normally the correct season, either.

Binck had kept sneezing. After the queens had those first unsuccessful matings, they had gotten conjunctivitis a few weeks later, and were both on Ronaxan. I gave Binck the same pills. The sneezing got better, but did not disappear completely. He didn’t sneeze any water, but big fat boguses we found everywhere in our house; on the floors, walls, furniture, on the other cats…
Our vet advised us to give him Zithromax (syrup), lysomucil syrup and nose drops. He only panicked and started foaming around the mouth until he had a long, white beard. He didn’t swallow any of it.

When finally Layla got in heat I took her to the stud on a Thursday night and picked her up again on the Saturday morning. She had eaten well, and had been very good. She had a pregnancy without any trouble at all, got some strange lumps on her head for a week or so, but they disappeared again.
I had separated Layla from the other two cats just to make sure. I had suggested to my vet that Binck might have Chlamydia, because the eye infections of the girls and even the miscarriage could be symptoms of that disease, but the breeder had never had Chlamydia in her cattery, and her (our) vet confirmed this. As a newbie breeder I decided not to try and diagnose my cats myself…

The birthing went very well, and Layla got five beautiful kittens: four boys and one super bald girl, I immediately planned to use in my own breeding programme.

A few weeks later Frimel got in heat after all, and I took her to the stud to stay for a week. Binck had now lost his harem and he got a bit nervous. His nose troubled him so much he had to breathe through his mouth, and his eyes gathered gunk, his third eyelid didn’t open properly anymore. So I took him to the vet to have a “fairly unreliable” Chlamydia swab taken from his eyes. (The blood can be checked for certain values as well, but I didn’t know that then)

In the mean time, Layla had started sneezing a little, and one of the kittens followed a little while later. I called the vet who advised me to give this kitten Ronaxan. The litter was only 3 weeks old then. A few days later all kittens started sneezing and the ones that had started first got swollen eyes. I took them all to the vet, who diagnosed them with obvious Chlamydia after all. Luckily none of them had ulcers in their mouths, which is, combined with conjunctivitis and sneezing, a sign of Herpes. According to the Internet and the vets I talked to, Chlamydia is a rather mild form of the flu, and can be easily treated. In young kittens, though, who are transferring from nursing with their mother to solid food and have not been vaccinated yet, it can cause severe symptoms, because they have no high immunity yet. A kitten that is not treated can lose an eye or turn blind because the eyelids grow together. If it is badly stuffed with mucous, it can die in a few day’s time from pneumonia. (Binck had a sister who died, only a few weeks old, of “fluids in the lungs”)
This is a very interesting site about Chlamydia: http://www.catloversvet.com/chlamydia.htm

As Frimel got home pregnant I got a phone call from the vet about the swab from Binck’s eye: it had come back positive for Chlamydia.

Layla’s kittens needed three long weeks of very intensive care. They got their daily dose of Ronaxan (Layla was on Zithromax, an ideal cure for Chlamydia, but not suitable for kittens) I flushed their noses with a 50/50 mix of Lysomucil (used for aerosol machines for kids with respiratory problems) and physiological serum (salt water).
I had to drip some of the pure lysomucil in the eyes, to loosen the mucous. Then I had to use a cotton tip to remove the tough mucous (painful!) and put some gloveticol in (an antibiotics ointment). Mouths and nosed were so stuffed some kittens could not/would not eat anymore and lost weight so fast I could count the bones in their spines. I had to try and feed them drop by drop with a high quality kitten milk: a drop, swallow, breathe, a drop, swallow, breathe.
The vet had told me to keep going, not to lose courage, that it would get worse before it would get any better, and she was right. It was hell, but finally I managed to get the kittens over it. All five of them show some effect or other, and all five will be Chlamydia carriers for the rest of their lives. This does not mean they will be sick often, but in moments of stress they can get outbreaks and by sneezing or rubbing mucous from their eyes on things, they can infect other cats.
This is the dangerous thing about Chlamydia; all vets I have spoken to told me probably 80% of all catteries have some kind of Upper Respiratory Infection problem, be it Chlamydia, Herpes (read about it here, and also about how Lysine can help) or Calici. Most keep silent, and sell kittens to people who already have cats, and worse, to other breeders. This is how the problem keeps going around, of course.
Even though you are selling a kitten as pet, and spare it the stress of calling, mating, pregnancy, birthing and nursing, HCM and other testing, showing and all things connected to breeding, there will be other factors that can cause a bit of stress: moving to the new owners is one of them, and neutering can be another. If you ever get a second kitten this can cause stress again. The owners often don’t know where the runny noses or dirty/swollen eyes come from, and it can take a while before the correct diagnosis is made and the right medicine can be given. Not a good thing for your budget, and certainly not for your cat.

These are the effects of the Chlamydia on Layla’s kittens:

Kika has teary eyes right after eating. This is caused by the tear ducts having shut. This can be operated on, but my vet advises against it, because those ducts are so narrow it usually grows together very fast. Because the operation makes new wounds, there will be more and more scar tissue, so it is better to leave this alone and just wipe the tears.
This kitten has no other effects. She has been taken off antibiotics pretty early, and never sneezes.

Ace has been taken off pills soon, he didn’t seem to have any effects from the disease at all, until all of a sudden he grew an ulcer in the middle of one eye ball. It turned into a big bump with a red crater, so he went back on Ronaxan. Now his eyes look perfect again. They don’t lose tears.

Jack and Jojo, the twins, have both had conjunctivitis in their left eyes. They have had operations at the age of 15 weeks, and a umbilical hernia was also fixed that day. After the operations it was back to ointments and cleaning several times a day, to prevent the eyelids growing back together again. This didn’t work 100% but it’s looking better than before the ops.

Raja has had two infected eyes, there was a time the eyes and eyelids had several ulcers, and the eyelids have not only connected to each other, but also to the eyeballs. He was the one fighting the treatment most at 4 weeks of age; he bit, scratched, screamed and wriggled. Maybe that is why I couldn’t treat him that well, maybe he was just unlucky. He did drink well from the bottle. For two weeks in a row he was blind, and we wondered whether he would ever see again. He’s been jumping on and of beds and couches for a while now, so we know both eyes are well again; his depth is okay. He has had operations on both eyes, and a umbilical hernia.

Because the three kittens who were most sick also had umbilical hernias, and I happened to know of two other litters in which the kittens who had umbilical hernias also suffered the most from a Herpes infection, I asked about the possible connection between those two at different fora; a Dutch one, and an American one. Everyone seems to agree this is just a coincidence, and that U.H. are usually hereditary, or caused by birthing problems.
I thought about it all for weeks on end, what could have caused this “bad luck” in my first litter. I have a small cattery, only had three cats. I only took one of them to two shows ever, and another one to one show, and after the shows they never showed any signs of Chlamydia. No one I know has sick cats, I never pet cats in the streets. If Binck and Frimel didn’t bring it in, then where did they get it? Did Layla have it when she was a kitten (too)? Why did Binck and Frimel sneeze? What does “a cold” mean?

Frimel’s kittens were born after a long and painful birthing. She started sneezing two days later. I put her on Zithromas, and her kittens on Ronaxan, when I heard one of them sneeze. Maybe I’m just being paranoia, maybe not.
The kittens have a different vaccination scheme than usual: first one at 6 weeks of age with dead vaccine, second one at 9 weeks with live vaccine, another live one at 12 weeks, depending on how they are doing. When I’m writing this article they show no effects from the first vaccination.

After a lot of thinking and talking to other breeders and vets, I have taken the difficult decision to rehome Binck and Frimel; Binck because he keeps sneezing, even though he has had Zithromax for two months now (this time he gets pills that are prepared by the drugstore, he takes those without problems). I haven’t even had one litter from him, so a dream died when he was neutered on May 23rd. He has been placed with Marc and Corinne, together with Ace and Jack. I’m forever in their debt, and will always remember them saying: “When there is room for two, there is room for three”. I know he will be very happy with them, together with Layla’s two rascals. They are building a pen outside, where they will be able to enjoy the sun and look at birds and butterflies.

Frimel was going to be neutered anyway, she had such a difficult birthing I wouldn’t want her to go through that again, although her kittens are beautiful. She is an F2 outcross, and I’m hoping to be able to continue my programme with one of her kittens.

Kika, my super bald little rat-cat, is going to Danielle. Danielle mailed me months ago because she was looking for a female kitten. She had just reserved a male in another cattery and was afraid two males would fight a lot. Layla was still pregnant then. Because there was only one girl in the litter, and I wanted to keep her myself, Danny reserved Raja. It seemed only logical that I would give Danny first choice when I finally decided not to keep Kika. She was in doubts for a long time, but I can’t blame her for choosing Kika after all. For some mysterious reason Danny’s granddaughter has always called her grandma “Kika”. Fate…
Thanks, Danny, for all the mails that spoke of your understanding and trust.

When I notified Danny about the Chlamydia she took the kitten she had in the mean time to her vet. He had been sneezing from the moment she visited him at the breeder’s house. His blood showed high values, he is also carrier of Chlamydia. This is not completely bad; since both Kika and the other kitten carry it, they will not infect each other. The breeder of this kitten has no idea where he got it. In his passport Danny noticed he was vaccinated for Chlamydia. A sister of this kitten died young. A brother left for another cattery and sneezed when he got there.

Ann and Gert were looking for a Sphynx kitten, and had kept an eye on my site for a year. They have rescued a 5 week old kitten (called Hostie) found in a church, and bought a Maine Coon kitten (Jerome) from a cattery that has been closed now. They both had Chlamydia.
Because I really wanted my kittens to go to good homes, I offered Raja and Jojo to Ann and Gert, and adapted the price. They wanted two kittens, but could not afford this straight away. Ann didn’t want to separate Raja and Jojo, so we met each other in the middle. Thanks Ann and Gert!

I also want to thank breeders all over the world, who have supported me and advised me, who let me rant and shout, and led me to the straight path. You know who you are, ladies and gentlemen ;)
I find it hard these days to judge who is to be trusted and who is not, a lot of people have disappointed me; they sell sick kittens, don't test for HCM, falsify pedigrees etc. What's even worse, a lot of peopel who would be ethical breeders, stop breeding because of all this negativity, while the Sphynx is such a nice breed.
Over the last few months I have heard about so many Chlamydia cats, in different breeds, that it seems to be an epidemic.

From Frimel’s litter we are keeping Smokey, hoping to be able to have a healthy cattery again in the future.

By going public on this many people will criticise me for not closing my cattery, and believe me, I have thought about it very often. But breeding adds another dimension, it’s in my blood and it’s my passion. More than two years now I have been studying genetics, pedigrees, colours etc. and dreaming about future generations and combinations. It is not easy to let go. I’ve got some time to figure it all out now before starting anew. I will be bashed for talking about money here, as well, because breeding is supposed to be a hobby. I paid 1700 Euros for Layla, 1600 for Binck and 1000 for Frimel. They will be rehomed as pets, at the fixed price we charge for pet kittens: 800 Euros. Binck has already been castrated and rehomed. The fact that you have to pay more for open cats should not be taken into consideration when pricing your kittens. If I wanted to do this and just get even in my bank account, the 8 kittens I have bred this year should each be sold for 1500 euros. Veterinary costs have also run a little high...

In the mean time the website will stay up and running, because I want to inform people and plead with breeders to be honest about URI’s and other problems. If you inform your kitten buyers they know what to do when a cat has an outbreak, and you can spare them and your kittens a lot of misery by telling them. You can also prevent healthy cats becoming infected, too.

This is how to put kittens on your site with the help of Adobe Photoshop; they show symptoms, but on your site they do not (photographing kittens with the bad eye turned away from the camera is another trick, I've used them all. I was waiting to put this story on my site, it was not the right moment before; I didn't get Binck's pedigree until he was 1 year and 2 months old and I told her I had him neutered, I still needed the stud service form so I could get pedigrees for Frimel's kittens, I wanted to know how Frimel's kittens would fare on medication, I wanted to talk to others and gain information etc. Of course I told my kitten buyers immediately and people who mailed me for breeder kittens were also told)

This is how it all started, these pics have not been photoshopped:	And this is what the kittens look like in May, 2008. Not photoshopped, either
	Raja
	Ace
	Jojo
	Jack
	Kika
Laya at the age of 5 months	Ulcers on Layla's head during pregnancy in December, 2007
	Layla was vaccinated against Chlamydia as a kitten. more than one experienced breeder has told me over the last few weeks that this has done more bad than good in their cattery. Anyone who wants to share information on this matter, is more than welcome to do so, in private mails, phone calls or in the guestbook.
Isn't this a shame, such beautiful kittens? I don't want to point fingers at anyone personally, but I hate what happened to my cats, even more so because I spend a lot of time and energy trying to keep them healthy and happy. Apparently a lot of breeders think this is "bad luck", it happening to my first litter already, but I don't think this should be an automatic part of breeding. Of course I realise lots of things can go wrong, but I do have the feeling it is not taken seriously enough, and that it could and should not work like this.

A lot of people think purebred cats are weak, but this doesn’t have to be so if you are honest about possible infections. It is the only way to try and put a stop to it.

The calendar project is still a yes, we’re gathering pictures for the 2009 one, so keep an eye on the calendar page! Later this Summer we will give information on how or where to buy one.

I will answer reactions to this story in private mails or the guest book, so that others can learn as well, maybe.

Update on June, 4th, 2008: many, many people have called and mailed me to tell me about their experiences with Chlamydia and the reactions of breeders when they were told. (ranging from: can't have come from my cattery, to: ah, it's not that bad, just a little sneezing, part of the package when you breed) Still there are many people who are concerned, not only with their own cats' health, but with other people's animals as well, and believe that breeding sick animals is just not done.

Updated on June, 12th: the cattery that bred the male kitten who is now Kika's companion, has decided not to have their kittens vaccinated against Chlamydia anymore. They were not told by their vet about the contents of the vaccinations. The male kitten from the same litter, who went to another cattery, has been tested in the mean time: negative for antigenes, and positive for antibodies, which is caused by the vaccination.

Update December 2009: the eyes of Jojo and Raja are still daily being cleaned and salved. Raja's right eye has become more clear; the blood vessles are gone, which means his eye is stabile now. Jojo's left eye is sadly still showing a spot. It is not clear yet whether this is ever going to get better, or maybe even worse, with an operation and the removal of the eye as a possible solution.

Update of February, 2010:

Jojo's left eye kept producing a lot of dirt, so his owners took him to the vet to see if he could find out what caused this. They discovered that he had tiny eye lashes that rubbed against the eye and kept irritating it and causing him to blink a lot and not open his eye wide. Jojo had surgery, and as soon as the swelling was down, the result became obvious: there is a lot less dirt in his eye in the mornings, and he opens his eye like he should.
Here the stitches are still in:

A new picture on March 3rd, 2010. Jojo's eye does not ooze any pus now, only a tear now and then, but this doesn't seem to be bothering him.

Please read these two stories, too, on cattery policy with nasty consequences:

http://www.phloxius.com/phloxius/english
www.freewebs.com/catterysaphireduluna/harmonysstory.htm