I have a kitten who developed cat flu shortly after we had got her. The vet said she must have caught it from her mother, although when I saw the mum with her kittens she didn't look unwell.

Can the mum pass on cat flu to her kittens if she had cat flu in the past but not showing any symptoms now? I've been told that if a cat has had cat flu it can come back during times of stress (and pregnancy = stress imho!), so does that mean the cat should not be used for breeding?

i wouldn't use her for breeding if she has cat flu.

The majority of cats will clear the cat flu and will not go on to be carriers. As long as they test negative, I see no reason not to breed with them.

It depends what strain of cat flu the cat has. Herpes or Calici. Although the cat can rid itself of calici one day it may come back if the cat get's pregnant it is a risk I would not take. A breeder told me of how she bred a cat who had had cat flu for the whole litter to die from it. Why take that risk?!

I had the Calici virus in my house and it cost a small fortune to test every single one of my cats to see if they had it. Luckily no one did except for the carrier. My cats were very lucky. The carrier has since been rehomed to my nan whereby he is no longer stressed out and is clear of all symptoms, though may still carry. He is also being fed an excellent raw diet and i've never seen him look so healthy.

I then gave all my residents a course of antibiotics (another small fortune) and deep cleaned my entire house and threw out very expensive scratch posts (just in case) and bought new ones and all new beds, food bowls, cat carriers.

I am just saying from experience I would not breed her but then only you can decide that.

With Calici, once you do the throat swab and the cat has tested negative, the cat will only come back out with cat flu if it catches a new strain of it.

they also swab the eye.

yes but i am saying if my girl had been poorly with flu as a baby i would not breed from her even if the virus had now gone.

It could have also been a reaction to the jabs hun, especially if mum and other kittens all looked well xx

have her swabbed to find out if Calici or Herpes hun, if Herpes i would say definitely not breed from her - but if Calici and she gets over it fine there is much chance she won't develop it in future x

The problem in breeding households is that if one gets others are suseptable, if you only have her then much easier to get rid of it and it stay away xx if you have more then you would need to quarantine hun xx

You also have to gauge the severity of the virus and how her immune system deals with it - if it takes a long time to rid i would say no do not breed from her but if over it quickly it shows good immune system and more than likely no problems in the future xx

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Is this real full-blown cat flu we are talking about, or just runny eyes with a sneeze or two?

As for calicivirus - having had this more than once several years ago (including once AFTER vaccinations!) I wonder quite what the fuss is about to be honest, it was so very minor.

Are we to write off any kitten that has ever had any illness from being part of a breeding programme, including coronavirus which after all can mutate into FIP which really IS a problem? If we write off all such cats, aren't we going to end up with far worse problems caused by an ever decreasing gene pool? I would prefer to eliminate the things that really do matter, that cause death or major problems.

Liz