You may have heard of feline distemper. You may have even seen it in your shelter. At the very least, you've read about it. Or have you? Not really, says James Richards, DVM, director of the Cornell Feline Health Center at Cornell University. Although many people still describe panleukopenia as "feline distemper," it's a bit of a misnomer. "Veterinarians don't like to use that term, because it's certainly not the same as canine distemper," says Richards. "It's a completely different virus." Richards suspects the name confusion probably derives from the fact that panleukopenia—when combined with upper respiratory viruses or other bugs—can produce symptoms similar to those seen in dogs with distemper. As a young boy growing up on a farm during a time when many vaccines did not even exist yet, Richards often saw sick cats with the telltale signs of panleukopenia: vomiting, diarrhea, gastrointestinal problems. "They also had snotty eyes and snotty noses and sneezing ... and that particular syndrome looked a lot like how dogs with distemper would look," he says. "Sometimes we'd get central nervous disease, as we do with canine distemper. ...So that is my own speculation of how that name came about." Panleukopenia is actually a parvovirus similar to the one that infects dogs; in fact, canine parvovirus can infect cats and cause disease. But the reverse is not true, says Richards. "Kitties can be infected by the canine strains, but at this time it doesn't look like dogs can be infected by the feline strains," he says. The potential for transmission from dogs to cats is not a big threat, though, says Richards. "Don't worry, that's not a major concern to us because the feline vaccines for panleukopenia will protect against those canine parvovirus strains as well," he says. "So it's an interesting fact, but it doesn't really impact us tremendously." | 
