Infection

Unfortunately the kitten has passed. Could anyone give us information on mycoplasma and pasteurella digmatis? We are trying to get as much information on these as possible as until the kitten was diagnosed we had never heard of these

Hello. I'm sorry to hear that your kitten passed.  I will chat to my boss and make sure that there are appropriate information sheets available on this site in future. Mycoplasma is a bacteria that is almost parasite-like in its actions.  It is blood-bourne and may be carried from cat to cat by fleas, ticks and even potentially by cat-bites.  It gets into the blood, where it can sit on the walls of red blood cells and damage them, leading to anaemia (low red blood cells).  The extent of the symptoms seen in the patient depends on their immune status i.e. kittens can be vulnerable because they are so young, but a young healthy cat might keep the bacteria at bay and not really show clinical signs (signs of illness)  unless for some reason, their immune system takes a dive.  It is, however, potentially treatable by a long course of antibiotics.   Are you the person a week or so ago who was offered antibiotics for their cat? - if so, in retrospect, this may be why.  It is cetainly important to ask clinicians why they are prescribing things. Pasteurella Digmatis is a commensal bacterium i.e. one that lives and takes up space on the cats' pharanx and, to my understanding at the present time, it is seldom a cause for concern.  Again, it is something to ask the cats' own clinician about.  

I am sorry that this case had a sad end and will make sure that information about mycoplasma is made available on the blog pages for easy reference, should you or any one else need more informaiton .