What You Can't See Can Hurt Them Colibacillosis in Kittens

Your litter of kittens has made it to the two-month mark and things seem to be going really well

- Nancy Kerr & Noelle Giddings

They all had a great first appointment with the vet. Several weeks later you notice that one of the kittens is throwing up, has diarrhea and is not eating. Then you notice that the kitten is not moving that much. You ask yourself, is this a delayed reaction from the first set of shots or something else? The problem could be Colibacillosis, which is caused by Escherichia coli, commonly known as E. coli.

When you mention E. coli. to most people, they think of it as something that affects only humans, similar to the plot in the Robin Cook novel “Toxin” E. coli is a bacterium that normally resides in the lower intestines of most warm-blooded mammals, including cats. It can be found in human and animal urine and feces. It is usually a commensal organism, part of the normal bacterial flora of the body. It is also found in the prepuce in males (the prepuce has an orifice with thick edges and is directed caudally and located under the scrotum) and the vagina in females. There are hundreds of strains of this bacteria, and most of them are harmless to your feline. There have been over 700 subtypes of E.coli identified so far. Normally, the presence of E. coli is benign, and even beneficial.