Two NYC cats dead from avian flu, including 8-month-old kitten: ‘Just tragic’
Two cats in New York City have died from the avian flu — including one doomed 8-month-old kitten that died just one week after being rushed to an Upper West Side veterinarian — marking the first confirmed cases in the state.
The infected felines were both pets, but were from separate households, health department officials confirmed to The Post.
At least one — a baby domestic shorthair — died after eating raw food tainted by the H5N1 virus.
The 8-month-old kitten was rushed to Brilliant Veterinary Care on Amsterdam Avenue on March 2 after running a high fever, Dr. Deborah Bayazit told The Post.
The cat’s health rapidly deteriorated into pneumonia and its eyes were clouded with anterior uveitis, “which is a red flag for just a viral disease in general” Bayazit explained — but the kitten consistently tested negative for the typical suspected illnesses, such as leukemia and herpes.
Veterinarians put the doomed cat on a full spectrum of antibiotics and ultimately oxygen before making the tough decision to euthanize the poor kitten on Tuesday.
“He just wasn’t responding. It was really sad,” said Bayazit.
The following day the results came in — the kitten had been suffering from avian flu.
A brief investigation by Bayazit’s office determined that the kitten had been eating a raw food sold by the brand Savage Cat — which in February had recalled merchandise after a potential link to another infection, which was later proven negative.
The Kitten had lived with two other adult cats who didn’t eat Savage Cat products, preferring canned and cooked meat meals.
“This kitten loved that food. The owner feels so bad. The whole thing is just tragic. She feels terrible. She feels like she killed her cat. The owner of the food company feels terrible. There’s no winners in this situation,” said Bayazit.
Audrey Brady, owner of Savage Cat, told The Post she was in communication with the kitten’s owner but emphasized that the company’s ingredients are USDA inspected and are monitored for H5/H7 viruses.
“We are incredibly saddened to hear that the kitten has passed. We are currently working with the FDA and gathering information related to this case,” Brady said in a statement.
At least 85 cats across the US have contracted avian flu since 2022 — including one who was euthanized last month in New Jersey’s first case.
It is not clear if the second New York City cat infected with avian flu also consumed tainted foods or if they had contracted it from an infected bird, but health officials confirmed it died from the disease.
Contracting the avian flu is not a death sentence for cats — but action needs to be taken relatively quickly, according to Bayazit.
The kitten might have been rescued via a Tamiflu shot if Bayazit’s office was able to confirm sooner that the kitten was infected. They suspected it after several days, but needed to send samples out to Cornell and wait for a response, which unfortunately came after the kitten was put to sleep.
“We just didn’t know. We didn’t have a diagnosis,” Bayazit explained, adding that the kitten’s symptoms presented differently than they would have expected for an avian flu infection.
“The health department said that typically the outdoor cats who are getting influenza from eating wild birds present with neurologic disease, which this cat never had — like respiratory coughing, sneezing, all that stuff and he didn’t have that either,” she continued.
“This whole thing is unusual. This is an emerging and evolving. So we don’t really have a lot of data to say, ‘Okay, cats with flu look like this.’”
The uncertainty could also mean that there are dozens of unreported avian flu cases in cats across the five boroughs, particularly with strays — without caretakers to transport them to the vet and run tests, there’s no way to tell which strays were killed by H5N1.
As the virus continues to run rampant across the nation, Bayazit warned pet owners to avoid any raw foods or milk, including freezer fried meals.
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