Highly pathogenic H5N1 is close to a death sentence in domestic cats. Infected animals typically develop severe respiratory and neurologic disease, and published case reports across multiple countries end the same way.
A case series from Tulare County, California, documents a partial exception. Four cats in a single household, living within about a mile of a dairy farm at the center of California's H5N1 cattle outbreaks, became infected between late October and mid-November 2024. Two died. The two who received early supportive care and the antiviral oseltamivir recovered.
