Hello, I'm a new member. While caring for my cousin's cat Baby here in my home during his 2-week vacation in Mexico, we had bloodwork done ahead of the dental cleaning that my husband and I agreed to have done for her. She turned up positive for FeLeuk on ELISA, IFA, and PCR--the triple whammy. She's already slightly anemic.
Baby was first vaccinated against FeLV in Jan. 2018 before her first-ever stay with us. But the booster due at week 3-4 was missed. This was followed by a bite puncture in Dec. 2018. So I suspect that first vaccine was worn off by the time of the bite. Baby is 11 and in otherwise good health, so I hope there's a good chance she'll still live her "normal span" --and perhaps even die of something unrelated. But the anemia is not a good sign, I'm told. I am putting together information for my cousin to try to take the edge off of the terrible shock this will give him. I'm of course including cautions about keeping her indoors, etc., and following up on any symptoms, etc. I hope to put off telling him until just before he flies back to the US. I suspect my cousin would prefer treatments that are oral as opposed to IV. But his wife is trained as a nurse, so perhaps they would be willing to try difficult-to-administer treatments. I'm not sure how much room their budget has for expensive, imported treatments like feline interferon omega. On general principles: in our home, Baby has been kept entirely separate from our own six cats, who are vaccinated against FeLV except for one little guy who has FIV whom we avoid over-vaccinating. We have always hand-washed after handling Baby or her dishes, even prior to this diagnostic info. I think I've drawn the complete picture, but please ask if I've left out something important. FWIW, I have a degree in biology and am a medical writer, so I don't scare easy, and I understand big words...mostly. (-: - Lorraine "Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine." - Alan Turing
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