Re: [Felvtalk] LTE re Article at Bestfriends

[POTT, BEVERLY]

Great letter, Laurie!

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurieskatz [mailto:lauriesk...@mchsi.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 9:23 PM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] LTE re Article at Bestfriends

Here is what I wrote to this address: edi...@bestfriends.org


Dear Editor:

The article about Feline Leukemia Virus by Virginia Clemans is
inconsistent
with my experience and, I believe, does a great injustice to cats
diagnosed
with this virus. Certainly not all cats diagnosed with FeLV have the
health
issues Clemans reports. I lived with two cats who were diagnosed with
feline
leukemia after I adopted them. Stripes lived to age 16 years. Squeaky
lived
to age 22 years. They were robust boy cats who lived together for 15
years.
They weighed 15-16 lbs. People always commented about what big boys they
were. They were playful and fully engaged in life. 

Stripes had an occasional undiagnosed illness that always resolved.
Squeaky
was never sick a day in his life until his final three weeks. Squeaky
died
from oral cancer. We did not determine Stripes' cause of death. My vets
did
not treat these cats any differently than other cats I have had. There
was
no alarm sounded when their tests came back positive. The information
was
given to me as part of a routine exam. I had no idea anyone thought this
was
a big deal. Certainly my vets did not think so.

I rescued two other cats who tested positive for FeLV. Ollie lived to an
old
age, asymptomatic except for some dental issues at the time he was
rescued.
Bella is still alive. She is a 13 lb ball of love. She was rescued 3
years
ago and was an adult cat at that time. She was anemic and had a high
fever
when rescued but these situations quickly resolved with medication
treatment
by an internal medicine specialist. 

Feline Leukemia does not have to be a death sentence. The kitties who
test
positive should be retested as there can be false positives (and false
negatives). Their owners can find information and support groups on the
internet (yahoo offers several groups for FeLV cat owners). In this
group
format they can talk to other people who live or have lived with cats
with
FeLV. They can get questions answered. They can learn about feeding a
quality food, keeping stress to a minimum and various supplements and
treatments in the event of illness. Not all the cats who test positive
will
be as lucky as those I mentioned here, but there is another side to this
disease and there are many cats who survive and thrive with this
disease. 

  
Sincerely,
Laurie Crawford Stone
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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