Hi list,
I think quite a few people get feline leukemia confused with panleukopenia.
They sort of rhyme and may sound alike to the uninformed.
Panleukopenia organisms DO persist for a very long time (years) in the
environment unless very stringent measures are taken, including bleaching
everything,etc.
FeLV organisms are much more fragile and only survive more than a few minutes
if the conditions are perfect, right temperature, moisture, etc. That is why
unvaccinated cats can contract it through exchange of fluids (sex, fights,
grooming) and to a lesser extent, from sharing litterboxes and water and food
bowls.
The Panleuk vaccine is extremely effective in confering immunity.
The FeLV vaccine isn't quite as good but TONs better than doing nothing.
There is an enormous amount of good information online about these and other
conditions. This year I had my very first kitten in the 7 years of fostering
kittens (200+) with a confirmed positive FeLV, followed later by another +
kitten (both were isolated/quarantined at intake and the first was out of the
house before the other arrived.) I spent quite a few hours searching and
reading and learned amazing things from this list and from googling... and also
found a great sanctuary for Wisp (Thanks a Trillion, Michael J!) here.
The second kitten was transferred to another foster who combined 3 litters
before getting each tested...not so good outcome... Lucky and another kitten
from one of the combined litters were confirmed positive for FeLV and ended up
at a wonderful sanctuary in SLO county. The other 4 kittens are now 6 months
old and 2 are finally being shown for adoption (one got adopted today). The
other 2 were adopted to a family who had no other cats and all 4 have re-tested
negative repeatedly. It really reinforced the importance of TESTING BEFORE YOU
MIX litters!!!!
just my 2 cents...
One question I have for the FeLV group - How young do you test for FeLV? I
know there is the concern about maternal antibodies triggering a false
positive, but if a Negative is really a Negative on the Snap (ELISA) test...
shouldn't you be able to test pretty young/small kittens, provided you can draw
the blood required? I know there might be a greater chance of a false
positive, but taking the into account, you should be able to "clear" at a
pretty young age, maybe 3-4 weeks? That way you could clear the negatives and
relax a bit, then be supercareful to keep the + kittens in quarantine as long
as necessary to clear or confirm!
Any experience or insight would be greatly appreciated. (I am ccing to
orphankittens and the feralcats groups for more input.)
Thanks and good luck with your cats and kittens,
Georgetta (back from today's PETCO adoptions - placed just 2 older kittens in 4
hours - neither were any of the 8 I took to show for adoption... sigh... wish
me better luck tomorrow.)
www.CatsCradleRescue.org
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