Hi Georgetta, A negative snap is not always negative. I rescued a litter of 5 six week olds, sickly runt was immediately quarantined, Elisa tested positive at seven weeks old. Her siblings were first tested at eight weeks old, all negative. One brother came down with a high fever at fourteen weeks, retested positive. He was probably so newly infected at the time of the first test that he didn't have enough antigens? or antibodies? (can never remember which one the test looks for) in his system yet. Both of my positives are now gone, their 3 vaccinated siblings remained negative. I know it is not practical for rescues to hang on to a kitten for months waiting to retest and confirm the negatives, but FWIW I don't really trust a single snap test, positive or negative, especially if it is done too soon after the cat's last possible exposure.
Beth N. > 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 _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
