Re: I'm SOOO scared - i need your support!

[Wheezercat42]

There can be a lot of other explanations for what Uh-oh's experiencing.  Parasites like fleas can cause I went through the "finding out a kitten who'd had run of the house for 6 weeks who got sick and didn't respond to meds turning out to have FeLV" thing in 2000.  I had 25 other cats - none of whom had been vaxed for FeLV (I hadn't had any FeLV+ cats until then and didn't think the benefit was worth the risk.   A month after the kitten was diagnosed, I started testing everyone.  Everyone was tested at 3 month intervals until they either went strong positive once (after the first couple didn't change once they went strong positive) or tested negative twice.  First round of tests ended with 1 strong positive, 9 slight positives (positive for exposure), and the rest negative.  The second round of tests showed the strong positive still was (and was done being tested), 2 slight positives were now strong positives, 4 slight positives went negative, 3 slight positives still were, and the rest were still negative (and were now done being tested).  The third round of tests showed the 4 who went negative still were (and were done testing), the 2 who went strong positive last time still were, 2 more slight positives went strong positive (at this point, if they went strong positive, they were done being tested), and the last slight positive stayed slight positive.  The last slight positive stayed slight positive until a year after the first test, when he went strong positive.    I had each group in a room by themselves - for a while, I had a group in each of three bedrooms and loose in the living room (I was advised to keep the ones who became negative by themselves until they tested the same twice).   I was told that roughly 80% of the population is naturally immune to FeLV, and that of the other 20%, only a small percent get sick and die from the initial infection.  With my guys, they've all stayed so healthy looking that if you didn't know their test results, you'd have no idea there was anything wrong with them.  I've lost 5 of the original 6, and because the 6th is a very friendly, gregarious kind of guy, I've adopted 6 new companions (one of the 6 passed away just before New Year's this year.   Good luck at the vet.  I've found that most of the time, the fear of what may be going on ended up being worse than finding out what really was going on with them.    Where there's Life, there's Hope Kathy "There is nothing so strong as gentleness, and there is nothing so gentle as real strength." ~ Sir Francis de Sates