Did you see my post about my typo, Bailey is 10, not 20. But he has been positive since atleast 5 months of age when I found him, at the time I wasin Missouri and took him to three different vet, all 3 said "You might as well euthanize him, he will be dead in three months. I had some experience with FeLV and already knew this wasn't true, but can you imagine how many healthy cats die because people take thier vets word as absolute and blindly do as they are advised??
Any cat that is positive and asymptomatic for as long as Bailey is classified as a carrier and the virus is most likely in the bone marrow. I don't fool myself I know sat anytime he could become symptomatic and get sick. One of the most important things is keeping the stress down, stress is a well known trigger of setting the virus off.
Another thing and I can't speak about your vet, but it ahs been my experience the vets that have been practicing for a longer time are less experienced in the virus because they do not go to continuing education conferences to learn the newest updates about all diseases. My now vet is very young and has been practicing for only about 6 or 7 years. About 3 times a year she goes for a week or so at a time to conferences about the newest findings on many different diseases and she also goes to conferences to learn new treatment options. She is learning acupunture and holistic medicine as well as traditional medicine. She will someday be a very well rounded vet, and on top of all that to help keep my kitties stress down, she comes to the house for anything that doesn't absolutely need to be done at the office on her day off!! They get their vaccines at home and blood draws for blood tests at home. And yes if I find something on the internet I think has merit I tell her about and she will research it for me. She allows me to bring them in right before any procedures instead of dropping them off in the morning and leaving them there all day, this is very stressful for cats especially. And I wait and take them home as soon after the procedure as it is safe. She is a gem and if she ever moves, I'll have to pull up stakes and follow her :))
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