Hi Terri,
I agree with almost everything Jenn said, except I'm not a fan of
Cornell, in fact I think almost all of their info about FeLV is very
out-dated. And I think the viruses life span outside of the host
whether in a wet or dry enviornment is only seconds and not minutes.
And I think the average lifespan is longer than suspected because I
think alot healthy positive cats are never diagnosed.
As far as healthy adult cats getting the virus, yes that is near zero
chances, I have 6 furkids, my Bailey is my positive. He and Joey are
always playing (sometimes alittle rough), grooming (and they have had
tongue to tongue contact when they both want to groom each other at the
same time), and I have had Joey PCR tested (tests the cats DNA), and
Joey is negative. If anyone were going to get it from Bailey it would
be him. I think keeping stress to nil is a very important factor in
setting off the virus and yes giving immune boosting supplements is very
good as long as it doesn't cause stress. Unfortuntely with Bailey it's
impossible to give anything I can't put in his food and that he can't
taste, he gets very stressed taking meds.
He was positive at 5 months of age when I found him, and he turned 10
years old in May. He's had no health problems until last year when he
came down with a pretty bad case of stomastisis and we tried everything
from azithromyacin to chinese herbs to acupunture, it all helped but
didn't completely resolve the problem (he did test positive for
bartonella, and I have not had him retested which I really need to do,
but at the time I was taking care of Buddie who had cancer, and taking
blood is so stressful I figure as long as things are going OK why shake
the boat). After about 6 or 7 months and Bailey was losing a little bit
of weight we decided we had to pull his teeth, he still has his canines
and the tiny ones in between those but the rest are gone. That seems to
have done the trick. He has a bit of arthritis now but other than that
he is in good health as far as we know!
The vet thing is right on, so many vets EVEN today still say euthanize,
and even more once a cat gets sick will say "Well it's the FeLV kicking
in", and don't even bother trying to find out what is wrong with the
cat. Get your self a good vet, one who is knowledgable about FeLV or at
the very least will to be open minded about it.
--
Belinda
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