I agree - what he said...
At 09:36 AM 10/14/2005, you wrote:
Testing kittens for FeLV is probably a good idea, if they test positive
you will want to keep them away from your own cat just to be safe. If
they test positive I would probably have them retested retested in 60 - 90
days.
Testing kittens for FIV is a total waste of time and money. They don't
develop their own antibodies until they are about 6 months old. FIV is
much less contagious than FeLV and the most common means of transmission
is by bite wounds and not by sharing dishes, etc.
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Tad Burnett
To: <mailto:felvtalk@felineleukemia.org>felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: Kittens tested positive
This is fine for the full time rescue person that is brining rescues in
all the time...But what about the pet owner that finds 3 abandoned,
starving kittens in a parking lot on the other side of the tracks coming
from God knows where and wants to save these kittens but the primary
concern is the personal loved pet at home...In that case would testing the
kittens be appropriate ???
Tad
Terri Durham-Stone wrote:
I test at 6 weeks and no younger...... rescued over 300 kits this year
and only 5 were pos for FeLV and all were done with the snap combo
test. Those 5 little ones I watched die each week, it just killed me
and an experience that left me just sick about this horrible disease.
I recently have 3 little ones that tested pos for FIV and they have been
slowly gone from a pos to a very very weak pos,,,, I am sure that the
test being pos is from them carrying the antibodies from their mom.
I just keep testing as long as they are not sick and will continue until
neg or they get adopted. Such cute little ones, and such purr buckets
(as I call them)
Terri
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I am shocked they would even test at 3 weeks old to be honest.
Especially with FIV kittens can test false positive for upto a year so
need testing after 12 months and even if they are positive for FeLV or
FIV it is no reason to euthanase. Not sure if teh same time scale
applies to FeLV but I'm sure it will.
I do know that the tests for FIV detect anibodies and not the virus -
the kittens automatically get the antibodies from their mother but not
necessarily the virus. So like I said tehy could test positive for a
long time even though they may not have the virus. Time is usually
around 6 months before they test negative but I've known cats to have
false positives for 12months and even upto 2 years so if they tested
positive on FIV there is every chance they may be negative.
Hope someone else can help on the FeLV knowledge about time scales
before testing can be accurate.
Michelle, Minstrel, Buddy, & Angel Bramble