Laura wasn't the one who left the two calico kittens at the vet's. She was adopting them out to Louise, and Louise, the adopter, took them to her own vet and left them (presumably because she had to go to work). The calico kittens were not euthanized without permission - Louise did call Laura and left her a message about them testing positive, but she didn't give her much time to call back before making the decisio to tell the vet to go ahead and euthanize. I am sure her decision was based on the fact that the vet said they'd have to be indoors since they were positive, and she only wanted outdoor kitties (not what we'd prefer but sometimes you have to take what you can get), and because the vet may ultimately have badgered her into believing it was for the best (she said he said the kittens were very sick - they actually had absolutely no symptoms yet).
Some good news on Laura's kitties - we tested Poppy (ticked tabby and white, not pictured) and her calico daughter Rose (the 6-month-old calico with the spots/patches of color in the pix) and they are both NEGATIVE! This is interesting as all these kitties eat together and groom each other and many have nursed on each other's moms. So we have Buttercup, Poppy, Buttercup's kitten and Poppy's kitten all negative so far. This is odd, however, as Buttercup and Daffodil are sisters, and Daffodil is positive and Buttercup negative. Also, the two of them (and Violet) are the daughters of Pansy, who is Poppy's sister, and Poppy is negative but Pansy's daughter, the spotted tabby female, is positive (we haven't yet tested Pansy). I just tried to send a rather long message to Chris direct, but I don't understand the "who is your outgoing/incoming server" stuff that comes up when you do that so not sure if it went off or not - let me know if you didn't get it Chris, and I'll rewrite it (it was about transmission in large groups that I've had, and about donating to research). I think it is wonderful to want to donate to research, but as we pointed out to Joy of Marleyfund when she somehow got all our e-mail addresses and e-mailed everyone on the list when she first started her fund, most leuk research is done by DELIBERATELY INFECTING cats (usually specially-raised pathogen-free kittens). I don't think we want to fund anything that involves deliberately infecting any cats when there are so many that already have it. I would only support research with owners of cats already infected, like Dr. Diane Addy does with FIP. As far as non-fight, non-birth transmission is concerned, I think it would be more or less impossible to differentiate between transmission through a fight wound (bite or deep scratch) and transmission by ongoing interaction through saliva etc., but my Belle was born healthy to a health mother (mom twice tested negative with more than 90 days between tests and no other exposure of mom or kittens to other cats until Belle was adopted). Belle tested negative, too, as did all her siblings. Two are still living and healthy, but two died of FIP later (but weren't leuk positive). Belle went to live with someone who had another cat, 2-1/2 years old, that they said was leuk and FIV neg, up to date on shots and indoors. We found later that he wasn't indoors all the time, and although he had shots he may have missed a booster or not had two leuk vaccines within the appropriate time frame initially, and he may have been tested at a very young age and had leuk all along. We're not sure how he got leuk, but he became ill about 6 weeks after the adopter got Belle from me, tested positive, and although she tried to treat him she had to have him euthanized after a couple of months. In the meantime, he gave it to Belle, who was only 10 weeks old when she went to live with him. She had received her first leuk vaccine at 9 weeks, got her second one at 12 weeks and actually even received a third shot at 15 weeks because although she didn't absolutely need a third one I only had a combo shot available that day (I did all her shots and know that she got them and got them at the right time). Belle lived 5-1/2 years. I believe she got leukemia from Butler, the other cat, because at 10 weeks and with only one shot at that point she wasn't fully protected, and without an immune system of her own at that age, she was still very vulnerable. This is definitely a case of a kitty not getting it at birth. However, we can't say that she didn't get it through a "fight." She never had an obvious bite-wound from Butler, but it is possible he could have popped her. I tend to think, however, that she got it from either mutual grooming or eating and drinking from the same bowls. -- _______________________________________________ Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10
