The virus isn't that contagious. Even if the cats get together,
it's highly unlikely that a healthy kitten will just pick up the
virus, which is pretty fragile and dies on contact with the air.
Even passing it nose to nose, or sharing food bowls, is highly unlikely.
Gloria
On Apr 7, 2006, at 6:01 PM, Lance wrote:
Hello all,
My mother is considering adopting a kitten that needs a home. To
the best of my knowledge, the kitten is FeLV negative. It's only
six weeks or so old. Right now, my FeLV+ cat, Ember, is living in
my room, and is kept away from the others. She's had a few
jailbreaks, but I can be much more careful with her than I have
been. The other cats in the house tested negative with ELISA a few
weeks ago (see the "Ember" thread for the whole story).
Anyway, I know generally what vets and others think of having a
negative in a positive's house. I'm isolating Ember. However, the
kitten will not have had her shots, and probably won't be ready for
her first FeLV vax for another month. Even with Ember being
isolated, and the kitten having no direct or indirect exposure
(i.e. no one shares food, food bowls, boxes, water), do we run any
risk of having the kitten come up positive just by living in the
same house as my girl?
Thanks,
Lance
