Dear Carrie: When did the kittens get tested? Was it when they first came in? There is a little known fact about the Eloise test that I have not seen mentioned here. So I am going to mention this information just in case it has not been posted. If a cat or kitten is exposed to FIV or FeLK 30 to 45 days before an Eloise test, the virus will not show up on the Eloise test.
Unfortunately, I found out this information the hard way myself. One day, five years ago, the Shelter Director called me with a litter of kittens that was five days old. Their mother was feral and the Shelter Director was trying to trap her. Would I foster the litter of kittens and their mother when caught. I agreed. The litter of kittens had to be bottle feed for about three days until their feral mother was finally caught and went to the vet. She went to the vet to have her medical done before coming into my house. Her Idexx Snap test came up negative. Well six months later, when the kittens went in to get their medical done for adoption. One of the kitten came up positive for FIV. The feral mother went back in to the vet immediately for retesting. She came up positive for FIV as well. Normally that would be no problem since FIV is so hard to catch being a weak virus. The problem was that Lucky, the kitten that was positive had been escaping out of the bedroom. He figured out that the screen door that covered the bedroom door opening was only propped up and not totally secured. So he would climb up the to the top of the screen door and use his weight to pull the top of the screen door away from the opening of the doorway. Then he would climb over the top of the screen door as the screen door close gently on his body. He would squeeze the middle of his torso and legs though. I was seriously considering a name change for Lucky at that time to Houdini! LOL Well Lucky had been playing with my own cats whenever he could get out. Well to say the least, I was hysterical at the time that my cats were now exposed to FIV! I rushed everybody to the the vet and had everybody tested. The whole time being an emotional wreck! All my cats came up negative. After that I was trying to figuare out how Ashley, the feral mom came up positive for FIV. That is when I discovered this little known fact about the Eloise test that nobody tells you unless you ask! So Ashley (the feral mother) and Lucky live with me. Ashley is still quite feral. Lucky being hand raised is the sweetest cat ever! Here is Lucky's pictures if you want to see him: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ppahchgo/album?.dir=1d11re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ppahchgo/my_photos I am so sorry that your are experiencing this type of situation. Remember to just take one day at a time when dealing with this. Precious Pets, Almost Home Association __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
