Re: FIV infected Kitten

[gwork]

There are indeed people who have had their kitties come back as negative later on.  I'm sure you will hear from them, too.  In addition, even if your kitty does stay positive, there are many kitties who have relatively few health problems and live for years.  Personally, I would keep the cats separated for now until your older one is tested and vaccinated, just to be on the safe side.  But I don't think they need to be separated forever by any means.  I think the vaccination would definitely be sufficient protection to allow them to be together.   Is your kitten displaying any symptoms, or is it healthy?  Everyone on this list will have great suggestions for helping boost your kitten's immune system.  I myself am just learning a lot of this, too, so will leave it to the pros to direct you.   But, just to give you one example, my cat Spaz was not diagnosed with leukemia until she was 8 years old.  I had gotten her and her sister, Gizmo, when they were about 9 weeks old.  At the time of Spaz's diagnosis, I also had gotten two more kittens about 10 months prior.  All were mixing and mingling, eating out of same dishes, etc. until this diagnosis.  NONE of the other cats tested positive.  We vaccinated them and let them remingle.  That's been nearly 6 years ago!!  Spaz is quite healthy, by the way.  Runs around like a kitten sometimes.  I did come very close to losing her twice, and one not-so-good upper resp. infection, but otherwise, just little things that could happen to any cat, and most of the time has been as if she wasn't positive at all.  Of course, the doctors simply cannot understand why she has lived so long.  But it is because I didn't give up before it was really her time.   So I hope that eases your mind and gives you some hope.  There will be much other positive support headed your way, I'm sure.  You have come to the right place!   Kris http://www.spazstory.zoomshare.com ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 8:44 AM Subject: FIV infected Kitten I have been researching the net for information on FIV in kittens and hope to get more info here. My daughter came home two weeks ago with a little freal kitten appr. 5 weeks old. We already hav a 3 year old cat and had not planned on another cat, but ofcourse everybody in the family fell in love with this little thing. Yesterday we were told she tested positive for FIV, which realy upset everybody, but we have decided to keep her and deal with things as they come. Now I read that when a little kitten tests positive, you need to keep testing it until at least 6 month of age because it might be mothers anti-bodies, passed through mothers milk that might make the test come back positive. Is there anybody in this forum that indeed had that happen, meaning that at first the test came back positive but later negative? I know we are grasping at straws, but hope helps. We are also trying to decide whether to keep the two cats separate for ever or introduce them anyhow, I will talk to the vet to have the older one tested too now and if that comes back negative, to have him vacinated, but wonder whether that would be sufficient protection. Any advise??