Diane,
My Tucson tested pos after 4
years. She lives with my other cats, (2 of whom came as kittens).
None had FELV vaccination prior to my finding out Tucson was pos and all
tested neg. I get them vaccinated every year and there doesn’t seem
to be any side effects (other than grumpiness about going to vet!). Since
then, I’ve taken in a stray that I’d been feeding—he was
never sick in the 2 years I was feeding him but he testted pos. He’s
turned out to be the biggest mush of all! Looks like Patches scouted out
the neighborhood and knew where to go when he felt he was in trouble!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Rosenfeldt, Diane
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 12:28
PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Introducing Patches,
and me :-)
Thanks,
Tonya, this is very good to know.
Condolences
on the loss of the tiny tabby, by the way, and best of luck with Grayson.
Vibes that he prospers.
Diane
R.
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of catatonya
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 11:23
AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Introducing Patches,
and me :-)
Welcome to the list. I did
re-vaccinate all of mine when I found out a positive had already been living
with us (unbeknownst to me........). 2 of my cats at that time were
sick. One had ibd and crf. The other had liver disease. The
vaccinations did not harm them. I have since lost cats to various
illnesses, but they never caught felv from my positives.
tonya
"Rosenfeldt,
Diane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi, all, newbie here.
Nina saw an earlier version of my following post on another list
and suggested that this list might be more informative and
supportive. I've been lurking for a few days.
First off, best of vibes to all
the kitties on this list, and special ones to Lucy, Madison Lee and others who
are having a bad time. And condolences on recent losses.
Sunday, July 2 at 3
a.m. a cat turned up on my window ledge and practically demanded to come
in. I went outside and he came readily for pets and skritches, but was in
deplorable shape. Huge mats on his flanks, mats and burrs in his tail,
and absolutely filthy. I woke up my housemate (it was the merest fluke
that *I* was awake at that hour) and she got some wet food and we opened
the back door. The cat made a beeline for the food, only running out
again when he caught me trying to close the outer screen door behind
him. But we finally got him inside and set up food and litter in the
back hall and basement for the night. (We also have an interior
screen door, just on hinges at the top of the back stairs, to keep our 5
from going into the basement.) Cat, which we called Patches after a dead
cat on "Buffy" that got reanimated (he looked that bad), got a
little freaked when we left him there, but not vicious.
At 5 a.m. I realized that the
dialog between Patches and our Tribble, which had been going
on through the inner screen door pretty much since I laid back
down, now sounded way too close. I found Patches in the enclosed
porch, which is at the entire other end of the house. He must have
climbed that interior door (something none of the others have ever tried) and
run the gamut of the house. Tribble was sitting in the doorway and
they were mrowwwwing at each other. I don't think there was any
interaction with any of the other cats other than verbal. The enclosed
porch is a better room for confinement anyway, so I set up food and litter there.
Patches continued to be
friendly, and let me "lick" him with a damp terrycloth rag to get
some of the grime off his face and shoulders. He wanted NOBODY touching
that back part with the mats. And being a holiday weekend, we couldn't get
him in to see the vet until Thursday, the 6th. Having an ex-hard-stray
who still won't let us pick her up after better than 2 years (though she
loves to be petted and will flop down behind or on our heads when we're
reclining on couches), we were really surprised when Patches actually didn't
kill us trying to get him into a box (which we decided would be easier than the
carrier at this point.) When we got to the vet, he was lying all
casual-like on the rug in the box, going "whazzup?"
Vet immediately found and
removed a tick (bleahhh! I know that's the norm in rescue, but we don't
do actual rescue, and have all indoor cats, so bleahhh!), and found a
sh*tload of flea dirt. That's when we found out he was a boy,
un-neutered, 3-4 years old. Vet Capstarred him, gave rabies and distemper
shots, gave us some Frontline and a worming pill (which we
administered over the next 2 days), took blood, and we went away for an
hour or so while her techs worked on cutting the mats off. He still
looked pretty patchy but at least free from mats when we picked him up, but his
blood tested positive for FeLV. The vet wants to retest in a month, and
we will probably get him neutered then. I listed him as found with our
local humane society, rescue group and free ad in the paper, not mentioning the
possible FeLV.
Our initial goal was
not to keep him, but already he's worming his way into our hearts.
(I knew he was pretty much there to stay when we were buying cat food at
Walmart and my housemate suggested we buy him some toys of his own. ;-).) It
has been obvious on several occasions that this is a little lap-fungus lover
boy, who loves attention and skritches and just being near people.
The dealbreaker is the
FeLV. I've learned a lot about it just in the last few days, here and
elsewhere, and already knew from some shelter volunteering that it's not
automatically a death sentence, and that the other cats can be vaccinated and
everybody could hopefully coexist. But of our 5, 3 are either seniors or
verging on seniorhood, and two of THEM are on thyroid meds (we almost lost one
of these two to hepatic lipidosis last year, and the other one got into
something toxic several years ago and we almost lost her as well; now she's in
fairly good shape but that bout has left its aftereffects as well) and we can't
do anything that would endanger them. Patches is thinnish
(still weighs 10 pounds though, big-framed guy), but that might be the
worms/fleas/starvation, and he seems healthy except for little chunks of matter
in the corners of his eyes. He still looks pretty rugged -- the vet techs
were into pain relief, not aesthetics, when they groomed, and his own grooming
efforts haven't found their way all the way down him. I think I'll have
to terry-lick him in some spots I'd normally not mess with. Also, I've
noticed that when I stroke him, his skin still twitches a little when I get to
about the middle of his back, and sometimes he even does the warning
almost-bite thing. I'm wondering if that means anything at
all. I was at the wrong angle to check whether a tick got missed or
something, though I'm fairly sure the vet techs would have seen it when
they were cutting.
We had a response to our ad
that wasn't the owner, but someone who, if it's the same cat, had fed him
all winter. She hadn't seen him around for a while, and was worrying he'd
been hit by a car or something. (We live at the intersection of 2 busy
streets, with a railroad track behind, so this is NO place for outdoor kitties,
although apparently none of the neighbors with pets think likewise!!)
She'll stop over and visit sometime to see if he's the same one. She told
my housemate to look up Turkish Van, and it sounds very much like Patches could
be one! (We've also had no fewer than 2 calls from someone looking
for her lost Odie, and each time my housemate has had to explain that this is
an intact male with claws, not a neutered male without. So would
appreciate some vibes/prayers that Odie finds his way home as well.
Housemate and I both worry about this stuff....)
So my questions, finally, are
how likely are vaccinations to put the other cats at risk, given their
pre-existing conditions and age? And what supplements should we be
giving him to increase the chances he'll throw off the virus, if by chance he's
still in that stage, or to generally improve his condition, if he's past
that? We've been trying Missing Link, but he's been doing a good job of
not actually eating it....
Sorry this is so long.
Thanks for any advice!
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