Hi Cindy, So glad to hear there's another shelter out there doing what yours is doing. I second all that Nina and Michelle said. They are veterans here. If the kittens do develop the virus, nothing may happen at all for a long time, as long as they are kept stress free and eat a good diet. The virus manifests itself by attacking the immune system and any variety of illnesses can appear, from anemia to cancer. Life expectancy is anywhere from birth to 18 years from what we've experienced here. A lot die at the 1.5 to 3 year mark, but only if they have not thrown off the virus to begin with, and are testing positive and are symptomatic. Many live long lives asymptomatic. My furbaby died at 4.5, but I believe his anemia was induced by a stressful environment (we had ten extra family members living with us for a week during Hurricane Rita). Ignore those people giving you grief about not pts. Maggie here said it best that you have to live with the decisions you make and you are the only one who can make the right decision here, not those people not personally involved. I couldn't pts either! I will say that separating the pos. from the neg.'s if you can is probably necessary because kittens' immune systems are so weak/developing at an early age and you don't want the others to catch it while grooming their friends. Where in East Texas are you located? I'm in Rockwall.
:) Wendy __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
