Dear Lance, I also don't think you have to worry, but you may want to get your kitty re-tested after awhile. As far as I know, the virus can be spread by saliva (mutual grooming, using the same food dishes, bites) or through using the same litter boxes. But the virus only lives a short time in the open air. Three of my six cats become infected with the virus when I brought home a kitten who initially tested negative on the ELISA (I'm told this is rare, more often a young kitten will test positive then negative if the mother was positive). I had all the cats tested: three tested positive, one threw off the virus and two did not; they became ill and died within two years. Three others tested negative and are fine.
None of my cats had been vaccinated against FELV - they are indoor cats and I had not mixed my new kitten with them until he was tested. And then we had that rare inaccurate test result. I know some list members do mix their cats - I assume the negative kitties are all vaccinated. So - I just thought I would add my experience to the mix. Bonnie in WI http://grants.library.wisc.edu/organizations/animals.html http://savingspaldingpets.blogspot.com/ http://www.bestfriends.org/nomorehomelesspets/pdf/walkforanimals.pdf ----- Original Message ----- From: wendy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, August 10, 2006 10:46 am Subject: To Lance Re: Close Encounter between a pos. and a neg. To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org > Lance, > > I just read this and I'm sure it's too late for my > opinion, but I don't think you had anything to worry > about at all. The virus is just not that easy to > spread from what we can tell. How did your Callie > fare after surgery? > > :) > Wendy > > --- Lance <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hi everyone > > > > I hope this is just me being paranoid. It's easy to > > be paranoid when > > dealing with FeLV+, at least for me. As some of you > > may recall, my > > Ember is FeLV+, and my mom picked up a negative > > kitten (Callie) a > > number of months ago. Ember still lives in my room, > > so she is > > isolated from the negs of the house. Yesterday, I > > opened my door to > > bring in food, and Ember started out. I was able to > > stop her for a > > bit, but I was holding her in by pressing her with > > my leg against the > > door frame, which is something I really didn't want > > to do. She got > > out and escaped part of the way down the hall before > > being chased by > > Callie the kitten. Callie wants to play with > > everyone, and she tried > > to jump on Ember. When Ember ended up cornered at > > the end of the > > hall, she let out a nice hiss. Fortunately, she was > > facing away from > > Callie when she did this. I rounded up Ember and got > > her back into my > > room. Callie, I'm sure, was disappointed. > > > > Most of you probably think this doesn't sound like a > > big deal, and it > > might not be. Callie has had all of her FeLV+ vax > > including boosters. > > She should be good for one year. My concern is that > > Callie is going > > in tomorrow to be spayed, and that if she even got > > the tiniest bit of > > virus into her system, the immune suppression that > > will result from > > the surgery might give it some advantage that we > > don't want it to have. > > > > Do you think there is any cause for concern, based > > on your own > > anecdotal experiences? Should we not have the > > surgery tomorrow? My > > mom is in a hurry to get her spayed, as Callie's > > come into a sort of > > pseudo heat two times, and she's just turned five > > months old. Your > > thoughts? > > > > Lance > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > >
