It's sort of amazing how widely vets' philosophies can differ, even within the same practice. "Old School" is to automatically euthanize, sometimes without even asking the owner's permission, which is why it's important to ask your vet *up front* what their procedures are, so you don't end up with unnecessary losses without even knowing it till it's too late. People on this list have also printed off the tons of good info on the website and brought it to their vets to read, and it has resulted in more knowledgeable and open-minded vets. Any good vet should be willing to learn and adapt. Your rural vet may not be up to speed on all the issues, but a couple of forward-looking articles on current FeLV prognosis and treatment might help them progress. I think there can be false negatives as well as false positives under certain circumstances, though the latter are far more prevalent. As far as retesting, only the cats that test positive need to be retested. And probably you should wait until after any retests to vaccinate, should you decide to vaccinate, since vaccinating an already positive cat isn't good. Chances are that if they've all mingled this long, nobody will be *further* infected during this waiting period. I thought MC's suggestions were really good -- your present group is stable and not at particular immunological risk, so hold off on testing unless someone else starts showing symptoms, but make sure to have any new additions tested to make sure you're not releasing a wolf among the sheep, or pigeons, or whatever that saying is. Best of luck and thanks for caring so much. Diane R.
________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Debbie Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 11:51 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Help needed all of our cats are within 3 1/2 to 4 yr. group, so no one is elderly. We have one cat that had problems with urinary tract crystals, 2 with hormone problems (loss of hair by tail), and only one that is what I would call thin. They all run, jump, play, eat well, and like I said they have all their other vaccinations. Does the group feel like a snap test is accurate at all? If we have them tested can I know that a negative is truly a negative? I doubt we will be able to retest everyone if we test all 14 now. How do you think a vet should approach this sort of thing? I live in a rural community so our vets are more than likely not exceptionally qualified on feline leukemia. No insult intened. -----Original Message----- From: TenHouseCats Sent: Feb 26, 2007 12:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Help needed have to agree with what the majority have said--by now, the others have all been exposed anyway, and since 70% of healthy, adult cats can be exposed and throw the virus off, the odds that your menagerie is mostly safe if high. as far as i know, once a cat has been exposed and has thrown off the virus, further exposure isn't going to affect it, so even if some ARE positive, the others aren't going to "re-catch" it, and separating out any positives now is sort of locking the barn door after etc. i'd only really worry about any new cats brought into the house, and if i were going to actually test, i'd probably only test the high-risk populations, if any: the very young, the very old, and the otherwise health/immune-compromised. i DID test everyone almost seven years ago when a cat who'd lived with us, who had tested negative, died from FeLV, and everyone who'd lived with her tested negative, including some kittens and elders (high risk)--my vet recommended, at that time, that i not bother retesting until someone became symptomatic..... no one ever has, and i've never retested. MC On 2/26/07, Rosenfeldt, Diane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: If they all *seem* healthy now, chances are that most if not all of them *are* healthy. I'm assuming the girl who got sick already had FeLV when she came to you and has been asymptomatic up till now (i.e. that there's not a source among your other cats from whom she could have caught it). I hope this is the case. Many listmembers will tell you that they mix positive and negative cats without the disease spreading, and I believe some of these aren't even vaccinated. The vaccine is a further safety net of course -- if vaccinated, your negative kitties should remain negative even mixed with the positives. Oh -- I forgot to mention in my other post just now that you should always insist on a retest (in a few months) with the IFA test. This test has to be sent out to a lab for processing, but is more reliable than the in-office (Snap or ELISA) test. Diane R. ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Debbie Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 11:07 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Help needed the price is for what they call a snap test, a vaccination, and a booster in a few weeks. This was the cheapest vet in a tri county area. We live in Ohio. do you really think there is a possibility that they won't test possitive? If some do and some don't do they need separated, if vaccinated? -----Original Message----- From: Kelley Saveika Sent: Feb 26, 2007 11:59 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Help needed Hi Debbie, I would check around with other places in your area to see if you can find the tests cheaper. I can get a combo test here for $16 per cat, which would be way less than $1,000. At this point I'm not sure I'd be in a rush to test all of them. They have been together and likely either have it or they don't (most likely not). On 2/26/07, Debbie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: The cats were all spayed and neutered and had all shots except the feline leukemia. They have been to the vet yearly or whenever needed. We aquired so many at once we could not afford the testing and shots. A lady I worked with found 3 kittens in a dumpster, 2 weeks later 4 more - we bottle raised all of them and they all lived. At that same time a stray came in winter and had 4 babies. They all lived also. A month after this we took a trip 500 miles away and found 2 kittens starving in a field in the middle of nowhere. We brought them back. These were tested (not sure why vet decided this) and they were ok at that time. All the cats got along and seldon fought. If they did it was not the biting, scratching, etc... Soon after that a cat roamed up at a barbeque we had. She was young and in heat. We did not want her to get pregnant and she stayed so we brought her in. She was a very shy cat. She liked attention but seldom went near the others. Her eyes, nose, and mouth were clear (no discharge). A few weeks ago she started throwing up. We took her to the vet. She had nver been seriously ill (none have). They are all around 4 yrs, old now. Anyhow the vet said something was probably stuck in her intestines so they operated. All they found was enlarged lymph nodes. They did a biopsy and said they were not cancerous. She started doing better but then it was hard to get her to eat. We took her back in and they said her lungs had fluid in them. They drained it off. After all of this they came back and said she tested postive for leukemia. They recommended putting her to sleep. Now we have a nightmare. We have all the others, plus just paid out $700.00 for a cat that they ended up putting down. Don't know if the operation threw her into it all or what. We are going to have the others tested but it will be over $1000.00. We feel awful. If you don't have the money though it isn't always as some people think to keep up with everything. -----Original Message----- From: Kelley Saveika Sent: Feb 26, 2007 11:25 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Help needed I don't think anyone can give you odds on that. I would say it would be unlikely that they will all be positive and quite possible that none will be positive. If there is anything I have learned from this list it is that FELV is pretty hard to catch. Were any of the cats vaccinated against FELV? On 2/26/07, Debbie <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote: What are the odds of having 15 cats and one tests postive - will the others all be postive? These are cats that are strictly indoors now in a 1200 square foot house. The infected cat was not outwardly sick and di not socialize with the other cats, however they used same litter boxes and ate from same dishes. Any help would be greatly appreciated. All cats are close to same age, different litters, aquired at the same time. -- Rescuties - Saving the world, one cat at a time. http://www.rescuties.org <http://www.rescuties.org/> Vist the Rescuties store and save a kitty life! http://astore.amazon.com/rescuties-20 -- Rescuties - Saving the world, one cat at a time. http://www.rescuties.org Vist the Rescuties store and save a kitty life! http://astore.amazon.com/rescuties-20 This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission from your system. 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