Simon has adjusted well, no idea how he tested pos. and now is neg/neg, but he has a very good life.
A couple of different ways. First of all, the SNAP test has a high incidence of false positives. I've heard estimates of as high as 20%. This results in a lot of cats that test FELV+ being killed at shelters when they aren't really FELV+. Cats can also "throw off" the virus and become negative. There's a lot of good information on the www.felineleukemia.org web page on supplements, etc to make the kitty's immune system as healthy as possible so they have a better chance of throwing it off. There is lots of information out there on this: "Some kittens are able to clear the virus from their system. Others are able to suppress it sufficiently that they are not affected by the virus and do not transmit it to other cats. The exact percentage of cats able to do one of these two things is not known exactly but it probably is at least 30% and may be as high as 50% or more of infected kittens." "It is pretty confusing to deal with feline leukemia in litters of young kittens. It is entirely possible for only part of the litter or even one kitten to be infected and the rest of the litter unaffected. Some kittens (or cats) who are infected with feline leukemia will develop immunity to the virus and will not ever become ill from it. Probably about 30% of the time this happens. Some kittens will be able to sequester the virus in the bone marrow or central nervous system where it will not cause harm until some future stress occurs and causes the immune system to fail in its suppression of the virus. This is usually considered to be a latent infection." (this is why you always test *all* kittens in a litter, especially in rescue, and not just selectively test one, or assume because the mother tested negative that the kittens will too). The above is from http://www.vetinfo4cats.com/cfeleuk.html When a cat tests positive, the general recommendation is to wait 3 months Retest with IFA. FELV+ sanctuaries will not accept a cat with just a SNAP test result because the incidence of false positives is so high. Even then they can still turn neg. I know Best Friends tests all its FELV+ cats yearly, or maybe more often, to make sure they are still showing pos. There is a chart on testing and retesting here: http://www.felineleukemia.org/felvhlth.html It is really almost impossible to tell if any cat is pos or neg. Some cats sequester the virus in the bone marrow: "Recently it was proven that cats could sequester the virus in their bone marrow or central nervous system, keeping it suppressed indefinitely, perhaps lifelong. In the event of a serious illness or immunosuppression for other reasons such as corticosteroid administration, some of these cats lose the ability to suppress the virus and it becomes an active problem again. The question is this: do any cats become immune or are there only cats who are infected but suppressing the virus effectively in this group? My guess is that there are many more cats suppressing the virus than there are cats who are able to become immune." I'm wondering if this isn't what happened to Shelia Smith's cat, since adult to adult transmission is extremely rare. -- 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 Please help Caroline! http://rescuties.chipin.com/caroline I GoodSearch for Rescuties. Raise money for your favorite charity or school just by searching the Internet with GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com - powered by Yahoo!
