Beth I'm so sorry about your disappointment. Has she had any screening blood work to see where she's at health wise. When we were at the vets not long ago he brought in a young cat who had tested positive and he said she was in perfectly good health, blood work showed no abnormalities at all. The owners were considering euthanizing her because they had three others that tested negative. This little girl was a stray. We had agreed to take her if the owners decided to put her down but thankfully they decided against that. The vet himself was going to do anything he could to have her adopted out. I would have taken her at that point but now I'm glad we didn't have to. Not in our case since we are dealing with one very costly and very advanced positive cat. We have only owned 2 cats prior to bringing our positive cat into our home and they were single cats and enjoyed the good life. Cats are pretty solitary animals in my opinion. I personally can't see putting myself through this pain again. We of course thought we were getting a healthy cat but after learning how sick he is we have totally committed to doing everything we can for him. It's sucked a lot of life out both my husband and I. We won't be going on any more vacations as long as he's alive because we would be afraid to leave him in the care of someone who isn't familiar with his situation and we just wouldn't want to anyway. It really is a big commitment and I am nowhere near as noble hearted as most on this list. We have always treated our pets as though they were our own flesh and blood and I know how hard this is for you. If you decide not to get another positive cat, I for one totally understand and please do not feel guilty.
If your girl is healthy as you say other than testing positive get all the information you can find and do what you can. There are lots of people on this list who have had successful outcomes with their cats. It isn't necessarily an immediate death sentence. My cat is getting only palliative care now, nothin more can be done expect treat problems that arise and give him good food and lots of love. We will not give up on him. He eats, sleeps, does his business and loves us to pieces so we deal with things. If we had known about this disease a lot sooner perhaps we could have had a fairer fight on our hands but it wasn't meant to be. Do what you feel best suits you and your husband and your lifestyle. We all aren't meant for this. Lynne ----- Original Message ----- From: Beth Gouldin To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 7:06 PM Subject: update: Athena Hi all So Athena just re-tested on ELISA a weak positive. This is 9 weeks from the first testing that we did when we lost Orion to FeLV. I guess I'm just disheartened... I had REALLY hoped (for her sake) that she would be negative - she seems so healthy...no major problems or anything... and we really wanted to get another cat for a companion for her. My husband and I have talked and we just can't bring closure to ourselves to intentionally get another FeLV + cat... which means pretty much she's gonna stay a single cat. I don't know, in my mind it just seems that it would be a perpetually bleak cycle (and I know that it's not true simply because of the joy they bring..but this is my bummed out- ness coming through) to have 'sick' cats that can just die any time. Do any of you have experiences bringing in another cat? Do you always elect to get another FeLV +? How do kittens generally fare? Our vet suggested bringing in a FeLV negative vaccinated adult...but I don't want even the SLIGHTEST risk of exposing another cat to this. Any feedback would help me out...I'm so frustrated with this whole thing. Thanks for listening :} -- Beth Gouldin [EMAIL PROTECTED] 940.395.5393 God Bless!!!
