All I'm saying is not all the information you find on the internet is
accurate and if you think it is your in for a rude awakening. Your
highlighted in yellow info is not correct.
I'm speaking from experience, mine and many others on the list. My vet
was fully aware of my situation, Bailey was 5 months old when I found
him, I had 3 cats at the time and Bailey was + the others all negative
and vaccinated.
He was separate because I had just been in a situation of having 5 cats,
4 positive. I lost 3, one turned negative and the 5th never had it, she
had lived with all the at the time unknown positives from 6 weeks of
age. This was back in the late 80's, early 90's before very much was
known about FeLV and my then vet was very old and told me I didn't have
to worry or vaccinate since my guys were all indoors. Well something I
or he never thought about, they all had lives before me. I don't know
who had it or if anyone gave it to anyone, I just know when I decided to
see a different vet I had them all checked and 4 were positive. I lost
3 of them in 15 months, they were all older, 5, 7, and 9 years old.
Teenye turned negative and lived to be 16, and Buddie was negative her
whole life, unvaccinated and living together with the rest for years
before I knew anyone had it. Once I found out, she was vaccinated
regularly but not separated.
Anyway back to Bailey, 3 vets told me to euthanize him, that he would be
dead in 3 months and infect all my others. After finding out that Joey
was sneaking under his door and playing with him while I was at work I
decided to let him out and to keep him. He lived, ate with, played
with, groomed, and on occasion had fights with all of his house mates,
all who were negative and vaccinated. In 11 years nobody got it from
him, he passed away in 2006 at age 11, so all the vets were wrong and my
gut and experience were right. My now vet knew about and gave her
blessing to our living arrangements. She tried desperately to save
Bailey when he got sick but it wasn't to be. I would not do anything
different if I were to do it over again.
FeLV IS NOT AS CONTAGIOUS AS SOME VETS TRY TO SCARE YOU INTO BELIEVING.
You can believe and do with your pets as you please but please don't
post information you find on the internet as the absolute truth.
Anytime I hear that a negative has turned positive from exposure I can
promise you almost all the time the cat was not vaccinated or tested a
false negative and was positive all along. A healthy vaccinated adult
cat has virtually 0 chance of getting infected from a positive. And if
they did they would almost certainly fight it off. Where did you find
the quote below, it looks very familar. And as I said before, Cornells
info is outdated they haven't updated that in 10 years at least, it is
inaccurate.
I truthfully have no idea which or how many of my original 5 had FeLV,
several of them were sickly all their lives, several were related, 3 of
the 5 were related. None were vaccinated because my very old vet
obviously didn't know much about it and told me they were all OK and I
didn't need to test or vaccinate.
That was my wake call and when I started to learn more about it. I had
no thought to have anymore positives when I found Bailey but that the
way someone else planned it and we did the best we could in our
situation. As I expect you are, I just don't want new people reading
inaccurate info thinking it is correct. I visited Cornells website when
I got a computer and their info hasn't changed. There is much more
known about FeLV than there was 10 years ago but Cornell hasn't posted
any of it so as far as I'm concerned their info is inaccurate.
All this is my first hand exerpience and opinions, the best place to get
accurate info is from a vet who is knowledgable about FeLV and goes to
continued education seminars, not the internet. I'll take other people
experiences over the internet anyday, but as with you the final decision
is mine and mine alone.
*W*_*hat can I do now to protect my cats*_*??** The only method for
protecting your cats is to remove any FELV-positive cat from other
cats completely. You should also follow strict quarantine procedures
including separate utensils, housing, litter pans for the FELV
positive cat, and thoroughly washing your hands, clothing and shoes
after handling and caring for the FELV positive cat. Do not breed an
FELV positive queen!! If you lose a cat to FELV, it is recommended
that you wait 30 days before bringing in a new cat, and then only
after the area has been thoroughly scrubbed and disinfected with a
solution containing 4 ounces of household bleach per gallon of water,
rugs vacuumed completely, and all litter pans, food dishes, bedding,
etc. have been replaced.*
--
Belinda
happiness is being owned by cats ...
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