If it is any help: Dixie Louise has lived with me for appx 3 years.
She showed up at my Mom's (as do lots of cats) for food and shelter.
She stayed there for a while until I decided to spay her with the aim
of taking her to the farm I was/am trying to build a house on. She is
very healthy....especially now that she has good food and is an indoor
cat. She was going to be an outside cat but, when she tested FeLV+
before she was spayed, that changed. She has a little trouble with
her teeth and gums but that may well be from her past, little or no
medical attention and poor food. No one knows how long she was on
her own but she was at Mom's for several months and was in rotten
shape when she came there. My vets gave me the options for her when
she was tested and were extremely relieved when killing her was taken
off the table. If she seems off for any reason I take or at least
consult either my regular vets or one of the holistic vets who treat
her (which depends on what seems to be going on).
I would not have missed a minute with her. She is so dear.
Good luck and blessings to you for caring. Only you can decide what
to do.
On Apr 2, 2008, at 9:21 PM, laurieskatz wrote:
I never had to do one thing for FeLV+ Squeaky. He had no symptoms.
Stripes had a cold from time to time. They tested positive in 1985,
2 years after I adopted them. When they tested positive, Stripes was
11 and Squeaky was 10. I was their second guardian and they were
always inside and my only cats. No one was too excited about it and
no one suggested anything special. They did fine.
Isabella, after her first sick months has been the picture of
health. We do give some meds and interferon but are in the process
of weaning her off meds.
L
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <felvtalk@felineleukemia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 6:28 PM
Subject: RE: Another Important Question
Here's the thing.... FELV actually is not fatal in it of itself.
Rather, it
can cause suppression of the immune system and a cat can then die
from
complications of other diseases. Example--I believe that kittens
who are
positive are at higher risk of succumbing to Upper Respiratory
Infections--infections from which they might well recover were
their immune
system not compromised. Older cats seem to be more at risk of
getting
certain lymphomas, have problems with anemia, etc. But again,
nothing is
certain...
I have 2 FELV+ cats one of whom, Tucson, lived with my 3 negatives
for 5
years before I knew she was even positive. They all groomed each
other,
occasionally swatted each other, used the same litter boxes, shared
food/water dishes, toys, etc. For me, I knew I couldn't separate
them and
vaccinated the non-positives and just went on as usual==that was
almost 4
years ago and everybody's still fine. I do give them some higher
quality
food, Wellness, but that's more because a couple are real porkos
and I was
trying to get away from too much dry food and too many fillers. My
second
FElV+, Romeo, is a stray that I'd been feeding outside for a couple
of
years--I never dreamed he was positive as I had never seen him
sick. He's
probably the oldest of my brood and he's had some gum problems
which we
handled with antibiotics--not very costly. When I first found out
my Tucson
was positive, I ran to the vet every two seconds--but after a
while, I
calmed down. Many people on this board take in positive kittens
and sadly,
those I think, are at highest risk. I had my Tucson since she was
a kitten
but clearly, she got through the most critical period and is now
her hefty
18 lbs and a cantankerous calico to boot!
I've not done interferon and outside of some relatively inexpensive
supplements that I periodically try to get into their food, I
haven't done
much different than if they were all negative. I know the
personality of
these two, and I know that if things do go bad, it would be more
hurtful to
subject them to too much--they're just those kinds of cats.
Outside cats, clearly, have more problems cause they're much more
likely to
get worn down, to not be as well fed, to be in the cold, etc.
Inside, with
some decent food, they've got a good chance of just living regular
lives.
Of course, anything can happen but the way I look at it, anything
can happen
with my negative cats too.
Christiane Biagi
914-632-4672
Cell: 913-720-6888
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 7:27 PM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: Another Important Question
One of the ladies in Iowa to whom I spoke mentioned the possibility
that Binxy may only be a carrier of the disease since she is four
yrs.
old and healthy.
So, is there any way (other than the passage of time) to definitively
determine whether she is just a carrier?
And, am I correct in the assumption that being a carrier only would
give her the same life expectancy as any other cat who does not carry
this virus? Or can a cat convert from being just a carrier to being
actively infected for whatever reason?---just trying to get my facts
straight.
Thanks. Caroline
--
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