Hi Anna, I just wanted to say "welcome" , this is a good group and a lot of help to me when my kitty tested positive at 2 years old, she had previously test negative as a kitten. I think the best advice I got was good food, low stress and lots of love. Give them the best food you can afford and as much love as you can (I know the latter will be easy, sounds like you are already there:) I had a big ole silver Maine Coon named Sylvia who passed about three years ago, I still love that name and always will. Best wishes to you and your girls, Laura --- On Mon, 10/5/09, Anna Waltman <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Anna Waltman <[email protected]> Subject: [Felvtalk] New to FLV and have a cat that just tested positive... To: [email protected] Date: Monday, October 5, 2009, 5:11 PM Hi everyone, I've been lurking around for the last day or two reading your posts. My darling Sylvia, the first cat I have owned as an adult, just tested positive for FLV on both the in-office and IFA tests. She's one of my best friends and I'm devastated; she was negative as a kitten and has lived inside for most of her life (as a little baby, she was a stray-- I adopted her from the SPCA at five months, and I know she was there for a while before I adopted her). She was given a confident all-clear by my former vet to move with me to Massachusetts and live in a multiple-cat household less than three months ago. Upon moving, it became obvious that Sylvia doesn't like being left alone in the apartment for long periods of time (prior to our move, we lived with my retired parents and their two dogs so she was almost never home alone). I decided to adopt a kitten, Beatrice, a few weeks after we moved in, after Sylvia had gotten comfortable in the apartment. So when Sylvia started meowing strangely and acting a little lethargic, I assumed it was a kitty flu but took her to the vet anyway, just to be safe, and tested her just to be absolutely sure she was still negative. What a horrible surprise. She's been living with Bea for a month or two now and they're best friends; they wrestle all the time, share food bowls, groom each other, etc. I feel sick with guilt about bringing a young kitten into a house with a FLV+ cat, and now chances are I have two positive cats to care for. Our current vet is wonderful, though, and she feels that if we vaccinate Bea ASAP and keep a close eye on Sylvia (treating her problems as they arise), there's a good chance we can keep both of them healthy for a long time. She says she has other patients and co-workers with FLV+ and negative cats living in the same household who never pass it to each other. I'm feeding them a mix of Wellness and Innova ENVO and giving the kitten multivitamins to boost her immune system and help her fight off the exposure. I'm a young graduate student in an MA/PhD program and I don't have a ton of money. These kitties had been the most stable thing in my life and this diagnosis is totally eating me up, from the inside out. I love them to pieces and want to be the best cat-parent I can to my girls (having chronic illnesses myself that significantly increase my risk of certain health problems, I'm as empathic about this as anyone). The horrible potential of this disease breaks my heart every time I think about it. My childhood cat passed away a few months before I got Sylvia, and I can't bear to lose another one like that (he was very sick for a long time before he died, but we don't know what it was. Could've been FLV or FIV; he wasn't tested every year, though he was vaccinated. He was indoor/outdoor and a fighter). What do you wish you had known when your cat was first diagnosed, if anything? If there is any advice people have, I would appreciate it, and as I gain experience caring for my girls I will share what has worked and what hasn't with anyone who asks. Many thanks and best wishes to you and your families, furry and otherwise. Anna _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
