You'll get a lot of good suggestion from folks on this board with tons of experience. I have some limited experience w. my Tucson who tested pos at age 4 1/2 and with my Big Boy who I fed as a stray for a couple of years before bringing him in and discovering he was positive. Tucson is fine but my Big Boy succumbed to cancer earlier this year.
First off, take a deep breath! Your friend should get Kitty with the IFA test--that's a blood test sent out to lab. If that comes back pos, it confirms the SNAP test; if it does not, then you can't be certain about pos status. My Tucson lived with my 3 other cats (2 of whom came in as kittens after her) for 3 years before she was diagnosed. She had tested neg as a very young kitten but that can happen if test is too early. They ate out of the same dishes, used the same litter boxes, groomed each other, got into those occasional scrapes, etc. and none of them tested post. I got them the FELV vacc as a precaution only after Tucson tested pos. The 2 vets I consulted after Tucson's test both told me it was not as contagious as some of the literature makes it out to be. My 2nd vet has a good deal of experience & had absolutely no problem with continuing to mix everyone & no problem w. my integrating Big Boy into the household. Your friend should get the other cats tested & shouldn't assume they all caught it. Whoever is neg, she should vaccinate. As for your situation, the virus does not live very long in the air... My guess would be that it would be unlikely that Patches would have caught it from this indirect casual contact. You can have a snap test done if it will ease your mind. Christiane Biagi -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of mary (merlin) marshall Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:42 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Felvtalk] new with questions Hi, I've just subscribed. My friend and I picked up a stray calico and planned to get her spayed and adopted out. We named her Patches. Patches was spayed last Thursday and tested for FIV/FeLV. She tested negative. We had her vaccinated with the basics, including FeLV. Thursday night after her spay, she went to my friend's house to recover. Patches was kept in a separate bed room with her own food and water dishes that hadn't been used by the house cats, her own litter box with fresh litter, and not allowed contact with the house cats. I'm not sure how good my friend was about washing her hands between Patches and her cats. Monday afternoon, my friend found out that her cat Kitty who had been throwing up for a few weeks and now with depressed appetite, tested positive for leukemia. This was the SNAP test. I came and picked up Patches and took her to my house, where she is caged in my basement, separate from my cats. Patches was at my friend's house for 5 days. Do I have to worry that Patches might have caught leukemia from the carpet, bedding and cat bed in those 5 days? The room had been used as a foster room but in between was open so that Kitty could go in there if he wanted. He also sometimes slept in the cat bed. Should I continue to keep her separate from my cats and for how long? Do I need to retest her at some point and when? My own cats have been vaccinated annually against leukemia, except for Rusty who has not been vaccinated in about 5 years. Rusty was sick for 2 days after her first leukemia vaccination since I have had her. She may or may not have been vaccinated at the shelter where I got her, so she has had at most 2 vaccinations, and maybe only one. As for my friend, she has 4 cats, 2 kittens, and a foster kitten. She has had Kitty for a year and a half to 2 years, and he probably was infected before she got him. She never had any of her cats tested, I doubt vaccinated, and all of them have mixed freely. One older cat was tested last spring when he was brought into the house and was positive for FIV only. What are the chances the others are infected now? Does it make a difference if it is a kitten or adult? This is heartbreaking news to both of us, and neither of us know that much about feline leukemia except that it is very contagious and bad. Merlin _______________________________________________ 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
