Six years ago I rescued a mommy, 2 teen cats and 3 kittens from outside. The mom was about two (declawed but not spayed...grr) and the teens were less than a year old. The foster mom kept the two teenagers. Several years later she called to tell me one of the two she kept had tested positive for FeLV. The other was negative. I know where the mom and kittens all went. They all were and are still fine. The foster mom had six other cats in her house...they are all fine.
Bottom line. I don't think we can ever be 100% sure that a cat won't test positive at some point. My Squeaky's FeLV was suspected of being harbored in his bone marrow. Thus, he was never sick even though he tested positive as a teenager ( he was appr 12 yo). A friend has a sanctuary. One of their cats lived with the FeLV+ cats for 6 or 7 years. They thought he was positive. Since he never got sick they tested (or retested) him. He was negative! and never got FeLV despite living in one room with several feLv+ cats for all that time. He only recently died of VERY old age. Laurie -----Original Message----- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of mary (merlin) marshall Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 11:42 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org 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 Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
