Hi all,
Thanks to Diana, Chris, Gloria, Laurie, Dorlis and Sheryl for responding to my
questions. You are right, I was freaking out yesterday. I was expecting Kitty
to test positive for FIV which was no big deal for the rest of the cats, and
when it came back leukemia, I was stunned. I had to quickly remove Patches and
didn't have anything set up for her.
We removed Patches from a bad home to get her spayed (two litters already as a
teenage mom) and to get her a good home since she is so nice and pretty. I
kept thinking that instead of bettering her life, we had potentially given her
a death sentence. Plus having to hang on to her in pretty fastidious cleaning
protocols to prevent infecting my 12 cats for possibly months and more tests
until we could be pretty sure she was OK to adopt out. All I really knew was
that feline leukemia was contagious and very bad. A million years ago when I
was in college, the cats of a friend of mine were used to help understand
feline leukemia in the early research in the 1970s and 80s. He had 8 or 9 cats
and all but one of them caught and died from leukemia. (No they didn't become
lab cats. They assisted like human cancer patients assist with research into
their disease.)
You all and others have set my mind at ease that she wasn't exposed. I can go
through normal new cat protocols to introduce her to my cats (all tested,
negative and vaccinated) where she can stay until I get her adopted out.
My friend is getting her 5 other cats and the foster kitten tested in about and
hour. From what I am hearing in this group and others, the rest may be OK. I
am concerned about the FIV cat who has a hard time shaking illness, and the 3
kittens. These cats have impaired or limited immune systems and would be more
susceptible. If the kittens and the FIV cat are positive, it is her fault
since they started out negative.
I'm still curious about mixing leukemia positives and negatives. Some are
saying they are doing it and no one is converting to positive, others are
saying yes the virus spread to negative cats. Is there a standard line of
action? In any case, I am relieved it isn't as contagious as once thought. I
hesitate to tell my friend its OK to mix her cats if some test negative, since
it was her irresponsible actions of not testing that got her into the current
mess. She is often lax on cat health issues and I don't want to encourage
that. She needs to be whacked up side the head that irresponsibility can lead
to cat suffering and death. There are some things you just shouldn't cheap out
on. And they will cost you even more in the long run.
Merlin
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