Hello..I'm new to the group. I am a bit embarrassed about posting and asking for your expertise. Each of the postings I have read seems to indicate you are all actively involved in opening your hearts and homes to rescue kittens, and my little FeLV+ family was recently purchased from a breeder. My husband and I have had rescue cats and kittens all our lives, and recently we fell in love with two Bengal kittens, brother and sister, from a local breeder. We purchased them and once home, realized we had major socialization issues to overcome, new to us. We have no other pets. Once having (almost) mastered that, with a great sense of accomplishment we took them to our "office" vet (our regular vet has a housecall practice) for their spaying and neutering procedures. During the pre-op blood work, it was discovered they are both FeLV positive. We were devastated, as my only experience with the disease quite some time ago was not at all positive. A lot has taken place in the field since that earlier experience, and I'm trying to educate myself on this disease, so please correct me where I don't understand what I'm talking about. The first test (is this what is meant by the "snap" test?), indicated the presence of FeLV, and a subsequent test sent out to a lab on the blood serum also indicated the presence of FeLV. An additional blood test determined the disease is not in the bone marrow of either kitten at this time. They will be 8 months old mid-November.
I began a web search which brought me to this group, and also introduced me to LTCI, which we started last weekend. At this point in time, they are in generally excellent health, very energetic, and have good appetites (the male will only eat RadCat organic raw turkey, the female is eating Wellness wet.both eat Wellness kitten kibble). They both have indications of gum disease, something I understand is not unusual with this diagnosis, and the male very infrequently has a cough that sounds like a hairball, but is not productive. An X-ray during his neuter procedure indicated nothing unusual, but it concerns me, primarily now because I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop since the FeLV+ diagnosis. Given the background above, in addition to the LTCI, would any of you suggest other steps we might take to assure these little kittens stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible? Many thanks. Sara F Kasteleyn CIC Research, Inc. 8361 Vickers Street San Diego, CA 92111 T - 858-637-4000 F - 858-637-4040 [email protected] _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
