Jenny, Most people in this group have heardr this story a dozen or five dozen times before. In general the reponse is to wait and retest. I, personally, take a more aggressive stance.
First of all, I agree with making sure it was felv and not fiv. fiv is usually transmitted through bites while felv is much easier to spread, especially in the young. Kittens have a compromised immune system (sort of like babies, needing the mother's milk for passively acquired antibodies). Because of this, kittens are way way way more susceptible to the virus. Your kitten already has an upper respiratory which makes me really nervous about the snap test being right. It could be wrong and God willing it is, but from everything I have experienced, read and seen your best bet at treating is now. If you wait, the virus can get into the bone marrow and that's when it causes problems. I've lived this more than once. An apparently healthy kitten can go downhill by about one year to one and half years. By then you're attached and devastated and the treatments rarely work. I've seen it over and over again. I'd treat now. At the very least, give high quality food (personally I recommend raw diet). Foods like Orijen, Fromm are good. I can't think of any good kitten ones at the moment, someone else may know. Second, I would get Mega C (you can goggle it Mega C for cats) and mix it in with his food, as much as you can. Third I would consider more aggressive treatment - Immunregulin or acemannan (if they still make it not sure). My point is if your kitten has felv his best chance at beating it is treating now. Usually I believe in intervening as little as possible, but with this virus the time to strike is now. That's just my opinion take it for what its worth. There are some other approaches if you're interested in considering treatment with high dose vitamins and NAC etc. Good luck. Jenny On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 5:06 AM, Jenny Orvis <mi...@cableone.net> wrote: > I just rescued a kitten two days ago, Cali. She was bullied by a dog so was > looking a little rough. She's 8 weeks old. Broke my heart when I found her > in the state she was in and I couldn't leave her. On the drive home she > stayed in my arms clinging close. We stopped and got her a can of food and > nearly snarfed the thing down in one setting! She's a very happy kitten, > little skiddish, but happy. > I took her to the vet yesterday. She has a sore on her tongue and a bit of > a > runny nose and small fever, and otherwise heart and lungs sound good. But, > she tested positive for FeLV with the SNAP test. My heart just dropped. I > have an 8 month old kitten also, Joey, who tested negative when we got him, > and am worried about his health. He's up-to-date on all of his shots, and > the vet is not concerned about it spreading to him too much other than > biting. > > I've only had Cali for 48 hours and I'm already attached. I want to keep > her, but am a bit worried about FeLV and Joey. I know I won't introduce the > two until she's over her sniffles. She's in the spare bedroom all set up, > and Joey is quite interested thankfully! Was afraid it'd be World War 3. > > I know I've read somewhere about a kitten being so young and testing > positive, but actually not having it so I'm hoping that's what it is. She > goes back in two weeks. I've just been worrying if I'm crazy for wanting to > keep a possible FeLV+ kitten while my other baby is not positive. Any > advice? > _______________________________________________ > 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
