Hi, wanted to introduce myself and my cats.
I adopted two new adult kitties from a rural no-kill shelter in my area
a little over a month ago, after my 15-year-old cat passed away. Little
orange Dublin and hunky white and tabby C.J. are both about two years
old males -- Dublin more of an estimate since he was found as an adult
at a TNR station covered in oil on St. Patrick's Day (C.J. was in rescue
since he was about five months old). I adopted them both as being FeLV
negative, though I'd found out that Dublin had initially had a positive
ELISA, then a negative when he was retested after six weeks in
quarantine. The woman who runs the rescue swore to me (as her vet told
her) that false negatives are common but false positives are not. Well,
so much for that; I know better now. I had them retested after three
days at my house, because I learned that Dublin had had ten teeth
removed at a dental a few days before he came home and my vet's office
said that such bad teeth at a young age was a common sign of FeLV. And
yup, Dublin's third ELISA was a strong positive, as was a follow-up
IFA. C.J. tested negative, and got his first Purevax vaccination that
day, followed by the booster two weeks later.
I agonized for a few days about sending Dublin back to the rescue, where
he'd go to a FeLV+ cat sanctuary, but he is such a special, amazingly
sweet cat (gives hugs and kisses, just amazingly social) and was so
thrilled with me and my home and is absolutely crazily besotted with my
greyhound! I couldn't break his little heart. So I've kept him, and
he and C.J. (also a wonderful, loving boy) mix, since C.J. was already
exposed to him at the rescue (along with most of their other cats!!). I
am really heartened by what I've read in the archives about how many of
you have mixed cats without the negative ones converting. I manage to
keep their food separate and change their water and scoop their litter
twice a day, but these guys play and wrestle a lot, which is nervous-making.
Except for the bad teeth, Dublin seems really healthy. He did have a
bad case of chin acne when he came, but it's healed up really well. He
eats voraciously and has gained some weight, has a lovely silky coat,
and is becoming quite a rowdy little troublemaker too, always pouncing
on C.J.'s tail (he never played at the rescue). It's not unreasonable
to hope he might have a few good years, is it (though I know there's no
way to predict)?
I've also seen mention of various supplements you give, and I wish
someone could give me a lowdown on what you essentially recommend (that
is reasonably affordable) and exactly how you dose it.
Lots of pictures of the cats here if you want to see them:
http://s511.photobucket.com/albums/s357/PrairieProf/New%20cats/
Anne
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