They are gorgeous cats--very very lucky to have found you! I've have my Tucson, a 12 year old FELV+ cat who I've had since she was a kitten. She tested neg on Elissa when she was a couple of months old but then tested pos 4 years later though she'd never been outside. My other cats who she lived with for years all tested neg. I got them vaccinated & everyone's OK. I had another pos, my Romeo, a wonderful stray that I brought in from the street after feeding him outside for a couple of years. He died last year from lymphoma after having been inside for 6 years. Our best guess is that he was around 9 or 10 years old.
Tucson is a bit of a porko & I don't push too hard on keeping her weight down. Her only "felv issues" have been a couple of bouts of very low white blood cell count. I spotted a problem when she wouldn't eat for more than a day. Vet used immune regulin injections & it seemed to bring her blood levels back up. She's had some dental issues as well but overall, is in generally good health. I feed all of them Wellness canned with a bit of dry for late night snack. I found by cutting back on the dry, it helped with their weight--always an issue for lazy, pampered indoor cats! LOL I give her a B Vitamin Complex as supplement & they get cosequin as they get older. I am quicker to take her to vet if she looks a bit peaked--she lets you know if she doesn't feel well. She's had urinary tract infection, tore out a nail, got herself bitten when she really pushed one of the other cat's buttons, and on and on. Though they each have their own dishes, they play let's swap all the time. They share litter boxes, toys, etc. and groom each other. Romeo was not sick a day in his life until the week before he died. The lymphoma was in his chest & very fast acting. Because of his overall health, I regret not having realized that he had more than a simple URI & waited an extra couple of days to take him to vet. Wouldn't have made a difference but he was in a lot of discomfort those last couple of days. -----Original Message----- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Anne Myles Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 5:38 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: [Felvtalk] Hi, new member here 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 _______________________________________________ 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
