Janine, As I understood it, the kitten was only “slightly” positive? This would suggest that the kitten wasn’t born to a FeLV+ mother, but must have picked it up, otherwise the kitten would have tested a definite positive. You can retest in one month, but it may not be enough time for the kitten to have shed the virus while its immune system develops.
The re-testing time should be 3 months/90 days after the initial test. It is always suggested that any cat that is tested, FIV/FeLV, should be isolated and retested in 3 months. The test could be negative when taken too soon after exposure – I think that’s when the 28 days comes in, the virus can be detected after that time – but we never have any way of knowing when a cat was exposed. so far, we’ve always been lucky. I forgot that we had an adult cat in 1992 that tested positive; we kept her isolated, and retested in 3 months – she was negative, and was adopted, and dumb adopter let her escape, we personally searched all over for her, but she was never found….. From: Felvtalk [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of janine paton Sent: Monday, October 08, 2012 11:46 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] 9 kittens, one testing pos Hi Natalie, We are not certain which is this kitten's mom, because the whole colony is mixed up. One mom drops 2 kittens off, another picks them up. They are all sharing. _____ From: Natalie <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, October 8, 2012 11:06:33 AM Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] 9 kittens, one testing pos Janine, you wrote that some of their moms tested negative. How about the positive kitten’s mom - was she pos or neg? I would retest with the ELISA. I find it strange that a kitten would show a weak positive if the mother was positive because their kittens are positive, or should be. If the kitten’s mom is not positive, could this kittens have been exposed to a positive cat and therefore be a weak positive? What was the vet’s explanation? I don’t have much experience with FeLV – I have quite a few FIV. I had a FeLV+ kitten years ago, and he died within 2 months. Last year, I had 2 FeLV+ adult cats (already in the bone marrow), one died of CRF and the other one was adopted by a veterinarian and still doing really well. Those two FeLV+ cats were living with a large group of healthy cats for about 6 months…I have retested, starting with the youngest and oldest, and then everyone in the middle – not a single cat contracted FeLV! I consider myself quite lucky! But there are many on this list who have FeLV+ cats living with healthy ones, some vaccinate the healthy ones, and some do not. Natalie From: Felvtalk [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of janine paton Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2012 8:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Felvtalk] 9 kittens, one testing pos Can anyone explain to me why if from point of exposure to actually testing pos is 28 days, if this is correct, why we can't just retest in one month using Elisa? And if all excepting the one testing weak pos, stjill test neg, is this good enough? All 8 kittens and some of their moms tested neg, just the one a weak pos. I am asking because I am trying to make this make sense to me and keep everyone safe. And foster homes understanding. Thanks, Janine
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