Hi Shelley -
First of all, thanks for giving this guy a chance & not immediately putting him
down.
1) A negative IFA does NOT mean the cat is not FeLV positive. It simply means
the virus is not replicating in his bone marrow.
If a cat has a positive SNAP test, he is still positive.
If you do get an IFA & it is positive, it simply means he will not throw
the virus off.
2) Those 3-way SNAP tests that test for heartworms are notoriously unreliable.
Our
shelter stopped using them after we had a slew of cats test
postitive for FeLV. They were retested on the 2-way test twice, & and came
up negative.
3) It is too late now, but I would never give an FelV cat an FVRCP vaccine. I
did that once to 2 sisters I had. One immediately became ill (she had
been healthy up until then) & died shortly afterward. Her sister died soon
after. I have heard of other FeLV cats getting sick right after FVRCP
vaccines. Not need to stress their immune systems out unless there is some
seriously good reason why you need to vaccinate.
4) I don't think L-Lysine can hurt. It's pretty cheap & you can get it in a
powder form you can sprinkle over their food.
5) I have used Interferon in the past, but from what I understand it takes a
long time to work. I stopped because I felt like I was stressing the cats out
too much with the daily medicine routine. Plus you have to give it to them
the right way. You can't just squirt it randomly in their mouths.
6) I think the best thing you can do is feed a high-quality food & keep stress
down.
Good luck!
Beth
Don't Litter, Fix Your Critter! www.Furkids.org
________________________________
From: Shelley Theye <ve...@bellsouth.net>
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Sent: Thursday, August 8, 2013 9:12 AM
Subject: [Felvtalk] introduction and some questions
Hi,
I finally was able to join your list and am so excited to be able to check in
for advice and any questions I might have for my cat Leo.
Some history-
I trapped Leo last summer to TNR for a neighbor who offered to keep/feed him
outdoors. He seemed feral, and was an elusive neighborhood stray for about 3
years prior. We think we know where he was born, as we rescued kittens that
were probably younger than him at that time, and they look very similar, from a
house where the owners moved and left the cats behind. :-( He has been chased
out of yards and finally had a yard to call home with this person, but he
tested positive for FeLV last summer and the neighbor would not commit to more
in-depth care even though he said he would continue to feed him outdoors in his
yard.
So, I ended up keeping him as an indoor cat, and he is tame now after housing
him in a taming cage that I learned about from the feral cat yahoo group. He
is afraid of new things, but is very sweet and gentle.
Right now I am keeping him separate from my other 3 indoor cats who are not
vaccinated for FeLV, and one has some
pretty bad aggression issues
Back on July 19, 2012, he was tested with a snap test for FeLV/FIV/heartworm,
he tested weak positive for FeLV, neg for the others.
The test used was slightly expired by a few months (was a test kit from our
rescue group, and I would have liked to have retested that day with a fresh in
date kit, but I didn't find out results until the end of that day when he was
wide awake and still assumed to be feral...)
I tried to bring him in a few days after that to a different vet to get
retested, but the vet clinic shook him out of the carrier and freaked him out
chasing him around the room, and he bit the tech through a towel and had to be
quarantined for 10 days for rabies, since his vacc. was less than 10 days old.
I was so upset wondering if that was the time he could maybe throw the virus
off, and he would be under so much stress as a feral cat in quarantine. :-(
He had to go to a vet again, in Nov, 2012 because I thought he had a urinary
blockage, but he ended up being OK. Anyway, this vet retested him because he
was very cooperative, with a SNAP 2 test (no heartworm), and I asked them to
use serum, assuming first vet used blood but I was not certain of that at the
time. It was positive again.
So, now it's a year later, he is seemingly healthy, teeth look good, good
appetite, he is about 4 years old.
I am wanting to do an IFA test. Do you think that he could still be negative
after this long?
At his check up yesterday, he received a Rabies Purevax vaccine, and I haven't
done an FVRCP booster yet. He had one FVRCP last summer. The vet suggested
adding Lysine powder, so I have that now, and she mentioned that they can add
Interferon to ringers solution and that one bag would last a long time, haven't
done that yet.
Just would love to get some thoughts on retesting and Interferon. Also, he
initially was said to have a grade 3 heart murmur while under anesthesia for
his neuter, but it hasn't been heard since...
So, with 2 positive SNAP tests (first one with slightly expired test kit)- is a
neg. IFA still a possibility?
Do you give FVRCP vacc. to your cats?
Thoughts on using Lysine and Interferon?
Thanks so much!
Shelley
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