I have mixed FELV positive cats with negatives for at least 8 years and no problems. My vet said that as long as the negatives were vaccinated, all would be okay. In the last 2 years, no one has received any vaccinations and no problems. Could be that as Lance said, the adults have developed an immunity. All 4 of my cats are healthy. I lost 3 last year due to old age (17 years), not felv..
---- Lance <[email protected]> wrote: > There are many anecdotes on the FeLV lists of negatives accidentally mixing > with positives and never getting sick or testing positive. I saw this happen > with several of our own cats. There are posts from guardians who mixed > healthy, vaccinated negatives with positives, and the negatives stayed > negative. > > We know that adult cats have a certain natural resistance to the virus and > are less likely to be persistently infected. We do not know how strong this > resistance is, and for all we know, it might vary from cat to cat. > > Vaccination works well. It does not prevent 100% of infections. I’ve seen > 80-85% as a figure, but I’m not sure that AAFP or any other official > organization has given a number. > > I would be comfortable mixing if the negative was a healthy adult and once > the negative was vaccinated. I believe the vaccine takes a little time to > kick in, too, and it might require a booster if the cat has not been > previously vaccinated. Your vet will know. I would also consider using a > PureVax vaccine, as it is (in theory) less likely to cause a fibrosarcoma to > form at the vaccination site. Your vet will be able to tell you far more > about that than I could. > > Best wishes for you and Merlot, > > Lance > > On Aug 11, 2014, at 4:24 PM, Maya D'Alessio <[email protected]> wrote: > > > So, my one cat Merlot is clearly lonely. He is used to being second in > > command to our cat Yang who passed away. > > > > I work with a cat rescue, and the cats there all live communally until they > > are adopted (with a quarantine area for cats on meds/who are really sick). > > She thinks that there isn't much of a problem with bringing another cat in > > to the house, as long as the other cat is not immune compromised, etc. > > This contrasts with what my vet says - no other cat contact. > > > > I'm not sure who to believe here. Obviously FELV is contagious, and it is > > passed from cat to cat. The chance of that increases with increased > > contact, but the lady made it seem that for the 20 years she's been running > > the place she has only had a handful of FELV+ cats, none of them died from > > it, and she had a 19 year old cat who had lived with all of them test > > negative for FELV recently. I can't imagine being responsible for exposing > > another cat to the virus and getting them sick, but I also feel bad for > > Merlot who is lonely. I was thining maybe I would consider (in six months > > or so), trying to take in a cat who was not going to find another home. > > ie. an older cat, or a cat from a society that they were about to put down. > > > > What do you guys think / what has your vet said to you about this? > > > > -- > > Maya D'Alessio > > PhD student > > B1 377B, x32320 > > Graduate Student Endowment Fund Coordinator > > Biology GSA Vice Chair > > GSA Director At-Large > > University of Waterloo > > _______________________________________________ > > Felvtalk mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > [email protected] > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
