Hello, I just joined this list due to my recent capture of a stray female kitty that I've been feeding for about 5-6 yrs now. Up 'til now, she had been living behind the restaurant our family owns. She never let me pet her until earlier this year. I finally decided to bring this sweet girl (already spayed; no kittens in the yrs I've been feeding her) home with me on Christmas Eve. I just didn't want her to go through anymore cold winter weather like she has been for the last several years. I named her Squeaky because she kinda squeaks when she meows.
I took her to my vet a few days after I brought her home. She is FeLV+. :-( Both tests (ELISA and IFA) were positive. She appears healthy at this time, other than a couple of abscessed teeth and a slight heart murmur. My dilemma is what to do with her. I have 14 other cats, all FeLV negative. For now, Squeaky is living in our garage in an x-large sized wire dog crate. There's room for a big litter box, her food and water, and a blanket. She seems pretty content out there; always meows and purrs when I go out to see her. I just hate to keep her out there much longer. But I don't want infect my other cats by mixing her with them. What I plan on doing is bringing her inside in the next few days to live in our spare bedroom/cat quarantine room. However, that room is currently occupied by 2 feral approx 5 month old kittens, and what I think is their father, an approx 2 yr old male who I had neutered right after I captured him, which was about a month ago. The kittens have been here for a little over a week. They are little girls who were spayed the day after I captured them. These 3 aren't very socialized yet. I haven't even been able to pet them. So, I was planning on just letting the 2 kittens and the daddy out of that room and hope for the best as far as integrating them with my other 11 cats. That way, Squeaky can live in that room by herself and I won't have to worry about her infecting the others. And, she will have a pretty good live, albeit confined to only one room of the house. So, I joined this list to learn more about FeLV and how others have dealt with this disease. I'm especially interested in how multi-cat households are managed. Squeaky is the first feral/stray I've captured (I've captured 8 over the last 3 yrs) that has been FeLV+. Does everyone keep their FeLV+ cats separate from negative cats? Also, can anyone explain this........ALL 8 of the cats I've captured in the last 3 yrs have lived in the same area behind our restaurant that Squeaky lived in. They all drank from the same water bowl, ate from the same food dish, etc. And yet, none of them were FeLV+. Wouldn't that be a little unusual? Thanks for any input any of you might have. I hope to hear from you soon! Janet in Austin, TX plus 15 felines [EMAIL PROTECTED]
