Pam, I agree. In my training last week I was stunned to find out that the cats at OK are NOT vaccinated for Felv! Keep in mind we test new commers ONCE on Elisa, and if they are negative, non-aggressive, not afraid of other cats, otherwise healthy, no special diets, etc. they are put right into the open cat room.
The ones giving the class just sort of blew it off. I am going to take this up with Johnnie (director) or Sandi (shelter manager) at least. One of the people giving the class said how it was expensive to retest and vaccinate, and impractical to isolate for 90 days in the first place. So at that point I DID say that if you want to have the luxury of an open cat room, scrimping on AT LEAST vaccines for Felv is not an option. You cannot put unvaccinated cats who were not tested 100% to protocol in the same room with no vaccine. Period. It's not even an option. Anyway, I didn't push it any further w/ her since she has no say so anyway. What I think may give me some footing w/ Johnnie is that we have a slight problem right now. She decided to do retests on all cats in the shelter. In the open cat room where no one is vaccinated, Ophelia, Prince, and Petunia have tested positive. Ophelia was adopted by a staff member before she was IFA tested. I think he is going to have it done, but I'm not sure. Petunia IFA'd positive and Prince is getting his done this Friday. What is very frightening is that Petunia has been there, in the open w/ all the other cats, since 1994!!!! She is semi-feral and up in the rafters most of the time anyway, and she even eats up there. So at least there isn't tons of grooming and food sharing on her part, but she does use the litter boxes. I am so pissed. They keep talking about the "integrity of the shelter" when dealing with clients, but what about when these clients have cats who end up testing Felv+ b/c they were exposed BY US?! Oh yeah, we are having words about this o! ne. BTW- can you give me the info on the $5 IFA tests? I think that may help pursuade them. But you know, what is the cost in the long run? I think they were operating on the premise that one test would show a positive result if the cat had it, and that we haven't had a Felv problem at the shelter before. Well wake up and smell the Felv people. She is going to have to retest everyone every 90 days at this rate b/c we don't isolate, don't vaccinate, and don't retest. I hate to always say this, but if it were a dog issue, we wouldn't even be talking about it. The proper procedure would just be followed. Period. Grrrr... Jamie
