I was reading (or saw on TV, I dunno which now) that one state (not sure
which one) is having a epidemic outbreak of rabies in the wild raccoon
populations. They are dropping bait (corn cakes) that is infused with
the rabies vaccine. I don't know how effective it is, or if it could be
used at all for FeLV, but maybe that is something to look into? I know
how expensive the vaccine is at my vets office, $14.00 a shot. But, I
believe you CAN get it through the discount vet supply catalogs for a
lot less for self-administration. (try Jeffers, 1-800-JEFFERS) I know
what you mean about the booster re-trap, that is a difficult problem.
Like you said, one shot would be better than none, I would think. You
have, by far, much more experience with feral cats. The most feral I've
ever had experience were abandoned non-socialized kittens (pretty
freekin wild), so you are by far more knowledgeable than I. But, I am
just throwing out my ideas, hopefully between all of us on this list, we
could think of an answer to this problem. I would make it a high
priority to watch the colony as closely as possible for new abandoned
pet cats, and trap them immediately and DO test all of them, healthy or
not, since they seem to be the source of the problem. Maybe you could
try to educate the college population about FeLV? Maybe poster the
campus with posters explaining the problem, and urge all students to
keep cats indoors, and maybe even give out a rescue number that will
take in pets from the college "no questions asked" to try to reduce the
amount of abandoned pets there? Most likely, the college students are
ignorant of the issue, and not so much intrenched in the "farm life"
mentality, just young and irresponsible. You might even find a few
students interested enough in the topic to include it in their studies
somehow, and make it a school project, or at least find a few cat loving
students who would be willing to "keep their eyes open" for potentially
abandoned pet cats on campus.
Jenn
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Jenn, it is not cost-feasible to test every cat in trap-neuter-release (which
I've been doing for ten years, by the way). Even Alley Cat Allies and Julie
Levy (who started Operation Catnip) quickly decided to spend their money on
more spay/neuter rather than testing, because as a general rule leuk in
particular is not found very often in feral colonies. You do see some FIV,
but there is more of both leuk and FIV in the pet cat population or the
recently abandoned pet cat population.
Carolyn has been trapping on the USC campus and around its general area for
at least 5 years (her hubby is a former provost of the University). She has
found very little leuk before, but almost everything she's trapped until now
has been very feral, indicating that these cats are the feral decendants of
other ferals in a long feral line, not recently abandoned pets. Occasionally
a student will abandon a tame kitty, and occasionally a more tame one wanders
into the area from surrounding residential neighborhoods.
The dilemma in knowing that there's been several leuk positives suddenly in a
particular area is that once you've been doing T/N/R for long time, it
becomes more and more demoralizing to trap and have to keep euthanizing.
None of us have any more room for healthy unadoptable kitties, let alone leuk
positives, yet most of these positives are currently healthy and have no
symptoms.
The whole of our area in general (Columbia, SC and surrounding counties) has
a higher-than-normal amount of leuk and FIV. We all preach to everyone we
meet to keep their cats indoors, but many of these people are rural or come
from a rural farm type background, and it's hard to convince them. So many
are just die-hards who feel cats should be out, no matter what. It doesn't
help that people such as a wealthy ad agency owner who is a "cat lover" and
has a 6,000 sq. ft. home with 11 acre wooded property feels that cats
shouldn't be confined, and that a "short happy life is better than an unhappy
cooped up life," so won't support indoor cats.
Vaccinating ferals for leuk is difficult for the same reason that we don't
test normally (unless they look sick) - it costs, and you can't retrap them
all for the second shot. I'm sure Carolyn will try to get at least one shot
into the cats from this area, despite the additional cost - Julie Levy feels
that one shot is better than none - might give them some immunity.
It has been shown in both Diane Addie's study and in a Spanish study of feral
colonies that it is not necessarily necessary to cull out positives. The
horizontal spread is usually minimal and the positives eventually succumb and
the colony is little affected overall (this is a perhaps surprising, but
interesting result of the Spanish study, in particular). Of course, if they
aren't culled, the colony should be watched/fed, so that the caretaker can
retrap any cats, if possible, who eventually become ill, so that they can be
euthanized at that point and not have to suffer unattended - but some go away
to die and you may not be able to.
The point regarding the vet was that the vet INSISTED the cats be euthanized.
I do not think this is the vet's choice - the client makes this decision.
The vet, of course, can refuse to treat/help the client further, and this is
what Carolyn was afraid of. However, she's just telling the vet she's taking
the positives home.
I felt like you did about the injured orange FIV kitty that my other friend
Faye and her neighbor trapped, but unfortunately they didn't listen to me.
Maybe if his condition deteriorates they will see that they have to retrap
him.
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