My parents lost a cat in the early 80’s to FELV or FIV (never got it clear).  The vet was also so reluctant to tell them anything about these diseases… but remember that there was so much fear then around these strange ‘viruses’ and it didn’t help that feline aids-feline leukemia just sounded too much like adult AIDS.  As a social worker, I worked with people with AIDS when the disease first became known and let me tell you,  the treatment cats got was about the same treatment that people got!! Most folks were so frightened about contagion that no one even said the word out loud.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 12:18 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: contagiousness of FELV and other thoughts.../strain

 

I lost my very own first kitty that was a Siamese in 1974 to FELV. The Vets wouldn't be honest with me about his illness. Before he died he had to have his chest drained of the fluid buildup, tumor, and the foul smell/breathe/gums were bad. Come to think about it, after years of being around other FELV kitties he had all the signs of FELV. I lived at the time right around the corner from a Veterinary College. They wanted to euthanized right away but wouldn't tell me what was really wrong with him. He had a bad case of URI is what they told me. Yeah right! They knew what it was.

He died in my bath tub it was one of my saddest days in my life because I wasn't with him. I was in school.

He only lived to be two yrs old.

 

In a message dated 12/8/2004 2:41:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

I've dealing with this disease since before it had a name -- back in the 60s
when everyone thought FeLV was a "new" virus.  Its actually an ancient
virus - 1 -10 million years old (interesting story), it was merely
discovered in 1964.

I lost one cat to this virus a long time ago and another after a 6 year
battle.  I'm presently working with 3 FeLV cats.  Btw, the often mentioned
"2.5 - 3 year lifespan" of FeLV cats is not absolute.  Thus the importance
of subgroups.

I'm happy we cleared up the misunderstandings.  I'm looking forward to
learning a lot from this group and sharing the little knowledge I have.

Ong

 

<<image001.jpg>>

<<image002.jpg>>

Reply via email to