Lee, SO, so sorry about precious little Bunny. It doesn't sound like
there was anything you could have done. In my experience it is very
difficult for a healthy adult kitty to catch the virus from a virus+
kitty. I have 13, one is positive (though not symptomatic). It's in his
bone marrow. He's 6 1/2. He has been tested several times, and though
unsyptomatic, has always tesdted positive. Test all you kitties and
then relax. Theya re probably okay. Carolyn
On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Lee Evans wrote:
She came to me two and a half years ago when she was around 9 months
old. She had been abandoned at an apartment complex, rescued but then
tested FeLv+. She was brought to me to see if she would turn negative.
She did! I kept her anyway because she had a few bad habits, like biting
my fingers when I was sleeping and trying to tear apart my iPod
headphones. She was very mischievous. I named her Bunny because she was
brought to me on Easter Sunday. She has lived with me and two other
cats in my bedroom/home office since that Easter in 2011. About two
weeks ago I noticed a change in her behavior. She no longer pestered
Delilah, the resident female cat in the room and she seemed to lose
interest in sleeping on the bed with me and Samson and Delilah (the two
other cats in the room). However she was eating normally and nothing
else seemed out of place. I assumed that it was the change in the
weather from very hot to nice, cool evenings and then to rain. On
Saturday of last week she seemed lethargic. She was not eating her usual
amount of food and not drinking her usual amount of water. I checked her
gums to see if it might be stomatitis or some bad tooth upsetting her
but her gums were very pale and so was her tongue. I immediately thought
it was flea anemia. I took her to the vet on Tuesday because Monday is
usually very busy with dogs there. She was more lethargic and depressed
by then and her appetite had all but disappeared. She was still drinking
water. She had no fleas so I asked the vet to re-test her for FeLv. Sure
enough, she was positive. She had all the classic symptoms of active
FeLv. I was heart broken but still, I asked him to give her some meds to
make her more comfortable and perhaps get back her appetite. He gave
her cortisone. Today, she was no better. She just lay on her towel and
couldn't make it to the litter box although it was just a few steps
away. I took her in again and he gave her some fluids, not too much
because he said it would make her even more anemic. He gave her a little
more cortisone to try to kick start her appetite. I had been syringe
feeding her by then. He also gave her a small dose of Convenia and some
B-complex but nothing helped. She passed several hours after the vet
visit. I probably should have had him help her pass but I just didn't
want to give up hope.
There is a question here, in all this upsetting dialog. My other two
cats who slept with me and Bunny and groomed each other, ate with each
other, drank and used the same litter box are around 7 years old. The
vet told me that once they are into adulthood, they are not as likely to
get FeLv as they would if they were under 2 years old. Is this true? I
will have them tested in about 3 weeks anyway to see what happened, if
anything. Also, has anyone had the experience of a young cat throwing
off the virus and turning negative, then turning positive again after a
year, or was that second test after I had held her in isolation for 4
months a false negative?
Right now I'm fostering a kitten who has tested negative for FIV/FeLv.
She is several rooms away from where Bunny has lived. They never came in
contact with each other but I have walked from my bedroom into the
kitten's room to feed, clean, etc.. Did I put her at risk?
This is desperately upsetting. I have decided not to take in any more
fosters with FeLv. I have never had this happen before. Most of my
"turned" cats are still with me and are well into several years of
adulthood. I usually don't have good results with getting turned cats
adopted because most people don't want the possibility that the cat is
harboring the disease. Maybe Bunny had it in her bone marrow and tested
negative on the regular SNAP test. I should have tested with the IFA
also but don't have much money to spare.
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