RE: Introduction and new cat question - My experience - sorry guys it's long
Thanks Belinda--I'm keeping this in a special folder for future ref! Kerry -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Belinda Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 8:28 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: Introduction and new cat question - My experience - sorry guys it's long Leslie, Negative cats can live with positive cats? I'd love to hear more about this from anyone that has/is successfully done it. To answer your question, I have over the course of the last 11 years mixed negatives and positives. Bailey joined us back in 1995, I had 3 cats at that time and they were all vaccinated and negative, when I found Bailey he was 5 months old and tested positive. I had him separated in his own room while I was trying to figure out how to convince hubby we were keeping him. My negatives at that time were Joey, 4 months old, Fred, about 4 years old, and Teenye, about 11 years old, all negative all vaccinated. I came home one day after having Bailey for about 5 months and couldn't find Joey, well the little stinker finally came out from under Bailey's bedroom door, he'd been sneaking in there playing with Bailey all along while I was at work. Well I didn't see any point in keeping them separate anymore, Joey had unknowingly exposed himself and everyone else for the last 5 months. I decided Bailey had found us for a reason and left everything to my faith in a higher power. I just lost Bailey on May 6th, 2006, 5 days after he turned 11 years old, he succumbed to pancreatic cancer which my vet say's mostly likely wasn't even related to his FeLV+ status, he was just unfortunate enough to get this type of cancer. In 11 years nobody ever got it from Bailey, all of my guys, ate, groomed, played, slept and on occasion had spats together. Joey and Bailey were very close and Joey so about 2 or 3 years ago I had him PCR (DNA) tested to be sure he wasn't positive and he wasn't, if anybody would have gotten it would have been him. Every year before vaccinations I had the negatives tested, everyone stayed negative. My vet wasn't in the least bit worried about them all living together, it's a well known fact to anyone that is knowledgeable about FeLV that it isn't as easy to catch as way too many vets who are NOT knowledgeable on FeLV will tell you. A healthy, adult, vaccinated cat has almost zero chance of getting it from a positive, and if they did their own immune system would almost certainly fight it off and they would turn negative. Kittens are alittle more susceptible but in my personal experience back in the 90's before I even know what FeLV was I had 5 cats all indoor, my then vet didn't tell me to vaccinate them for FeLV and being all indoor I wasn't too worried about it. Well long story short, come to find out 4 of my 5 were positive, Buddie whom I got at 8 weeks of age and she wasn't vaccinated for FeLV either at that time because at that time I didn't know I had any positives, she was the only one who tested negative when I did have them all tested. So this 8 week old unvaccinated kitten was around unknown positives all along and never got it. Teenye tested positive but turned negative and the other three I lost in a 15 month period to cancer and anemia. I don't know how many were positive when I got them because being naive back then and having a vet who wasn't very knowledgeable about it I never had any of them tested until one got sick. The current statistics say 1/3 of the positives will fight it off and be negative, I personally think that number is higher, because in my opinion many are never diagnosed, 1/3 will have it and be unsymptomatic for all or most of their lives, many of these in my opinion remain undiagnosed also, so people may have positives and never know it, and 1/3 may be sickly most of their lives and will eventually succumb to an opportunistic disease such as lymphoma, an anemia related illness, or something as simple as a severe URI, chronic herpes, or other viral infection that they just can't fight off. Of the last 1/3 that are sickly many will get it while very young, at birth or soon after birth. But as with anything there are exceptions to this rule also and Bailey is a testament to that, at 5 months he was already positive and who knows when he contracted it. He was healthy all his life until about the last year or so, his first problem was with his teeth, we fixed that and he was fine again until his last 5 months when he turned up anemic which we corrected, but we never could find the cancer we were sure he had. We didn't find it until he past and like I said my vet didn't think his positive status had anything to do with it, it wasn't a cancer that is associated or common with positives. ANY vet who suggests killing a cat simply because they test positive would NOT be touching any of my furkids, if they are that ignorant about
RE: Introduction and new cat question - My experience - sorry guys it's long
1/3 will have it and be unsymptomatic for all or most of their lives, many of these in my opinion remain undiagnosed also, so people may have positives and never know it How very true! Most cats are never tested and if they're never sick, for sure they're not tested. This is not a new virus and has been around forever--if it were all that lethal, there wouldn't be any cats left in this world! I'm afraid that the high mortality rates come from strays who are brought to vets already very sick and young kittens. These are the most vulnerable to begin with. Strays who really live on their own do not have a long life expectancy to begin with... Kittens, well sadly, there are so many things that can happen to them. So, as a 'mixer', I give my 5 guys lots of good food, love, a warm place and keep my fingers crossed that my two pos don't develop some of those cancers that FELV+ cats can be prone to. As for my 3 negs, I don't worry about them catching anything...they were exposed long before I knew that one of my pos was pos and didn't catch anything! Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Belinda Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 9:28 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: Introduction and new cat question - My experience - sorry guys it's long Leslie, Negative cats can live with positive cats? I'd love to hear more about this from anyone that has/is successfully done it. To answer your question, I have over the course of the last 11 years mixed negatives and positives. Bailey joined us back in 1995, I had 3 cats at that time and they were all vaccinated and negative, when I found Bailey he was 5 months old and tested positive. I had him separated in his own room while I was trying to figure out how to convince hubby we were keeping him. My negatives at that time were Joey, 4 months old, Fred, about 4 years old, and Teenye, about 11 years old, all negative all vaccinated. I came home one day after having Bailey for about 5 months and couldn't find Joey, well the little stinker finally came out from under Bailey's bedroom door, he'd been sneaking in there playing with Bailey all along while I was at work. Well I didn't see any point in keeping them separate anymore, Joey had unknowingly exposed himself and everyone else for the last 5 months. I decided Bailey had found us for a reason and left everything to my faith in a higher power. I just lost Bailey on May 6th, 2006, 5 days after he turned 11 years old, he succumbed to pancreatic cancer which my vet say's mostly likely wasn't even related to his FeLV+ status, he was just unfortunate enough to get this type of cancer. In 11 years nobody ever got it from Bailey, all of my guys, ate, groomed, played, slept and on occasion had spats together. Joey and Bailey were very close and Joey so about 2 or 3 years ago I had him PCR (DNA) tested to be sure he wasn't positive and he wasn't, if anybody would have gotten it would have been him. Every year before vaccinations I had the negatives tested, everyone stayed negative. My vet wasn't in the least bit worried about them all living together, it's a well known fact to anyone that is knowledgeable about FeLV that it isn't as easy to catch as way too many vets who are NOT knowledgeable on FeLV will tell you. A healthy, adult, vaccinated cat has almost zero chance of getting it from a positive, and if they did their own immune system would almost certainly fight it off and they would turn negative. Kittens are alittle more susceptible but in my personal experience back in the 90's before I even know what FeLV was I had 5 cats all indoor, my then vet didn't tell me to vaccinate them for FeLV and being all indoor I wasn't too worried about it. Well long story short, come to find out 4 of my 5 were positive, Buddie whom I got at 8 weeks of age and she wasn't vaccinated for FeLV either at that time because at that time I didn't know I had any positives, she was the only one who tested negative when I did have them all tested. So this 8 week old unvaccinated kitten was around unknown positives all along and never got it. Teenye tested positive but turned negative and the other three I lost in a 15 month period to cancer and anemia. I don't know how many were positive when I got them because being naive back then and having a vet who wasn't very knowledgeable about it I never had any of them tested until one got sick. The current statistics say 1/3 of the positives will fight it off and be negative, I personally think that number is higher, because in my opinion many are never diagnosed, 1/3 will have it and be unsymptomatic for all or most of their lives, many of these in my opinion remain undiagnosed also, so people may have positives and never know it, and 1/3 may be sickly most of their lives and will eventually succumb to an opportunistic disease
