[Felvtalk] Clean-up/Dealing with Virus afterwards?
Hi all, I had a message earlier this month about the cat we lost to FELV, Stitch. She'd been positive for several years and was the only cat we had. We're not anywhere near ready emotionally to get another cat yet, and probably won't be for at least a few months, but I do know we will at some point so I'd like to see if there's anything special or particular we should be doing now to make sure there aren't any live remnants of the virus around when we do? Thanks, Joe ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Good evening, I don't know if anyone currently active remembers me, I first signed up for this list in April of 2007, when one cat (Chewie) was diagnosed with FELV after getting sick. I haven't been really active on here since, but I thought I'd post again with an update. My original introduction message is copied below. It is with sadness that I report that Stitch, who I mentioned originally has having been tested shortly after Chewie died has now left us, almost exactly 3 years after Chewie did. Stitch has done great these last few years, we never had any problems and had some hopes that she might have fought the virus off. Sadly, this was not the case. She started acting sick this weekend and we brought her to the vet on Tuesday. She'd lost a few pounds since her last visit, and a blood test revealed that she was very low on red blood cells, the Vet thinking that she had a bone marrow disease as she didn't seem to have any new red blood cells at all (could this be myeloproliferative leukemia, which I've seen mentioned in other places?). Given that she was FELV positive and was clearly suffering, we decided to have her put to sleep. Anyway, though I haven't been really active here, folks were very helpful after my initial post and the info and support I did get here were instrumental in keeping Stich as healthy as she was for as long as she was. It's still really hard, but I know that we did everything that we could for her. She was a very special kitty, and she'll be greatly missed. These are direct links to photos I have stored on my Facebook stage, I'm not sure if they'll work like this, but we shall see. These are both very recent photos of Stitch: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs417.snc3/25118_384112819913_539489913_3684055_4308847_n.jpg http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs437.snc3/25118_384111604913_539489913_3684051_7341747_n.jpg Thanks, Joe Reil redshar...@yahoo.com _ Howdy all, This is my first post to this list, thought I'd do a bit of intro. We had three cats in our family. The older two were both castaways that were adopted as adults. Zoro was the oldest and I adopted him from a co-worker when I lived by myself. He died several years ago. The remaining two were Stitch and Chewie. Chewie was the next oldest. She had a really hard start to life, she was originally found, as a stray by some friends of ours. She was probably two or three at the time and she had evidence of being abused - she had some suspicious scars on her underside. She lived with them for a while, very shy/nervous and eventually came out of her shell. A couple years later, they had to move, and couldn't take her with them so we took her in. We had her for several years as well and while we don't know her exact age, best estimate put her at 8-10 years old when she died last month. She had a loss of appetite and started losing weight. She had two trips to the Vet - after the first visit she took a serious turn for the worse so we had her back at the vet only a few days later. A blood test on the second visit revealed that she had FelV. So, considering she was very sick and was suffering from a pretty serious disease we opted to put her to sleep then. :( I didn't know much about FelV then (and I'm still learning about it), but information from both our Vet and online resources I found indicated that it was contagious so we decided to have our third (and youngest) cat tested for it. Stitch is the only one we got as a Kitten and she's about 3.5 years old. I brought her to the vet this weekend and she tested positive for FelV. :( I do intend to learn as much as I can about the disease so we can keep her with us as long as possible. I know that it will eventually catch up to her and our main thing will be to put that off as long as possible. She's still young and healthy so hopefully that'll be a long time still. :) We had been planning to get a second cat, but we've put that plan on hold now. I know it is possible to inoculate against FelV, but given that the vaccine takes a while to take effect, we'd either have to quarantine the new cat until the vaccine took effect or find it someplace else to live for a month or so, and on top of all that I don't think we want to put Stitch through the stress of another housemate at the moment (she doesn't react well to strangers). Thanks, Joe ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: Stitch - Questions!
Stitch devoured the Turducken, I guess the name didn't throw her off so much. --- wendy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: lololol...you guys are so damn funny!!! thanks for the laugh. turducken cracks me up! --- Joe Reil [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The other thing with the Merrick's is, at least among the 6 or 7 flavors they had available at my pet store, about half of them contained some sort of shellfish (Crab, Crawfish or Lobster). My wife is severely allergic to shellfish and we don't bring any into the house, so that ruled out about half of what they had available right up front. Stitch seems to like the Pot Pie variety, trying something else tonight... --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Mine like the merrick, but prefer certain flavors. Favs are Grammy's Pot Pie and Southern Delight. They seem to NOT like the Turducken as much... but then would I like something with the word turd in it's name either? LOL! Phaewryn http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html Special Needs Cat Resources __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Stitch - Questions!
The other thing with the Merrick's is, at least among the 6 or 7 flavors they had available at my pet store, about half of them contained some sort of shellfish (Crab, Crawfish or Lobster). My wife is severely allergic to shellfish and we don't bring any into the house, so that ruled out about half of what they had available right up front. Stitch seems to like the Pot Pie variety, trying something else tonight... --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Mine like the merrick, but prefer certain flavors. Favs are Grammy's Pot Pie and Southern Delight. They seem to NOT like the Turducken as much... but then would I like something with the word turd in it's name either? LOL! Phaewryn http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html Special Needs Cat Resources __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Stitch - Questions!
Hi Joe, I have seen several times on two different kitty 'sites' that some cats don't like Merrick, so don't be surprised if Stitch won't eat it. I hope he does, because it's supposed to be good stuff, but if not, there's other good stuff out there. BTW...I could use your advice in making weekly supplies of salad for myself...lol. Stitch seems to be enjoying the Merrick's just fine. She sniffed at it a little the first time I put some down and she was wolfing it down shortly thereafter. As far as the Iguana Salads, it was a good mix for an Iguana, but probably not as appetizing for a human. I usually made up a week's supply at a time and it varied a little from week to week... The usual mix was a leafy green, usually collards, sometimes parsley or dandelion greens, an orange veggie, usually carrots or squash, and then string beans, parsnips and some vitamin supplements mixed in on top of all that. Into a blender they went. Like I said, great for an Iguana, probably not a good mix for us, even though many of the individual ingredients could be tasty. :) __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
RE: Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch/Cassidy
I don't know where you live, but Cassidy is the most beautiful, friendly, loving cat! He's probably less than one year old, or around there. Here's his picture: He's gorgeous. I'm up in Vermont but am not really in a position to take in other cats at the moment, mostly because of Stitch's particular personality issues. :) If I think of or find anyone who is, though, or if my situation changes, I'll keep you in mind. Best of luck with your new quest on educating yourself on FeLV. There's so much to learn as I've found out this past week! But, the people here are so helpful and understanding-I'm so glad you've found this resource as well! Thanks! Joe [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Ages please
1. Chewie - unsure of age - probably 7-9. She was diagnosed right around the time she died - about a month ago now. 2. Stitch - 2.5 - tested positive for FelV after we had her tested shortly after Chewie died. Joe __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Stitch - Questions!
feeding a super-premium commercial cat food, such as Innova, Wellness, Chicken Soup for the Cat, or Felidae (just some good examples - I feed felidae or Innova dry and merrick or innova canned), or you can make your own homemade diet using a recipe found My local small pet store seems to be well stocked and has Innova dry and canned and Merrick's canned, as well as a few other brands (Nature's Own I think was the other big one). I bought a couple cans of the Merrick's today so we'll see how she likes that. If she likes those I'll probably see about ordering larger supplies. I may go the route of making our own stuff here at some point, but not quite ready for that adventure. :) Still not an entirely alien experience as I've kept Iguanas in the past and I put quite a bit of effort into making weekly supplies of salad for them, when I still had them. :) I'm also a little curious about Interferon, which I've seen mentioned. Is this simply an immune booster or is it doing something else? As some have mentioned I probably will plan to get her retested in about 6 months, my only real concern with the Interferon is if it turns out she is clean on her second test is that something that can have any harmful effects? Another consideration is that the vet recommended a teeth cleaning because she's got some tartar/calculus build up and her gums are kind of red. The vet did mention that because of the FELV+ result, that we should give her antibiotics a day or two before she's due for that procedure to give her system a boost before the procedure, any opinions on that? I've also seen blood-tests what-not mentioned. I'm assuming when these are talked about, they're primarily general well-being kind of tests? This is something I should do? What type of results would be ideal/bad/inbetween? i.e., what should we be looking for? Thanks, Joe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Also, it's not a great picture, but I do have a photo of Stitch posted on a web-forum I take part in (related to Fender guitars): http://www.fenderforum.com/userphotos/index.html?recid=18077 The other cat in the photo is Zoro and this picture was taken probably a month or two before he died, back in 2005. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Welcome to the group. You came to the right place for more info! Something I just have to mention though, right off-hand, is the option to adopt another FELV+ cat! Perhaps at some point, but not yet. :) Thanks for the welcome, I've already gotten some useful info and I'll be asking questions as soon as I collect my thoughts and figure out what to ask! anyways, so be sure your vet ISN'T. Other vaccines should be carefully reconsidered, and only given if the risk indicates it's required to protect the cat. Any vaccine causes stress to the immune system, and since FELV is an immune system virus, you want to try to keep it as STRONG as possible, and vaccines are a extra weight on an already compromised system. For those you do choose to continue to give, you should request a non-adjuvanted version of the vaccine, as it has less harmful, toxic, and carcinogenic ingredients than regular vaccines (yes, vaccines are VERY nasty things - most people don't realize). Our vet seems to be good as they did go over this with me. She did say there were some vaccines we may consider and some we definitely shouldn't bother with. Stitch is a 99% of the time indoor cat. The only time we let her outside is with supervision, and even then not very often. Outside of the vaccination issue, there's general health and immune system considerations. The VERY FIRST thing you need to evaluate is the food you are feeding. FELV+ cats require a very optimal diet, and this is highly varied depending on owner preferences, BUT, you should either be feeding a super-premium commercial cat food, such as Innova, Wellness, Chicken Soup for the Cat, or Felidae (just some good examples - I feed felidae or Innova dry and merrick or innova canned), or you can make your own homemade diet using a recipe found from a reputable source, OR, you can feed raw (also requires good recipes to obtain optimal nutritional balance). I'll check these out. Any suggestions as to where I'd find these? I have a small, but well stocked pet store nearby, we also have a Petsmart about 45 minutes away. If neither of these are workable, are there any good web dealers selling these products? (I'll start with the link from the bottom of your e-mail - anywhere else I should be checking out?). Joe 8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time with the Yahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#news
Re: To Joe: Re: Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Welcome to the group. I'm really sorry to hear about Chewie and that Stitch has also tested positive for FeLV. Thanks. :) The best thing you can do for Stitch is to educate yourself on this virus. That's why I'm here. :) If Stitch is asymptomatic, there's not much else you can do, other than considering supplements for her immune system, like L-lysine (without propynol glycol) or Mega C. And keep us bookmarked because this is the place to be for FeLV info. Bless you for not pts this kitty and for taking such good care of her. Thanks. I couldn't see putting her to sleep now - she's still young, healthy and active. I've never understood people who can do that so easily... Chewie was very obviously sick and was getting worse rapidly so I think I made the right decision, but I'd like to put that off for Stitch as long as possible. Take care and keep us posted on Stitch! Will do! Thanks, Joe Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html
Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Howdy all, This is my first post to this list, thought I'd do a bit of intro. We had three cats in our family. The older two were both castaways that were adopted as adults. Zoro was the oldest and I adopted him from a co-worker when I lived by myself. He died several years ago. The remaining two were Stitch and Chewie. Chewie was the next oldest. She had a really hard start to life, she was originally found, as a stray by some friends of ours. She was probably two or three at the time and she had evidence of being abused - she had some suspicious scars on her underside. She lived with them for a while, very shy/nervous and eventually came out of her shell. A couple years later, they had to move, and couldn't take her with them so we took her in. We had her for several years as well and while we don't know her exact age, best estimate put her at 8-10 years old when she died last month. She had a loss of appetite and started losing weight. She had two trips to the Vet - after the first visit she took a serious turn for the worse so we had her back at the vet only a few days later. A blood test on the second visit revealed that she had FelV. So, considering she was very sick and was suffering from a pretty serious disease we opted to put her to sleep then. :( I didn't know much about FelV then (and I'm still learning about it), but information from both our Vet and online resources I found indicated that it was contagious so we decided to have our third (and youngest) cat tested for it. Stitch is the only one we got as a Kitten and she's about 3.5 years old. I brought her to the vet this weekend and she tested positive for FelV. :( I do intend to learn as much as I can about the disease so we can keep her with us as long as possible. I know that it will eventually catch up to her and our main thing will be to put that off as long as possible. She's still young and healthy so hopefully that'll be a long time still. :) We had been planning to get a second cat, but we've put that plan on hold now. I know it is possible to inoculate against FelV, but given that the vaccine takes a while to take effect, we'd either have to quarantine the new cat until the vaccine took effect or find it someplace else to live for a month or so, and on top of all that I don't think we want to put Stitch through the stress of another housemate at the moment (she doesn't react well to strangers). Thanks, Joe Need Mail bonding? Go to the Yahoo! Mail QA for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=listsid=396546091
Re: Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Hi Joe and welcome to the list. Bless you for being the type of person to take in animals in need. My condolences on losing Zoro and Stitch. Thanks. :) It is entirely possible that Zoro had it first. I'd consider that less likely because Zoro was always well kept with regular veterinary care. At this point it doesn't really matter. Zoro's death was completely unrelated to FelV, btw. Everyone in this group understands the bonds of interspecies love and we know how much it hurts. You must be reeling from Chewie's pos test result. Did you bring Chewie home while Zoro was still with you? Minor confusion here. :) Chewie is the one who died recently, about a month ago. She was VERY sick and tested positive for FelV which led to our decision to put her to sleep. Stitch is now our only cat, and was the youngest of the three that we have had. I got Zoro first, when I was living by myself. Later on, when I was first living with my wife, before we were married, we got Chewie. Stitch came after that. There's no way to know who transmitted the disease to whom, I was just wondering. The good news is that Chewie is 3.5 yrs. Kittens who present symptoms of the disease usually do so before their 3rd birthday, so it's fabulous that Chewie is so healthy. Now I'm second-guessing. I remember we got Stitch around Thanksgiving - and that she was born in October but I'm having a hard time remembering if it was 2003 or 2004 that she was born and it makes a difference. :) are so many false pos using the in-house ELISA test that there is always the hope that they aren't really pos at all. Given your history, it seems less likely in your case though. It could be that Chewie is a carrier and will never develop symptoms, it could be that she is in the process of fighting off the disease and will later test neg. That's interesting. I had heard that healthy-appearing cats can show a false-negative, but that false-positives were not as common. In the meantime, you might want to visit our archives and do searches on our past discussions. I'll definitely do that. Is there a FAQ available? like. This is a very informative and supportive group, we're all in this together. Again, Thank you, Joe Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection. Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/features_spam.html
Re: Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Sorry for getting their names confused. (No offense Stitch!). My brain doesn't seem to be working that great at the moment. Just for clarification, Zoro never tested pos for felv? Correct. It is possible that he had it, but he was never tested for it (while he was in my care), nor was I given any indication from his original owners that it was a possibility - they had another cat from the same litter who was still alive and healthy when Zoro died (at around 13). They also had another unrelated cat. We don't have a FAQ section, but if you put in a key word in the search box you should come up with lots of results. Is there something specific that you are wondering about? Not yet, but I thought I'd start there. :) Thanks, Joe Don't get soaked. Take a quick peek at the forecast with the Yahoo! Search weather shortcut. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#loc_weather
