Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
i think you owe it to others who adopt from this shelter and the shelter itself to tell them about this. maybe they don't realize that they should test all cat coming to them and maybe they are staffed by Hello, I spoke to the volunteers of the shelter about my cat, but the situation has gotten worse. They says they informed me he was not tested and I remember clearly they did not. So, we are on opposite sides. However, they now do test their cats, even if I think that those tests cannot be accurate 100% due to the living situation in a shelter, where many cats are together and diseases can be spreaded easily. The situation in my home is: Trudi, FIV- FeLV+, with dermatitis and stomatitis. She seem better than before, but not ok. She has a check-up scheduled for next saturday. Ginny, negative for both. Babette, negative for both and under vaccination just now (she got the first shot and on saturday she will receive the second one). I hope everything is well. Miro, FIV and FeLV+, under this last two weeks has developed a serious illnes that can be something of the liver or FIP! This was the final stroke, for me. I'm very very sad. The vets suspect FIP or another disease and we sent a sample of its abdominal liquid for a PCR. Does anyone have info about FIP? I have read a lot and discovered that it's very difficult to diagnose, so maybe he has another disease and it's better to treat him for them. I know that FIP has no cure. Stefania ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
I concur about the FELV and the FIV - some vets just don't seem to keep up, or have much personal knowledge of these viruses. Gloria On Mar 6, 2009, at 10:02 PM, dlg...@windstream.net dlg...@windstream.net wrote: re: vets. how true. i feel i am lucky that my vet has an open mind and if i tell him about something i have read about, he asks for a copy if it is something he is unaware of. i also put him onto this site and he is now a fan. great to have a vet who admits he doesn't know everything and is willing to learn more. dorlis Rosenfeldt wrote: Stef -- Sorry you're having all this trouble and worry right now. About FIV, you are right and your vet is wrong. It is VERY hard to transmit other than through fighting (deep bites) and sex. It's much less contagious than FeLV, and even FeLV appears to be not as contagious as originally thought. I'm on a feral cat list where there has been some discussion of FeLV, and people have said they've seen cat colonies where they know that some cats are FeLV+, and if it's as transmissible as we're supposed to believe, the whole colonies should have gotten sick and died, and they just haven't. The trouble is that for some reason some vets don't keep up with new research as much as they should, and keep giving wrong information, and more importantly, don't know the right things to do to keep the cats as healthy as possible or to treat them properly when they do get sick. Your cats are very cute! Diane R. -Original Message- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org ] On Behalf Of Stefania Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:34 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Hi Chris, thank-you very much for sharing your story. The problem here is that in these days I read very much on FeLV and FIV and I agree with you. My cats have always been together (except for Trudi, who is a lone wolf), they play, groom each other and they eat together even if they have one bowl each :-) They go out and I live in the country, so there are surely many stray cats and many owners who don't bother to test their cats! What am I supposed to do? I don't want to keep them inside because it's like a prison for them. On friday I will test the last two of them and I strongly hope they're negative, so I will continue to vaccine them and hope. My vet scared me a lot saying that FIV is very transmissible and the virus is strong and cats can catch it by grooming each other. Since I knew that it's not so, I tried to ask once again to this vet, but she keeps on saying that FIV spreads very well. I'm really surprised to hear so... I so decided to take Trudi to another vet and she immediately recognized stomatitis in her mouth (which the first one denied) and nose. She simply gave me a gel for her mouth. About the dermatitis: it can be for amoxicillin but we don't know. We decided to use, first, something against fleas and then wait and see. If the situation does not change, we will try with a local gel. Has anyone had experience with dermatitis? For Trudi it's the first time, and that's why I think it was the amoxicillin. If you want to see picture of my 4 babies, I have a blog. It's written in cattish so you cannot understand, but you can see pictures. It's www.trumiro.com Hi all! Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/ felvtalk_felineleukemia.org This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission from your system. In addition, in order to comply with Treasury Circular 230, we are required to inform you that unless we have specifically stated to the contrary in writing, any advice we provide in this email or any attachment concerning federal tax issues or submissions is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, to avoid federal tax penalties. ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/ felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Very sorry to hear this, Stefania--I would suggest joining posting to the FIP group, there are some people on there who are very knowledgable about things to try to rule out with FIP diagnosis and such. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FIP/ Post any test results you have. I hope and pray Miro does not have FIP, give him a kiss for us! Heather On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 10:16 AM, Stefania pebble...@yahoo.it wrote: i think you owe it to others who adopt from this shelter and the shelter itself to tell them about this. maybe they don't realize that they should test all cat coming to them and maybe they are staffed by Hello, I spoke to the volunteers of the shelter about my cat, but the situation has gotten worse. They says they informed me he was not tested and I remember clearly they did not. So, we are on opposite sides. However, they now do test their cats, even if I think that those tests cannot be accurate 100% due to the living situation in a shelter, where many cats are together and diseases can be spreaded easily. The situation in my home is: Trudi, FIV- FeLV+, with dermatitis and stomatitis. She seem better than before, but not ok. She has a check-up scheduled for next saturday. Ginny, negative for both. Babette, negative for both and under vaccination just now (she got the first shot and on saturday she will receive the second one). I hope everything is well. Miro, FIV and FeLV+, under this last two weeks has developed a serious illnes that can be something of the liver or FIP! This was the final stroke, for me. I'm very very sad. The vets suspect FIP or another disease and we sent a sample of its abdominal liquid for a PCR. Does anyone have info about FIP? I have read a lot and discovered that it's very difficult to diagnose, so maybe he has another disease and it's better to treat him for them. I know that FIP has no cure. Stefania ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
i agree with the others, sounds like thyroid. my Shalimar had hyper thyroid and she did the same thing. she also had a habit o spitting out the pills for it . had to give them, did radio active iodine which makes it necessary to supplement the thyroid. got so i had to hold her and rub down on her throat until she swallowed pill. dorlis Pebble pebble...@yahoo.it wrote: Please, can anyone help me? My cat has dermatitis and she keeps on taking away her hair. I don't know what to think! My vet says we have to wait but the cat gets worse. Stefania Chiacchiera con i tuoi amici in tempo reale! http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/*http://it.messenger.yahoo.com ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
i think you owe it to others who adopt from this shelter and the shelter itself to tell them about this. maybe they don't realize that they should test all cat coming to them and maybe they are staffed by volunteers and don't have enough people to get everything done. hopefully, when you tell them they will change their ways. dorlis Stefania pebble...@yahoo.it wrote: I am certainly not diagnosing your cat. In humans a smooth tongue is a symptom of anemia. Anemia is common in FELV cats. Are her gums pale? I had severe anemia and my tongue was very sore as well. Could be why she is not grooming it hurts. Thank-you Sally and all! I don't think she has anemia, because her blood test gave good results: she only has a higher level of cholesterol, but the other things are ok. Today I will go to another vet at 11.00 and I will explain everything to her in order to understand what is happening. Yesterday I had another shock: my other cat (I have 4 cats) who comes from a shelter and was before a stray cat, is positive both with FIV and FeLV. When I took him from the shelter they did not have him tested and did not say anything. He has a chronic rhinitis because he was ill as a kitten, but he copes well, eats, etc... I did not test him when I took him because I was ignorant and I thought that FeLV could be transmitted with prolonged contact or fight and sexual intercourse. Since he was neutered and was a quiet cat, I wasn't worried. Now, with my older cat being diagnosed wiht FeLV, I'm proceeding to test all other cats, and this is the surprise: HE is ill, so the most probable thing is that this cat came to my house and brought FeLV with him, because my older cat has always lived with me and been strong and in excellent health and have never had contacts with other cats because of her very strange behaviour (a sort of Mr. Monk!). The shelter is responsible for this, and now I'm very worried for the other two cats. Even though they are vaccinated against FeLV, I know that the vaccine cannot guarantee 100% coverage (is coverage the right word?) against the virus. If my older cat, who is always by herself and does not even go where the other cats go, has been infected, I cannot imagine what happened with the other two, who are close friends with this poor cat and are always together grooming theirselves and playing. I'm really sad and disillusioned. I learned, however, that cats can live many years even if they're positive, so ... let's hope. Thank you all, I will write the news later. This list is a blessing. Stefania Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
my Lil Bit came from a rescue shelter. she is not pos, but she did have a persistant upper respiratory infection. when first antibiotic did not work i asked the vet to do a culture (saw that on elvtalk) and then she found out exactly which antibiotic Lil Bit needed . gave it to her and it cleared up right away. pays to ask questions. ddorlis Stefania pebble...@yahoo.it wrote: Hi, Give them suppotive cats good food and lots of love. Yes, I already use good food of quality and in fact I have this infected cat since 2007 and he's living very well. I hope my older too will regain energy and be well again, even if I know that their destiny will be to develop something serious. I do not blame my shelter as it was animal control and his fate was death My shelter claims to give away only tested cats, but this was not the case and now... they're even blaming me for causing a possible infection to the last kitten I've adopted!!! This is a pain, because it was their fault and now they're attacking me. I'm really sad for this, because I never complained with them about giving care to the cats they gave me in a poor health condition. I have 4 cats and two of them are mine: the older one (Trudi) comes from a friend of mine who had a queen with kitten, the other one (Ginny) was found by me on the road, and kept. These two are healthy and have never been to the vet, except for the vaccination. The other two (Miro and Babette) come from the same shelter and both developed rhinitis and had problems with their eyes etc. In these two months, since I took the 4th cat, I've been almost 20 times to the vet!!! And it's going on... But I think we will survive, eventually! :-) Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
re: vets. how true. i feel i am lucky that my vet has an open mind and if i tell him about something i have read about, he asks for a copy if it is something he is unaware of. i also put him onto this site and he is now a fan. great to have a vet who admits he doesn't know everything and is willing to learn more. dorlis Rosenfeldt wrote: Stef -- Sorry you're having all this trouble and worry right now. About FIV, you are right and your vet is wrong. It is VERY hard to transmit other than through fighting (deep bites) and sex. It's much less contagious than FeLV, and even FeLV appears to be not as contagious as originally thought. I'm on a feral cat list where there has been some discussion of FeLV, and people have said they've seen cat colonies where they know that some cats are FeLV+, and if it's as transmissible as we're supposed to believe, the whole colonies should have gotten sick and died, and they just haven't. The trouble is that for some reason some vets don't keep up with new research as much as they should, and keep giving wrong information, and more importantly, don't know the right things to do to keep the cats as healthy as possible or to treat them properly when they do get sick. Your cats are very cute! Diane R. -Original Message- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Stefania Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:34 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Hi Chris, thank-you very much for sharing your story. The problem here is that in these days I read very much on FeLV and FIV and I agree with you. My cats have always been together (except for Trudi, who is a lone wolf), they play, groom each other and they eat together even if they have one bowl each :-) They go out and I live in the country, so there are surely many stray cats and many owners who don't bother to test their cats! What am I supposed to do? I don't want to keep them inside because it's like a prison for them. On friday I will test the last two of them and I strongly hope they're negative, so I will continue to vaccine them and hope. My vet scared me a lot saying that FIV is very transmissible and the virus is strong and cats can catch it by grooming each other. Since I knew that it's not so, I tried to ask once again to this vet, but she keeps on saying that FIV spreads very well. I'm really surprised to hear so... I so decided to take Trudi to another vet and she immediately recognized stomatitis in her mouth (which the first one denied) and nose. She simply gave me a gel for her mouth. About the dermatitis: it can be for amoxicillin but we don't know. We decided to use, first, something against fleas and then wait and see. If the situation does not change, we will try with a local gel. Has anyone had experience with dermatitis? For Trudi it's the first time, and that's why I think it was the amoxicillin. If you want to see picture of my 4 babies, I have a blog. It's written in cattish so you cannot understand, but you can see pictures. It's www.trumiro.com Hi all! Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission from your system. In addition, in order to comply with Treasury Circular 230, we are required to inform you that unless we have specifically stated to the contrary in writing, any advice we provide in this email or any attachment concerning federal tax issues or submissions is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, to avoid federal tax penalties. ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Hi Stefania! Beautiful pictures of Trudi, Natale and Babette. I just love Babette's ID card! I hope Trude is well now. :-) Natale is actually Christmas! :-)) My cats are Trudi, Miro, Ginny and Babette. I also have a visiting cat who I call Gigio, but you cannot touch him. About thyroid: I will ask the vet, tomorrow, when I'll go there. I noticed that today Trudi's hair is smoother (yesterday I used a wet tissue to clean her, without any shamppo, only water), but she keeps on licking herself on the chest and forearms. It happens more in the evening. About the mouth: she is better. The new vet to whom I took her, gave me Orozyme. I used it yesterday, but the nose and mouth seemed better also before it. I also gave her Baytril yesterday and today. I don't understand if the fact that she has a positive ELISA plus a positive PCR test indicates that she is in the viremic phase, i.e. she has just catched the FeLV. This could be consistent with the new cat coming here, even is she has been tested negative at ehe age of 4 moths (2 moths ago). She maybe wasn't negative and since she was living in a shelter... Tomorrow I will have her re-tested together with Ginny and I'll have the total situation. Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Hi Stefania! Beautiful pictures of Trudi, Natale and Babette. I just love Babette's ID card! I hope Trude is well now. - Original Message From: Stefania pebble...@yahoo.it To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:33:49 PM Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Hi Chris, thank-you very much for sharing your story. The problem here is that in these days I read very much on FeLV and FIV and I agree with you. My cats have always been together (except for Trudi, who is a lone wolf), they play, groom each other and they eat together even if they have one bowl each :-) They go out and I live in the country, so there are surely many stray cats and many owners who don't bother to test their cats! What am I supposed to do? I don't want to keep them inside because it's like a prison for them. On friday I will test the last two of them and I strongly hope they're negative, so I will continue to vaccine them and hope. My vet scared me a lot saying that FIV is very transmissible and the virus is strong and cats can catch it by grooming each other. Since I knew that it's not so, I tried to ask once again to this vet, but she keeps on saying that FIV spreads very well. I'm really surprised to hear so... I so decided to take Trudi to another vet and she immediately recognized stomatitis in her mouth (which the first one denied) and nose. She simply gave me a gel for her mouth. About the dermatitis: it can be for amoxicillin but we don't know. We decided to use, first, something against fleas and then wait and see. If the situation does not change, we will try with a local gel. Has anyone had experience with dermatitis? For Trudi it's the first time, and that's why I think it was the amoxicillin. If you want to see picture of my 4 babies, I have a blog. It's written in cattish so you cannot understand, but you can see pictures. It's www.trumiro.com Hi all! Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
I am certainly not diagnosing your cat. In humans a smooth tongue is a symptom of anemia. Anemia is common in FELV cats. Are her gums pale? I had severe anemia and my tongue was very sore as well. Could be why she is not grooming it hurts. Thank-you Sally and all! I don't think she has anemia, because her blood test gave good results: she only has a higher level of cholesterol, but the other things are ok. Today I will go to another vet at 11.00 and I will explain everything to her in order to understand what is happening. Yesterday I had another shock: my other cat (I have 4 cats) who comes from a shelter and was before a stray cat, is positive both with FIV and FeLV. When I took him from the shelter they did not have him tested and did not say anything. He has a chronic rhinitis because he was ill as a kitten, but he copes well, eats, etc... I did not test him when I took him because I was ignorant and I thought that FeLV could be transmitted with prolonged contact or fight and sexual intercourse. Since he was neutered and was a quiet cat, I wasn't worried. Now, with my older cat being diagnosed wiht FeLV, I'm proceeding to test all other cats, and this is the surprise: HE is ill, so the most probable thing is that this cat came to my house and brought FeLV with him, because my older cat has always lived with me and been strong and in excellent health and have never had contacts with other cats because of her very strange behaviour (a sort of Mr. Monk!). The shelter is responsible for this, and now I'm very worried for the other two cats. Even though they are vaccinated against FeLV, I know that the vaccine cannot guarantee 100% coverage (is coverage the right word?) against the virus. If my older cat, who is always by herself and does not even go where the other cats go, has been infected, I cannot imagine what happened with the other two, who are close friends with this poor cat and are always together grooming theirselves and playing. I'm really sad and disillusioned. I learned, however, that cats can live many years even if they're positive, so ... let's hope. Thank you all, I will write the news later. This list is a blessing. Stefania Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Stefania My story is very similiar to yousr. I too adopted a shelter cat who as it turned out was positive for FIV/FELV. I think he was the source of infection in my cats and I wound up with 4 cats dying. I am so sorry to hear this. Give them suppotive cats good food and lots of love. I do not blame my shelter as it was animal control and his fate was death there. Animal control picks up unwanted strays here. They do not have funds to test. Sally ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Hi, Give them suppotive cats good food and lots of love. Yes, I already use good food of quality and in fact I have this infected cat since 2007 and he's living very well. I hope my older too will regain energy and be well again, even if I know that their destiny will be to develop something serious. I do not blame my shelter as it was animal control and his fate was death My shelter claims to give away only tested cats, but this was not the case and now... they're even blaming me for causing a possible infection to the last kitten I've adopted!!! This is a pain, because it was their fault and now they're attacking me. I'm really sad for this, because I never complained with them about giving care to the cats they gave me in a poor health condition. I have 4 cats and two of them are mine: the older one (Trudi) comes from a friend of mine who had a queen with kitten, the other one (Ginny) was found by me on the road, and kept. These two are healthy and have never been to the vet, except for the vaccination. The other two (Miro and Babette) come from the same shelter and both developed rhinitis and had problems with their eyes etc. In these two months, since I took the 4th cat, I've been almost 20 times to the vet!!! And it's going on... But I think we will survive, eventually! :-) Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Stef Just info for you--I have 4 cats who basically grew up together. They're about a year or so apart in age and all came in as kittens and all tested neg for FELV as each came into my home. In 2/04, my Tucson who was then 4, started feeling poorly, wouldn't eat (which for her is a BIG thing!). I had a very good vet at the time who on a hunch tested her for FELV and she showed positive on the Elissa and more ISA I had the other 3 immediately tested and they showed neg then and are still neg. I switched vets to one who had more experience with FELV and both vets said that it is very possible that test on a very young kitten can show neg though they have the virus and that you really can't be 100% sure until a kitten is 6mos-1 year. Further literature I read basically concurs with that. I vaccinated my neg cats and everyone has been fine. At around the same time, I brought in a stray, Romeo (who was around 4 or 5), who I had been feeding outside for a couple of years. I had seen him every single day and he was never sick! I had him tested and lo and behold, he was FELV+. I had made the decision (actually, there wasn't ever really a decision-LOL) to mix my 4 cats so mixing in Romeo was a no-brainer for me. My other 4 had all eaten out of the same dishes, used the same litter boxes, groomed each other, gave each other the occasionally swipe with their claws, shared toys, and on and on--and nobody came down w. FELV even though they had never been vaccinated. Tucson has had occasional episodes of very low white blood count and my vet has treated her w. immune-regulin and she's rebounded each time. She's a hefty gal (18 lbs) and I feed all of them Wellness canned food and just a bit of dry food for their teeth. Sadly, a couple of months ago, Romeo developed lymphoma and within 2 weeks, he became so ill and suffering so much that I had to put him down. Up until that last week, though, he was fine, fat, and just a joy. Though I miss him terribly, I keep reminding myself that he wouldn't have had those 4 good years if he had stayed outside. Bottom line--I think there are a whole lot more kitties out there who are positive that nobody ever knows about. You'll hear all variations of my story on this board and come to see that though kittens are particularly susceptible to the life-threatening infections that FELV allows to fester, many of those kittens go on to long perfectly normal lives. Unfortunately, most of the statistics on FELV are based on kittens who succumb--they never reflect the adult cats who have never been diagnosed or tested. Chris ti...@mindspring.com -Original Message- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Stefania Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:03 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Hi, Give them suppotive cats good food and lots of love. Yes, I already use good food of quality and in fact I have this infected cat since 2007 and he's living very well. I hope my older too will regain energy and be well again, even if I know that their destiny will be to develop something serious. I do not blame my shelter as it was animal control and his fate was death My shelter claims to give away only tested cats, but this was not the case and now... they're even blaming me for causing a possible infection to the last kitten I've adopted!!! This is a pain, because it was their fault and now they're attacking me. I'm really sad for this, because I never complained with them about giving care to the cats they gave me in a poor health condition. I have 4 cats and two of them are mine: the older one (Trudi) comes from a friend of mine who had a queen with kitten, the other one (Ginny) was found by me on the road, and kept. These two are healthy and have never been to the vet, except for the vaccination. The other two (Miro and Babette) come from the same shelter and both developed rhinitis and had problems with their eyes etc. In these two months, since I took the 4th cat, I've been almost 20 times to the vet!!! And it's going on... But I think we will survive, eventually! :-) Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Stefania, I should never answer in a hurry. I was headed out the door. I hope you could understand what I was saying. I meant to say supportive care not cats...lol Although supportive cats would be ok. On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 7:50 AM, Sally Davis putty...@gmail.com wrote: Stefania My story is very similiar to yousr. I too adopted a shelter cat who as it turned out was positive for FIV/FELV. I think he was the source of infection in my cats and I wound up with 4 cats dying. I am so sorry to hear this. Give them suppotive cats good food and lots of love. I do not blame my shelter as it was animal control and his fate was death there. Animal control picks up unwanted strays here. They do not have funds to test. Sally -- Sally(me), Eric (not a cat),Junior(angel), Tiny(angel) Fluffy(soul mate angel), Lionel(angel),Speedy, Grey and White, Ittle Bitty, Little Black, Lily, Daisy, Pewter, Junior Junior, Hotdog (newest) Silver, and Spike Please Visit my Message board for some pictures. You are welcome to sign up. http://www.k6az.com/ki4spk/index.php?sid=c57c00cf5804ef13853ed6e77a68eed3 ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
I don't mean to intrude here, but what type of gel did you get for the stomatitis?Debbie (COL)The time is always right to do what is right - Martin Luther King Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:33:49 + From: pebble...@yahoo.it To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Hi Chris, thank-you very much for sharing your story. The problem here is that in these days I read very much on FeLV and FIV and I agree with you. My cats have always been together (except for Trudi, who is a lone wolf), they play, groom each other and they eat together even if they have one bowl each :-) They go out and I live in the country, so there are surely many stray cats and many owners who don't bother to test their cats! What am I supposed to do? I don't want to keep them inside because it's like a prison for them. On friday I will test the last two of them and I strongly hope they're negative, so I will continue to vaccine them and hope. My vet scared me a lot saying that FIV is very transmissible and the virus is strong and cats can catch it by grooming each other. Since I knew that it's not so, I tried to ask once again to this vet, but she keeps on saying that FIV spreads very well. I'm really surprised to hear so... I so decided to take Trudi to another vet and she immediately recognized stomatitis in her mouth (which the first one denied) and nose. She simply gave me a gel for her mouth. About the dermatitis: it can be for amoxicillin but we don't know. We decided to use, first, something against fleas and then wait and see. If the situation does not change, we will try with a local gel. Has anyone had experience with dermatitis? For Trudi it's the first time, and that's why I think it was the amoxicillin. If you want to see picture of my 4 babies, I have a blog. It's written in cattish so you cannot understand, but you can see pictures. It's www.trumiro.com Hi all! Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _ Invite your mail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces. It's easy! http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=createwx_url=/friends.aspxmkt=en-us ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Stef -- Sorry you're having all this trouble and worry right now. About FIV, you are right and your vet is wrong. It is VERY hard to transmit other than through fighting (deep bites) and sex. It's much less contagious than FeLV, and even FeLV appears to be not as contagious as originally thought. I'm on a feral cat list where there has been some discussion of FeLV, and people have said they've seen cat colonies where they know that some cats are FeLV+, and if it's as transmissible as we're supposed to believe, the whole colonies should have gotten sick and died, and they just haven't. The trouble is that for some reason some vets don't keep up with new research as much as they should, and keep giving wrong information, and more importantly, don't know the right things to do to keep the cats as healthy as possible or to treat them properly when they do get sick. Your cats are very cute! Diane R. -Original Message- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Stefania Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:34 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Hi Chris, thank-you very much for sharing your story. The problem here is that in these days I read very much on FeLV and FIV and I agree with you. My cats have always been together (except for Trudi, who is a lone wolf), they play, groom each other and they eat together even if they have one bowl each :-) They go out and I live in the country, so there are surely many stray cats and many owners who don't bother to test their cats! What am I supposed to do? I don't want to keep them inside because it's like a prison for them. On friday I will test the last two of them and I strongly hope they're negative, so I will continue to vaccine them and hope. My vet scared me a lot saying that FIV is very transmissible and the virus is strong and cats can catch it by grooming each other. Since I knew that it's not so, I tried to ask once again to this vet, but she keeps on saying that FIV spreads very well. I'm really surprised to hear so... I so decided to take Trudi to another vet and she immediately recognized stomatitis in her mouth (which the first one denied) and nose. She simply gave me a gel for her mouth. About the dermatitis: it can be for amoxicillin but we don't know. We decided to use, first, something against fleas and then wait and see. If the situation does not change, we will try with a local gel. Has anyone had experience with dermatitis? For Trudi it's the first time, and that's why I think it was the amoxicillin. If you want to see picture of my 4 babies, I have a blog. It's written in cattish so you cannot understand, but you can see pictures. It's www.trumiro.com Hi all! Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission from your system. In addition, in order to comply with Treasury Circular 230, we are required to inform you that unless we have specifically stated to the contrary in writing, any advice we provide in this email or any attachment concerning federal tax issues or submissions is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, to avoid federal tax penalties. ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
One thing on transmission== a vet once told me... Both viruses have been around since the time of the dinosaurs==if they were that easily transmitted, we would have no cats left! I think that the trouble is that vets generally see kittens who succumb because they are young and can't fight off infection. I doubt that most vets test an older cat who shows signs of one of the FELV related conditions--cancer, gum infection, etc. And then there are the older cats who don't ever go to a vet and just live their regular lives. I've not found any random studies that test a large population of domestic and ferals and then just watch over a period of time. Chris ti...@mindspring.com -Original Message- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Rosenfeldt, Diane Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 2:12 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Stef -- Sorry you're having all this trouble and worry right now. About FIV, you are right and your vet is wrong. It is VERY hard to transmit other than through fighting (deep bites) and sex. It's much less contagious than FeLV, and even FeLV appears to be not as contagious as originally thought. I'm on a feral cat list where there has been some discussion of FeLV, and people have said they've seen cat colonies where they know that some cats are FeLV+, and if it's as transmissible as we're supposed to believe, the whole colonies should have gotten sick and died, and they just haven't. The trouble is that for some reason some vets don't keep up with new research as much as they should, and keep giving wrong information, and more importantly, don't know the right things to do to keep the cats as healthy as possible or to treat them properly when they do get sick. Your cats are very cute! Diane R. -Original Message- From: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Stefania Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:34 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability Hi Chris, thank-you very much for sharing your story. The problem here is that in these days I read very much on FeLV and FIV and I agree with you. My cats have always been together (except for Trudi, who is a lone wolf), they play, groom each other and they eat together even if they have one bowl each :-) They go out and I live in the country, so there are surely many stray cats and many owners who don't bother to test their cats! What am I supposed to do? I don't want to keep them inside because it's like a prison for them. On friday I will test the last two of them and I strongly hope they're negative, so I will continue to vaccine them and hope. My vet scared me a lot saying that FIV is very transmissible and the virus is strong and cats can catch it by grooming each other. Since I knew that it's not so, I tried to ask once again to this vet, but she keeps on saying that FIV spreads very well. I'm really surprised to hear so... I so decided to take Trudi to another vet and she immediately recognized stomatitis in her mouth (which the first one denied) and nose. She simply gave me a gel for her mouth. About the dermatitis: it can be for amoxicillin but we don't know. We decided to use, first, something against fleas and then wait and see. If the situation does not change, we will try with a local gel. Has anyone had experience with dermatitis? For Trudi it's the first time, and that's why I think it was the amoxicillin. If you want to see picture of my 4 babies, I have a blog. It's written in cattish so you cannot understand, but you can see pictures. It's www.trumiro.com Hi all! Stef Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission from your system. In addition, in order to comply with Treasury Circular 230, we are required to inform you that unless we have specifically stated to the contrary in writing, any advice we provide in this email or any attachment concerning federal tax issues or submissions is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, to avoid federal tax penalties. ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Please, can anyone help me? My cat has dermatitis and she keeps on taking away her hair. I don't know what to think! My vet says we have to wait but the cat gets worse. Stefania Chiacchiera con i tuoi amici in tempo reale! http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/*http://it.messenger.yahoo.com ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Make sure there is no thyroid problem. Hair loose is a common sign of that. On Feb 9, 2009, at 8:08 AM, Pebble wrote: Please, can anyone help me? My cat has dermatitis and she keeps on taking away her hair. I don't know what to think! My vet says we have to wait but the cat gets worse. Stefania Chiacchiera con i tuoi amici in tempo reale! http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/*http://it.messenger.yahoo.com ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org Marylyn, Copper Thomas ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Additional thought food allergies can have this effect too. Try an elimination diet. On Feb 9, 2009, at 8:08 AM, Pebble wrote: Please, can anyone help me? My cat has dermatitis and she keeps on taking away her hair. I don't know what to think! My vet says we have to wait but the cat gets worse. Stefania Chiacchiera con i tuoi amici in tempo reale! http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/*http://it.messenger.yahoo.com ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org Marylyn, Copper Thomas ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Hi, Make sure there is no thyroid problem. Hair loose is a common sign of that. Could it be that she is allergic to amoxicillin or to the anesthetic? She developed this dermatitis two day after we stopped amoxicillin and the day after she was sedated to take a blood test. Can this change the results of PCR? I'm really upset and my vet thinks that the dermatitis has not been caused by the medication, but I cannot agree with that. Stefania Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Check with another vet. A specialist testing the Royal Princess Kitty Katt (not FeLV+ but diagnosing cancer) about killed her with some medsof course he said it wasn't the drugs but she straightened up under the care of her regular vet. For over a week I thought she was dying. She could barely move. If your gut tells you one thing and the vet says another check it out. I can't answer your other questions but I am sure someone on the panel can. The amount of knowledge and experience here is amazing. On Feb 9, 2009, at 8:20 AM, Stefania wrote: Hi, Make sure there is no thyroid problem. Hair loose is a common sign of that. Could it be that she is allergic to amoxicillin or to the anesthetic? She developed this dermatitis two day after we stopped amoxicillin and the day after she was sedated to take a blood test. Can this change the results of PCR? I'm really upset and my vet thinks that the dermatitis has not been caused by the medication, but I cannot agree with that. Stefania Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org Marylyn, Copper Thomas ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Check with another vet. A specialist testing the Royal Princess Kitty Katt (not FeLV+ but diagnosing cancer) about killed her with some medsof course he said it wasn't the drugs but she straightened up under the care of her regular vet. For over a week I thought she was dying. She could barely move. If your gut tells you one thing and the vet says another check it out. I can't answer your other questions but I am sure someone on the panel can. The amount of knowledge and experience here is amazing. Thanks a lot. I'm very anxious with my cat because she has NEVER been ill in all her life and now she has everything?!?!? I cannot understand, really. I cannot accept that she is Felv+ and has never never had any slight problem in NINE years of age! She has never taken any medication, except for one injection of Baytrill two years ago, because she had ache in her throat. How can she be Felv+ and have other problems? If you read my first message I described her current problem: saliva production + strange tongue (it seems smooth and not as a cat tongue has to be) + red and watery nose (but not as in a cold!, it's the nose itself that is wet). Stefania Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Stefania, Most vets us an in house test for felv/fiv - the snap test. The felv/fiv snap test is generally a pretty good test. (By the way, it does not utilize PCR, instead it is an ELISA test). It is certainly possible, however, to get a false positive result. In general, you can repeat the test (usually in approximately four to six weeks). I would recommend this. If it is again positive, you can send the blood out to a lab to have an IFA - immunoflouresence assay - done. If this is also positive it is highly likely it is a true positive. As for the use of PCR, I do not think that is currently used for felv detection. It is possible that I am simply not familiar with its use in that way. I have to suggest to you, that it is a somewhat strange history for feline leukemia. I am not certain I fully understand the current problems she is having but I would remain suspect about the accuracy of the test at this point. My greatest recommendation is to repeat the test. Good luck, Jenny la_st...@tin.it la_st...@tin.it wrote: Hello, I have a cat who is 9 years old (born apr 2000) and she has always been in good health condition and never been to the veterinary (except for her vaccines, yearly). She lived the first two years in an apartment with no contacts with other cats, then we changed home and she got the vaccine for leukemia prior to go out and meet other cats. She is a very strange cat and does not like to meet other cats or animals: she is afraid of contact. She is also spayed. This january, she began to have problems: her tongue was strange and her nose also. She doesn't have fever or other symptoms, but her hair is always dirty because she doesn't wash it. My vet gave her amoxicillin for 3 weeks, but nothing changed. We finally decided to test her blood and the results are ok, BUT she is FELV+ (FIV-). I cannot understand HOW this could happen, because every year she gets her vaccine and she does not interact with other cats! Now, she has also dermatitis. I'd like to know if this PCR test is absolutely reliable or not. Besides, isn't it strange that my cat developed the illness at the age of 9? Could it be that she is now in the viremic phase and could recover in the future and the virus remain latent? I hope you understand. Unfortunately I'm not English mother tongue and it's difficult to explain everything well. Thanks, Stefania ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
On Feb 9, 2009, at 8:20 AM, Stefania wrote: Hi, Make sure there is no thyroid problem. Hair loose is a common sign of that. Could it be that she is allergic to amoxicillin or to the anesthetic? She developed this dermatitis two day after we stopped amoxicillin and the day after she was sedated to take a blood test. Can this change the results of PCR? I'm really upset and my vet thinks that the dermatitis has not been caused by the medication, but I cannot agree with that. Stefania Passa a Yahoo! Mail. La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, antispam e messenger integrato. http://it.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org Marylyn, Copper Thomas ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
I am certainly not diagnosing your cat. In humans a smooth tongue is a symptom of anemia. Anemia is common in FELV cats. Are her gums pale? I had severe anemia and my tongue was very sore as well. Could be why she is not grooming it hurts. Just a though. Sally ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
[Felvtalk] PCR test reliability
Hello, I have a cat who is 9 years old (born apr 2000) and she has always been in good health condition and never been to the veterinary (except for her vaccines, yearly). She lived the first two years in an apartment with no contacts with other cats, then we changed home and she got the vaccine for leukemia prior to go out and meet other cats. She is a very strange cat and does not like to meet other cats or animals: she is afraid of contact. She is also spayed. This january, she began to have problems: her tongue was strange and her nose also. She doesn't have fever or other symptoms, but her hair is always dirty because she doesn't wash it. My vet gave her amoxicillin for 3 weeks, but nothing changed. We finally decided to test her blood and the results are ok, BUT she is FELV+ (FIV-). I cannot understand HOW this could happen, because every year she gets her vaccine and she does not interact with other cats! Now, she has also dermatitis. I'd like to know if this PCR test is absolutely reliable or not. Besides, isn't it strange that my cat developed the illness at the age of 9? Could it be that she is now in the viremic phase and could recover in the future and the virus remain latent? I hope you understand. Unfortunately I'm not English mother tongue and it's difficult to explain everything well. Thanks, Stefania ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
