Hi Laura. Thanks for your very detailed response. You've given me quite a bit of relief!! I do want to respond to a couple of things that you said. > Feline leukemia virus in cats is NOT extremely contagious as many think. It > is contained in the saliva of infected cats and is transmitted through the > bite of an infected cat, which is why fighting tomcats are most at risk of > being infected and infecting other cats. It is possible for an infected cat > to > spread it by grooming other cats,
**** This is such good news. This cat was way too sick to fight with anyone -- and he wasn't here long enough to develop affections that would encourage grooming. But if it's contained in the saliva of an infected cat, wouldn't that transmit through a water bowl? >Healthy cats that are over one year of age are immune to > feline leukemia. **** Wonderful. All of my cats are both healthy and over one year of age. > Vaccinated cats will test positive for as much as a year post-vaccination. > Knowing this, many shelters no longer test incoming cats that appear healthy > because they had been euthanizing healthy, vaccinated (false positive) cats. > **** Oh -- that's just sad. > As for your own cats, continue to make their drinking water cs and if any > newcomers show up and don't seem the picture of health, have them tested > and/or > put to sleep. **** Ah -- well now, that's the hard part. Very often, you can't even get ahold of a newcomer cat -- they're very frightened and wary. So you couldn't get them to a vet if you wanted to. And then there's the matter of expense. This is a farm. Uninvited cats come and go all the time. One could spend a fortune on other people's cats -- trying to protect your own. It's just not practical. That's why I was asking if there's something more than CS that I can do for my own cats. Actually, the practical thing to do with stray cats is kill them (shoot them) -- but we hate to do that unless they're fighting with and injuring our own cats. Usually, they'll just hang around for a few days and eat and sleep -- and then move on, or they'll decide this is home. At which time we integrate them into our own cat group. > Spaying and neutering also greatly decrease the likelihood of infection from > bites because the cats aren't fighting. Since we're on the subject of > feline leukemia, I won't go into the other reasons for spay & neuter :-) **** And it's not necessary for you to do so. All of our cats are spayed and neutered. And if a cat decides to live here, as soon as they're tame enough to handle, he or she gets a trip to the vet! ;-) Thanks for all of the information!! MA -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
