[Felvtalk] Leuk pos kittens

[Katherine K.]

Hi Amy,

I realize I am responding to a pretty old email so you are probably beyond
these questions at this point...

A snap test can detect exposure but some cats can fight it off and test
negative. I had a 3 month old kitten show up as light positive on a snap
test. We waited 4 weeks and he showed up negative on a second snap test. So
it doesn't seem unreasonable that an adult would show up as positive on
snap, and later turn negative.

If a cat or kitten is positive on snap, you can do further testing with an
IFA test. If IFA test comes back positive, the cat definitely has the
virus.

K


On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 10:20 AM, Amy <awilkins23 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I posted recently about 5 leuk positive kittens that were going to be
> euthanized if I couldn't find a home.  I have found a sanctuary to take
> after we retest at 12 weeks but have some questions.  Here is the history.
>  One pregnant mom (Mimi) and one mom with 4 kittens were taken from the
> same home.  They were fostered together until testing.  The pregnant mom
> (Mimi) had 2 kittens.  One died at 2 days old and the other was ok.  When
> they tested the cats, the mother of the 4  kittens came up positive for
> leukemia.  The mother of the 2 kittens came up negative.  All 5 kittens
> tested positive.  The rescue pulled the two moms out and isolated them but
> kept the 5 kittens together.  The leuk positive mom was sent to a sanctuary
> and the leuk negative mom (Mimi) is fine and is just waiting retesting
> before being adopted out.  The kicker is the sanctuary just called and said
> the positive mom has retested negative on the snap.  They are sending the
> blood out for an IFA test.  My question is how does that happen?  Did the
> snap test detect exposure but the mom was able to fight off the virus?  We
> will be retesting the kittens at 12 weeks but the rescue has asked whether
> they should do snap tests or IFA tests?  It would make sense to start with
> the snap tests first, right?  Then do IFA on the ones that come up positive
> to confirm before sending to a sanctuary?
>
> What are the odds that any of these 5 kittens will come up negative?  Have
> people seen kittens that test positive actually test negative later?  I've
> heard it can happen but I've talked to many sanctuaries and vets and they
> say they have never seen it happen with kittens.  They said they have seen
> litters where test some pos and some neg but never seen a positive kitten
> turn negative.  Hoping that they all come up negative but I know that isn't
> likely.  That said, they were tested very young and my vet said they don't
> normally test until 12 weeks.  Hoping they were tested right after exposure
> and that some are able to fight it off.
>
> Amy
>
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