[Felvtalk] 5 leukemia positive kittens

Marsha martia at lynxe.com
Fri Nov 14 14:59:57 CST 2014


Kelly, I think she wants to wait until they are confirmed positive with 
an IFA before adopting them out to a home with other FeLV+ cats.  She 
did mention the hope to find homes that are familiar with FeLV.

  I kept Brock quarantined from Harley until I got a positive IFA test 
on Brock.  Brock had ony ever had a single Snap test at the shelter to 
say he was FeLV+.  Looking back, I would have requested (and paid for) a 
vet local to the shelter to do an IFA.  That would have made it  easier 
for the shelter to adopt out a negative cat, while I continued to search 
for a positive companion for Harley.  But I had already brought Brock 
home, so if he had by chance tested negative on my vet's IFA, then I 
would have kept him separate from my negatives until he got a 2nd 
negative, then be put with them instead, and I would then have searched 
for another possible companion for Harley.  Someday I may consider 
mixing negatives & positives, especially if treatments are developed 
like there are for HIV, where it's not cured, but knocks the 
transmissible virus load to near zero.  But for now I keep them 
separate, because I don't want to deal with the guilt I would have if 
just ONE negative cat got infected.

As for the lone FeLV+ kitten, that's pretty bizarre.  I don't think 
there's any way for anyone not directly involved to know what happened.  
Most likely either the breeder or the buyer knows or suspects, but isn't 
telling.  The only other possibility I can think of is that the virus 
somehow was passed genetically, and the exact right circumstances 
allowed it to manifest in one kitten. Kind of like FIP, in that the 
virus infects a large percentage of cats, but only a few have the 
genetic susceptibility, and the right circumstances for it to manifest 
into FIP disease.  But that doesn't seem so likely.

Marsha

On 11/14/2014 2:05 PM, Kelley S wrote:
> Marsha..sorry..when I said "I don't know what you want" I was 
> referring to the OP, who if I recall correctly said something along 
> the lines of "we don't want these cats in with other FELV+ cats if 
> they could possibly be negative." So the way I read her post was:  we 
> want people with no cats who are willing to take the very probable 
> heartbreak of a FELV+ kitten and promise to not expose it to other 
> FELV+ cats and who will pay us over a hundred dollars for doing so.  
> This is possible, but not very likely IMHO.   Even in our rescue, 
> after a certain point they would eat up over $100 worth of food and we 
> would be losing money even if we did get $100 plus for them.  More 
> importantly, everyone is limited in space, and an animal in a foster 
> home means another animal your rescue cannot help.
> The facebook group is interesting, and I encourage those on Facebook 
> to join, not that I want to take traffic away from here, but most are 
> very very very very stridently against mixing.    I tried to get them 
> to come here, but haven't had any luck that I know of.  There is a 
> very strange situation going on there that I'd like to get some input 
> on.  There is a kitten who has tested (snap and IFA) pos for FELV.  
> This kitten came from a breeder who tests all her cats regularly and 
> none has ever tested positive.  The kitten's owner took the kitten to 
> the vet as per contract within 10 days of buying the cat and got a 
> positive test.  Rechecked with IFA, still positive.  ALL THE OTHER 
> CATS were retested by the breeder and are still negative.  All the 
> other kittens in the litter have tested negative.  HOW did this kitten 
> contract FELV?
>
> Anyway here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/26073442228/




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