[Felvtalk] 5 leukemia positive kittens
Katherine K.
kathstix at gmail.com
Sat Nov 15 09:22:23 CST 2014
Sorry Amy, I do agree with all of the points you made. I wish things were
easier for you and these little ones. I too have found this list to be very
supportive and helpful many times. I hope you'll keep us updated on their
status.
On Nov 14, 2014 7:10 PM, "Amy" <awilkins23 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm sorry that people on this board disagree about the adoption fee and
> I'm disappointed that some people are making judgmental comments. This
> board has been a great source of support to my family over the years and I
> am not feeling that at all at the moment. I have adopted 12 positive cats
> of my own and have been on this board since I took my first mom and 3
> kittens over 10 years ago. I have never owned a non-leuk positive cat
> until this year. It sounds to me like people think I'm trying to make
> money off these cats or that I'm asking people to do something
> unreasonable. Do you know what I spent in the past two months trying to
> save one leuk positive? Over $5000. That is one of them. Did I not treat
> her because she is leuk positive? No I treated her like I would any other
> cat and gave her every opportunity to live, despite her status. I do the
> same with all my positives even though I know the end result is usually
> them losing the battle with this horrible disease. I'm not saying that
> whoever adopts these cats should go to those lengths to save them but I
> know the veterinary care that is involved with leuk positives. If somebody
> is worried about paying a $100 adoption fee because the cat might die, are
> they going to say the same thing about vet care? "I don't want to spend
> the money because it might die." And what about senior cats/dogs or
> special needs cat/dogs? Rescues charge adoption fees for them as well and
> they can die in a year or two. Why are leuks any different? I paid an
> adoption fee at a shelter in CT for 2 of my leuk positives. I do
> understand there is a controversy about free adoptions vs. fees. We are
> not a rescue that cares about numbers. We are a no-kill and we commit to
> an animal for life. We do the best we can for that animal and are
> committed to finding it the best home possible. We don't do free adoptions
> or try to move cats as quickly as we can. It just isn't how we operate.
> We have a very selective adoption process and we try to make sure all our
> cats are going to loving forever homes. I am trying to do the same for
> these cats, even though I am well aware of how awful this disease is.
>
> The woman that contacted us about these kittens has placed lots of
> kittens, no vetting, no applications, no follow up. That is not helping
> the situation to give kittens away to people that aren't going to take care
> of them or be responsible about this disease. Asking for an adoption fee
> simply helps show that the adopters are committed and that they understand
> the expense involved in owning an animal. It in no means makes a dent in
> the money that we spend to help them, nor is it meant to. We are vetting
> these cats and we are trying to teach this woman about helping in a
> responsible way. She was going to adopt these cats to anybody and just
> spread the disease or release them outside. As it is, we are trying to get
> a hold of the stray mom who is probably outside and leuk positive. I'm
> trying to help educate her and teach her about leukemia and everybody makes
> it sound like I'm doing something wrong. I have placed numerous cats on
> this board over the years as people constantly call me to help the
> positives. This woman called me and we are trying to do the right thing.
> Money is not the issue. It costs us about $500 to vet a kitten
> completely. There are 5 of them which means about $2500. I am not trying
> to get that money back. We already paid to combo test all of them and to
> treat the one for a URI without any commitment to these cats or any thought
> of an adoption fee. She could have euthanized them all and we would have
> been out that money. We were just trying to help her out.
>
> Anyway, I'm probably not going to convince any of you about the adoption
> fee but I would like to say that I never said anything about not placing
> these cats in homes with other FeLV positive cats. I said I would do an
> IFA first because both Cornell and the SPCA suggest that. I have
> researched this disease for the past 10 years of my life and talked to vets
> all over the country about it. I've talked to sanctuaries as well and many
> will not take a leuk positive cat without a positive IFA. If the cat is
> going to convert and you send it to a home with leukemia when it is IFA
> negative, you could be giving that kitten a death sentence when it could
> have a happy full life leukemia free. Right now we are giving them 30 days
> to start converting and then we will retest. But if somebody wanted one
> and they had cats with leukemia, I just would want to make sure the kitten
> is truly positive. As I mentioned, we recently had 5 positives at our
> rescue and I posted it about it a while back. They are now all leuk free
> on both the Elisa and IFA. We separated them from the positive mom and we
> gave them 90 days to convert before retesting. They have been tested 3
> times as negative and Cornell, the SPCA and numerous vets said they are
> leukemia free and can be adopted out as such. I know that is highly
> unlikely but it can happen. The SNAP tests only indicates exposure, not
> true infection from what I've been told. Not every exposed cat remains
> infected as you all know and I just want to be sure these are true
> positives if they are going to mix with leuk positives.
>
> So anyway, that is all I can say about these babies. Not sure why people
> are on my case. I thought this would be a great resource because I've seen
> people ask about finding a leuk positive kitty. Just wanted to post here
> in case somebody was willing to open their home and heart to one of these
> babies.
>
> Btw, to the poster that told me I most likely have 3 girls. Yes, I
> suspected the blue cream, the tortie and the calico would be girls. They
> are. The black and the gray and white are boys. I just wasn't 100 sure
> yet :)
>
> Amy Weygandt
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Kelley S <moonvine at gmail.com>
> *To:* felvtalk <felvtalk at felineleukemia.org>
> *Sent:* Friday, November 14, 2014 3:05 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Felvtalk] 5 leukemia positive kittens
>
> 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/
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 1:39 PM, Marsha <martia at lynxe.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Kelly, now *I'm* confused. I don't want anything. I was just sharing my
> personal experiences and putting some suggestions out there. Some of the
> resources you or others may already know about, but others might be new to
> some people. Feel free to list your Facebook resources so people here are
> aware of those too. Or maybe you were really replying to the same person
> I was replying to?
>
> Idea for everyone: make up a flyer with some basic info about FeLV, with
> a picture of one or more or your FeLV+ cats looking happy and living the
> good life. Maybe put a link on the flyer to felineleukemia.org or other
> resource(s). Distribute the flyer to local vet offices for when the vet
> gets a client with a cat that tests positive. The vet could show the flyer
> to the owner so that the owner can see that there is support available, and
> that FeLV+ cats can live a happy life for a variable number of years.
>
> Marsha
>
> On 11/14/2014 1:00 PM, Kelley S wrote:
>
> There are some other places to list on Facebook, if you would like the
> links. One thing that struck me when I read your post was confusion on my
> part as to what exactly you wanted. It seemed to me reading it, and I may
> be reading things into this, that you did not want the kittens to go to a
> home with FELV+ cats in there already. That, in addition to the adoption
> fee, is going to make it *almost* impossible to ever find these kittens a
> home (nothing is 100% impossible of course). Also, once you adopt the
> kitten out, you don't have control over what the adopters do later. They
> may bring in FELV+ cats later. My heart kitty died of heart disease
> brought on by a congenital defect. I spent a lot of time holding her and
> crying because she was going to die. They are all going to die, we hope
> after many years in a happy home. I spent more time mourning her death
> than I did celebrating her life. This was a grave mistake on my part.
>
> On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 12:15 PM, Marsha <martia at lynxe.com> wrote:
>
> Some adopters may make a donation to the organization they adopt a
> zero-fee cat from. I did. You might make a cat low or no fee, but say,
> "donations gratefully accepted". If you list on PetFinder, consider adding
> FeLV+ to the heading, besides just listing them as "special needs". Some
> people are looking specifically for a FeLV+ cat as a companion for one they
> already have, and not putting that in the heading forces those people to
> sift through every special needs listing to find the FeLV+ kitty. I turned
> to PetFinder after having no luck locally finding a companion for Harley,
> and did a search by zip code. I specified "up to 100 miles", and that's
> how I found Brock. Actually, 113 miles away, but the search goes by zip
> code.
>
> There are also some listings here (up for adoption or looking to adopt
> FeLV, FIV, FIP +):
> http://www.bemikitties.com/felv/cgi-bin/suite/classifieds/classifieds.cgi
> You can also get to that by the felineleukemia.org website.
>
> One other place to list is the PurringPixie yahoo group.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Felvtalk mailing list
> Felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
> http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Felvtalk mailing list
> Felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
> http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Felvtalk mailing list
> Felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
> http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://felineleukemia.org/pipermail/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org/attachments/20141115/9d3a6863/attachment-0001.html>
More information about the Felvtalk
mailing list