[Felvtalk] Cat Sanctuary

Thu May 19 10:11:10 CDT 2016

Hi all,
I just wanted to write about my comment about the cats that we have taken in converting. I'm referring to the cats that have come into the rescue where I volunteer, not my personal cats. None of my personal cats have ever converted that I know of. I have do have one positive that has been with me 12 years that I have not retested. He was positive on the IFA and snap when I rescued him so I never bothered retesting. His bloodwork also still shows signs that point to him being positive. My other cats lived varied lives with the disease, some less than 2 years, some 4-8, some 10-12. 
We do not see a ton of leuk positives at our shelter. We have had 6 in the two years that I have been there, a mom and 4 kittens, and an adult. All 6 were able to fight off the virus and retested negative on several later tests. We did not do anything special other than quarantine them, try to reduce stress (which is not easy in a shelter environment), feed them a quality food and retest at 30, 60, and 90 days. Even though the recommendation is to do an IFA if you get a positive SNAP, we always wait 30 days and resnap. The reason for that is we often take cats in from outdoors that may have had casual contact and may initially test positive but fight it off. The IFA is expensive to do if we think the cat might fight it off. If when we retest, the cat is still pos, we do the IFA to confirm. The mom and the 4 kittens all converted as well as the adult. We held them until they tested negative on 3 different snap tests each over 30 days apart. My guess is that the test caught the exposure right after it happened. My understanding is that this is NOT the norm. I'm not surprised about the adults fighting it off but I was pretty shocked by the kittens. I adopted one of the kittens that converted because I have a leuk positive and all my other cats are vaccinated. We ran 5 different brands of tests on him and 4 of the 5 repeatedly come up negative but for some reason he tested positive on the Witness test. So just in case there is a trace of the virus there that could be passed on, we didn't want to put him into a home that wasn't prepared for leukemia. My vet has no explanation for why he tests positive on the one test and neither does Zoetis but they all consider him negative based on all the other test results. So odd. Either way, he has a forever home with me. If he is positive, so be it. If he is negative and the test is goofy, even better. I continue to retest and get the same results. Neg on everything except the Zoetis Witness test. Makes me question what others say about the virus going latent and coming back later. I have heard numerous people tell me stories about cats that tested negative numerous times, lived with them, never went outside, never had contact with other cats and then came up positive later in life. Hard to say for sure when I wasn't there and don't know if there was any chance of exposure, but makes me stop and think for sure. I often question the reliability of the Zoetis Witness test and my vet has since stopped using them.
That's my story.Amy

      From: kat <merrykatmeows at email.com>
 To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org 
 Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 12:23 PM
 Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cat Sanctuary

Ardy, The email you are referencing was TO Lorrie - it was FROM Amy who said "So far, most of the ones we have taken in have converted after some time."  But like you, I would like to know what her protocol has been to be so successful. Kat (Mew Jersey)Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at 11:28 PM
From: "Ardy Robertson" <ardyr at centurytel.net>
To: 'Amy' <awilkins23 at yahoo.com>, felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cat SanctuaryHi Lorrie – if you don’t mind me asking, what do you mean by “most cats you have taken in have converted after some time”? Does that mean they no longer have FeLV, and if so, what do you attribute that to? Thank you,Ardy  From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Amy
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 10:31 AM
To: felinerescue at frontier.com; felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cat Sanctuary Lorrie, That sounds amazing! I do cat rescue in Rochester, NY and we are a no-kill rescue so when we get in leuk pos kitties, we do our best to find places for them to go. We don't euthanize like so many of the groups do. I have positives of my own but I am at capacity in my home. We can keep the FIV positives at our building but not the leuk positives because we are cage free and all of our rooms are full with non-contagious cats. We don't get them in often but am I able to contact you to see if you are able to help if we do get a leuk pos? We always hold them at least 30 days to restest and often 60 or 90 days and we run both tests, the ELISA and the IFA to make sure they aren't going to fight it off first. So far, most of the ones we have taken in have converted after some time. We are always looking for more options on the rare occasion we do get one in that remains positive and tests positive on both the ELISA and IFA. Thanks for helping these kitties!!!! Let me know!Thanks Amy From: Lorrie <felinerescue at frontier.com>
To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2016 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cat Sanctuary
>
>    Lorrie,
>
>    Do you have pictures?  I would love to see what you've done!
>
>    Kat (Mew Jersey)

Hi Kat, I was born in Morristown, "Mew" Jersey.

I only have photos of the outside of my sanctuary and the grassy lot
next door where I have a small, heated, building for ferals, and a
big shade tree. I don't think they let us send photos to the group,
but if you want to see it I can send it to you. However, outside you
just see a two story brick building not the inside.
-

It's really difficult to take photos of the inside because I can't
get back far enough in each room to really show what I've done.
-

My cat sanctuary is two stories and a basement.  Downstairs are 5
rooms, including two rooms with wire doors for introduction or
isolation. My live-in caretaker has her own bedroom, a large kitchen,
full bathroom and a half bath.  The cats have access to every room
and my caretaker lets them sleep with her. She spoils them rotten.
They (cats & caretaker) all have a couch, chairs, and kitty kondos.
There is a glass front door and window perches so they can look
outside.

The cats are NOT in cages, they have the run of the downstairs and
upstairs rooms.  The older cats are downstairs, and adoptable young
cats and kittens are upstairs which is also designed just for them.
Upstairs are 4 large kitty kondos, 2 people chairs, many cozy cat
beds, and a wall-walk with two tunnels that goes all around the
walls. There are 4 rooms upstairs, and a laundry room.

Lorrie

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