[Felvtalk] Cleaning? Retesting?

Fri Feb 22 17:28:06 CST 2019

Thank you, Christine.  So far Baby has been only in the studio, completely isolated, when she visits us. It never occurred to me to do otherwise, not only because of felv but to avoid other contagious illnesses as well.

It typically takes us months to merge new cats into our setting. We go very slowly to avoid stress-related illnesses and spraying. So merging Baby in with ours for just a stay of a week or two would not be worth the tumult in the whole household.

It’s a luxury to be able to keep her separate and I’m grateful that I can. If I used the studio (which I don’t do when she’s here) I’d have to move her to another room because the equipment in the studio is dangerous for cats.

And I agree with your approach to the kitten. Sometimes circumstances are such that they are better off together. If I had two who were very attached to each other, and one turned up positive, I would not separate them.

I have a similar dilemma with our FIV kitty Cyril. He has a buddy, Micky, who is totally in love with Cyril. But Cyril had several birth defects (*) in addition to FIV, and has only one eye left. Micky plays very roughly, and I’m afraid Cyril will lose that eye to an injury. So I only allow them together when I can supervise them, and not because of the FIV. I make sure Micky gets plenty of other exercise first. I expect Micky will outgrow the roughness; he’s only 3.5 years old.

* A constellation of 7 birth defects can occur together in cats, including eye defects, multiple cardio problems, undescended testes, kinked tail, and some limb abnormalities.  Cyril got the eyes and the testes. But golly, he sure is cute!

- Lorraine

"Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine."  - Alan Turing 

From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Christine Dundas
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2019 3:11 PM
To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cleaning? Retesting?

My advice would be to keep FeLv and non-FeLv cats separated.  If you choose not to, you have to understand there is a chance the non-FeLv cats could get infected.  

Having said that, when my husband brought home a kitten that tested positive for FeLV, I had to make that choice.  We live in a small condo with two other cats.  We decided to keep her as long as she could be with us.  I had my two other cats vaccinated for FeLV.  They were adult cats, healthy in every way.   There was no way I could keep everything and everyone separated.  Our little Ruthie passed away after almost two years.  My two adult cats tested negative afterwards, a few times.  And are still healthy and happy.  That was about four years ago.  

Christine

On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 2:46 PM Amani Oakley <aoakley at oakleylegal.com> wrote:

I had my Zander for seven years, mixed with a dozen other cats. I never took any precautions at all. It was too late by the time we figured out he had FeLV. No other cat ever got the infection.

Amani

From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Lorraine Johnston
Sent: February-22-19 2:04 PM
To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cleaning? Retesting?

Thank you. I guess I should have phrased my question to indicate that I was concerned about spreading FeLV to my non-FeLV cats. If I understand correctly, your cats are, or were, all FeLV-positive, so there would not have been any non-FeLV cats to spread it to? 

I told my cousin back in December that I would also keep Baby in April when he goes way again. So now I’m trying to determine if that’s safe to do, and what additional precautions (if any) I should take while she’s here to avoid spread, now that we know she’s FeLV-positive.

Thank you,

- Lorraine

"Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine."  - Alan Turing 

From: FeLVtalk [mailto:FeLVtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of dlgegg at windstream.net

I have only had FELV  cats but never washed my hands after handling them.  I treated all the same and have had no experience of the disease spreading to others.  I have had up to 10 at a time as all who came to my house became part of my "pride".  As they came to me, I took them to the vet for a checkup, spay or neuter and they became mine.

----- Original Message -----

Hello again,

For those of you who have both FELV+ and - cats, how strenuous are your cleaning efforts? For instance, do you wash hands after just petting? Do you have your negative cats retested every year?

Thank you,

- Lorraine

"Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine."  - Alan Turing

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