[Felvtalk] New to felv

[Pamela Olkowski]

I am a cat owner my whole life and have no idea about felv. I need help as we have no idea what to expect and my apologies for the long history below. Any comments are greatly appreciated 

After losing 3 adult cats in a year to rare cancers, we were left with a single 18 month old. We adopted another kitten from a rescue in December when he was 4 months. He was rescued with his mother from a NM shelter and both tested negative for felv/fiv. The foster home kept him about a month after he was neutered and routine immunizations and deworming were completed

When having him checked at my general vet, she noted he had enlarged lymph nodes that did no subside even after teething was over. Otherwise Toby was fine. Many tests later he turned up positive for felv on both Elisa and IFA.  We brought him to an internal specialist who also said Toby  has the antibody for bartonella and we started a month of antibiotics. His lymph nodes have decreased and we will check this week if the second round of antibiotics have decreased further. (14 days on veraflox and 21 days on doxycycline) No other medical issues with Toby who is now 9 months old

We were devastated the specialty vet told us we had to re home Toby to keep our other young cat safe. Our primary vet felt since the other cat was exposed for over 3 months and was now negative and vaccinated the risk was low.  We kept both but have separate feeding stations but struggling to keep separate water 

Does anyone have experience keeping these - and + together?  Since Toby IFA was positive yet still asymptomatic except enlarged lymph, is there any way to know if he will decline quickly?  The internal medicine specialist was very pessimistic said they rarely live beyond 2 years post diagnosis.  Toby’s mother and siblings are still negative per the rescue group so I was hoping for a miracle the IFA is wrong, is that possible? Can bartonella skew results ?

Thank you so much 

 

Pamela Olkowski