Re: New to List FELV + kittens

[Laurie B. Oliver]

Hello,

        I have written numerous messages to the board about my cat, BJ. Well, we adopted another cat, a female orange tabby named Mitzi. Both are feline leukemia positive and both are doing great. For those who might not know our story, here it is. My brother and I adopted a black and white domestic shorthair we call BJ. At the time, he was perfectly healthy. Then, three weeks later he had polyps in his left ear and had surgery to remove them. His middle ear was removed and his left ear closed. He has had no residual effect and his hearing is fine.
        Then, about two months later, he began having strange, unexplained fevers and was lethargic and not eating well. The diagnosis was feline leukemia. The prognosis given by our vet at the time, a traditional vet, was grim to say the least. She said the best thing to do was to have BJ euthanized. We immediately started looking for a vet who could help.
        Our last appointment with that vet was on a Friday. We took BJ home that night and had a consultation with an alternative vet the next Monday morning.  She practices holistic and homeopathic as well as tradition veterinary medicine. Some of her methods are not recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Some traditional veterinarians would bristle at her ideas about good dog and cat nutrition.
        However, today, under our new vet's care, BJ is, for all intense and purposes, healthy. He shows no outward sign of illness, even though he still tests positive for feline leukemia. For anyone looking for good veterinary care for an FeLV+ cat or kitten, the best suggestion I can give is to contact the AHVMA, the Holistic Veterinary Medical Association using this link http://www.ahvma.org/referral/. It may help you find a vet in your area who can treat your cat's or kitten's condition.
        I wish I could tell you how much it means to my brother and me to have a vet who has made the choice to treat feline leukemia, not just kill the host. She has the knowledge expertise to do what a traditional vet could not do. When we were given BJ's diagnosis a year ago, it was like getting hit by a truck. When we were told there was nothing to do but put him to sleep, it was like getting hit by a truck again. We knew very little about the illness then. However, we knew that if there was any chance that our precious BJ could live a good life with this disease, then that's what he would do.  We have never looked back and are thankful every single day that we made the choice to get BJ treated.
        Our vet also successfully treats our little one, Mitzi. She is now almost nine months old and is a curious, rambunctious, lively cat. Our non-traditional vet has made a world of difference for our entire family.

Laurie B. Oliver

At 12:48 AM 7/14/2005, you wrote:

It's highly unlikely any of your healthy adult cats could have caught the virus, even with prolonged contact. It's almost always kittens under one year of age, or immune compromised cats (FIV+) that catch it from carriers. I would definitely test any cats that are weak, or under a year of age that had any contact with any of the known positive cats. On the other hand, it is also very common for cats to fight off the virus if given a few weeks to a few months, and test negative at a later date. So if you decide to test them all, be fully prepared to do it at LEAST twice. On the ones that test positive on both the initial test (I'm assuming you are doing the ELISA snap test), and the second test done 2 to 3 months later, you need to do the confirmation test, the IFA. That is a lab test your vet will have to send samples out for testing to get done. Even if THOSE come back positive, they still might eventually fight it off, so you NEVER know 100% for sure if it's hopeless or not. What you need to consider the most now is, are you willing to turn one of your rooms into a FELV+ cat sanctuary, or do you not have the time, facilities, or funding to do this? The fact is, it's VERY hard to place cats that continuously test positive for FELV. You will probably end up owning them for the rest of their lives. Life expectancy varies VERY much from cat to cat, averaging from about 18 months to 8 years, but with many dying younger, or living up into the normal upper ranges for healthy cats. They wont require any special care, or any expensive treatments if they are not showing active symptoms of the virus, but it is optional, and is thought that it might increase life-span to use some of the "unproven" treatments outlined on the list website (we think we have seen proof, but we have no official studies, so I don't want to break any laws by saying we have proven results). We have personal experience that the treatments do help when the cats begin to get ill. Not everyone doses their positive cats that are not "sick". The main thing they will need, in the way of special care, is a PREMIUM food. This means NO CORN or CORN byproducts in their food, and preferably a grain free diet, or a home made meat diet. Cornell also advises that FELV+ cats get bi-annual exams, instead of the normal annual exams for negative cats, just to head things off should something arise during routine bloodwork. FELV+ cats are prone to anemia, and it doesn't hurt to add a bit of extra iron to their diets either. Vita-drops, Lixo-tinic, or Pet-tinic, are all good liquid iron supplements for cats. Many people on this list also add extra vitamin C to their cat's diets, for it's immune boosting effects. (just like when you take it yourself when you feel a cold coming on). Other list members will be able to give you more detailed info on all the supplements and dosages they use. When my Moogie was sick, she would lick on a mentholated vitamin C drop (yes the fruit flavored ones, like Hall's) on her own... and usually cats KNOW what their bodies need, so I think that's proof on that matter. FELV treatment a highly personal thing, you wont find many vets that will be able to give you any good advice on FELV, the good ones are few and far between. You may even find yourself having to twist your vet's arm to get him to prescribe some of the things you will hear suggested on this list. Prepare yourself to hear lot's of negative things from your vet, including advise to just euthanise them all. It's up to you, what YOU want to do for YOUR cats, just remember that!
 
Personally, I'd just make the bedroom the FELV cat room... they REALLY seem to be sweeter than negative cats in lots of ways, and they LOVE to snuggle under the covers when it's cold (it seems to me that most of them seem to know their time might be short, and so they fit as much loving in as they can while they can).
 
Oh and one more thing you are probably worried about... sanitization. The FELV virus dies within minutes in a dry environment, and within 3 hours in a wet one (and I can quote Cornell on that one). No bleach or anything like that is necessary to kill it. Just wash used dishes and litterpans normally, and set them off in a dry spot to completely dry for 3 hours, and then you can use them for the negative cats with no danger. Lot's of people think it's hard to kill and really contagious, and that's really not true at all. You can't carry it on your hands, or anything like that, it has to be moist direct contact, such as a penetrating bite, mutual grooming over long periods, sex, direct contact with fresh waste (such as FELV+ cat poops, Negative cat goes in box, steps in FELV poop, then immediately licks poop off paw while still wet), or so forth. Even these direct routes of transmission only generally apply to kittens under one year of age, or immune compromised cats. Healthy adult cats just do not catch FELV, it's so rare, it's almost impossible. They develop natural immunity to it as they mature.
 
I have several different website links on my webpage for FELV cats, and FELV info in general. Feel free to check it out:
http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html

Jenn
http://ucat.us
http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html
 
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I collect KMR kitten formula labels for Bazil, a 3 yr old special needs cat who must live on a liquid diet for the rest of his life.
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