Hi Christine, and welcome to the group - you have a wonderful heart to
welcome those wonderful kitties.
My heart goes out to you and to Emilio and Frito, who's probably positive
too. Sounds like little baby kittens, though. If it's any comfort, the
kittens do go negative sometimes - in our rescue in Arkansas, we have
experienced that with FELV+ kittens.
I used to live in Trenton, btw, a while back. 1 year in Trenton, 1 year in
Edgewater Park, then moved to Philadelphia, then Arkansas.
You probably need to investigate more about the rescues in the area, maybe
they can help you. There are other sanctuaries around, a new one in New
Jersey, not too far from you - I've forgotten the name.
Also, many of us give our FELV cats interferon. I don't know much about
giving it to kittens, though - maybe somebody else does.
We're all pulling for you -
Gloria
. At 08:43 PM 10/24/2005, you wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm brand new here, and am so happy to have found you! How wonderful to
have found such a group! Of course, it's sad news in my life that brings
me here, though, but it's good to know there are other people out there
doing what they can.
We moved to Trenton, NJ, last year with a dog, Lacey, and two young, (felv
- ) cats, Monkey and Simon, and within a day, acquired a new cat, Angus,
whom we kept in seclusion for months until we could determine if he had
any of the feline nasties (he was tested twice, several months apart). Of
course, we didn't seek to get another cat, but cats have the ability to
acquire us. He came up negative for FIV and Leukemia, and we were so
thankful. Monkey and Simon may not feel the same way, since he's much
bigger than they are, but we're working out the issues!
Four months later, I heard a terrible crying sound coming from the hedges,
and honestly had no idea what it was -- despite the growing number of cats
in my household, they're all pretty young; I didn't have a cat until I was
31, so I was not well versed in the wide range of noises they're capable
of making. I went to check it out, and discovered Platooski, a kitten
about 4 weeks old, in the bushes.
We figured three cats was enough; since Platooski was a kitten, we thought
it would be easy enough to get him adopted. And as luck would have it,
THREE people said they'd take him. We offered him to the first person who
asked, and of course, she fell through, but not before the other two women
got other kittens. So, we figured, "What's one more?" And then came
Crabcake, another kitten. And again, we figured we could adopt her out,
and planned to take her to adoption day at PetSmart, but she developed a
horrible eye infection. Despite her hideous oozing face, all of my cats
fell in love with her while she was healing, and by the time she got
better, we couldn't bear to give her up.
Platooski and Crabcake also came up negative for FIV and FeLv. All of my
cats are indoors only. Angus, by the way, the bully, adores the kittens,
though he still gets a scary blank stare when he looks at Simon and Monkey...
So, last month, on our one year anniversary in the house, a mommy cat and
two young kittens show up, smelling a sucker, I guess. The neighborhood
has a bad cat problem, and we've been talking about a trap-neuter-release
program, but of course, every time a cat shows up, circumstances go weird,
and we're not able to do the TNR thing. I volunteered at the shelter for a
bit to get a sense what was going on with that, and while I admire so much
of what the volunteers do, I will do my best to never surrender an animal
to them, since it's a kill facility, and the city is so hard pressed for
resources. So we figured we'd do our best to "take care of our backyard,"
so to speak. We fed Mommy and babies (whom we named Emilio and Frito), and
they stayed on the back porch. I asked around again to see if we could
find a taker for these cats, and again, we got lucky and found someone
who'd take Emilio and Frito, if they came up negative for FIV and FeLv.
Because we live in a city with a stray cat problem, as well as a number of
other problems, I brought the crew inside and put them in the spare room,
so nothing would happen to them before we could get them to their new
home. We let them adjust for a week or so, and then we separated the mom
from the babies -- we figured they were at least 8 weeks old. They were
still nursing, but were also eating solid food. Called the vet, who makes
housecalls, and she
came by last Monday, and tested Mommy, who's staying in my office:
negative. Tested Emilio: Positive. My heart sank, but my vet tried to
reassure me that sometimes they get false positives; she'd send the blood
out for a more definitive test. Frito was flipping out, so the vet
couldn't draw blood. We put the kittens in a large cage in the spare room,
so they couldn't hide from us (they were avoiding us) and Emilio began to
deteriorate rapidly. Lethargic, snotted up. Heartbreaking. Frito seemed
fine, in her not-very-outgoing way. Mommy, too, once she got over the
initial separation, seemed fine. Again, I have a lot of cats, but not that
much experience, and until the other day, I knew very little about this
disease, and when Emilio got sick, I thought the worst.
While Emilio was lethargic, he didn't fight me: I could pick him up. I
cleaned him up and fed him tuna, and he perked up a bit. But only a little
bit. The next day, I let them out of the cage, and he improved 100%.
I'd been bracing myself for the worst, and I suppose it didn't help. The
lab results came back and he's positive. The woman who said she'd take the
kittens now (understandably) doesn't want them. And I'm just sick to death
about the whole thing, I have been for the whole week, even before I had
the official news. They are sweet little babies, and if I didn't have 5
other healthy cats, I'd keep them, as painful as it would be to know their
futures were so uncertain. I can't bring myself to put them down, knowing,
in the brief time I've been reading up about this, that they can have
still have decent lives.
My vet told me about The Best Little Cat House in Pennsylvania, a hospice
in Harrisburg, PA, a few hours from here, where I could bring them. I
contacted them -- will have to talk to the woman who runs the shelter
tomorrow, though -- and off the bat, they said they have too many cats
right now, though they said they might be able to take them in about a
month. Which is not ideal, but doable.
I'm exploring other options in case that doesn't work out, except, I
really don't know of any other options. To make things more distressing,
my healthy gang getting even more curious about what's going on in the
spare room: last week, after the first FeLv screening, we put some old
wood down in front of the door to prevent little paws from poking at each
other (maybe too late??), and I'm terrified that my cats are already at
risk, even though I HOPE I'm just being overly paranoid (Emilio kicked a
toy out from under the door and Platooski kicked it back in, etc. etc.
etc.). We're committed to hanging on to the Mom until we get her spayed
and retested in a few months, though I fear she's a sitting duck, since
she was a very good mommy: she nursed them and doted on them, groomed them
and shared food. She is a beautiful, sweet animal, we think about two
years old, and we would be happy to keep her if she's healthy (or didn't
have healthy cats in the house). They waiting will stink.
I'm at a complete loss. Anyone have any advice? Know of any place I can
place the kittens? I know how hard it is to find homes for healthy cats,
and I just don't know what to do. Any personal experience on exactly how
contagious this disease is? I keep reading things like "moist contact,"
"prolonged physical contact," and "highly contagious and lethal" and I
have not gotten much in the way of reassurance from the vet, either -- and
I suppose, if that's the way it is, I'll have to accept it, but hearing
some firsthand stories would be helpful.
In the meantime, two more cats have appeared on the back porch, and after
this experience with Emilio and Frito, I'm not sure if I'm strong enough
to keep doing this. I feel so weak, drained. They need us though, and I
know no one else in my neighborhood helps them.
Thank you so much in advance for reading this, and anything thoughts you
may have -
Chrissy
