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Hi Chrissy, Welcome, though I am sorry for the circumstances, the kitties sure are lucky to find you though! I have 6 cats, Bailey is my positive, he eats,, sleeps, plays, grooms and occasionally squabbles with all of his sibs, though he is closest to Joey. All of my other guys are tested and vaccinated against FeLV every year. I found Bailey at age 5 months when we lived in Missouri, he tested psoitive then. 3 vets told me to euthanize him, that he wouldn't live three months and would infect all of my other cats. Thankfully I had experience with FeLV and knew that was absolutely not true. Today Bailey is 10 years old and has not had any health problems until this last year. He had mouth problems really bad and even with everything we tried we ended having to pull most of his teeth with pretty much resolved the problem for him. He does also have arthritis now and is taking medication for that. But since I got him on raw food (another thing I've heard is to NEVER feed an immune compromised cat raw, I can attest in our case it has worked out very well, this is not store bought but made by myself so I know exactly what is in their food) which he absolutely loves by the way, and has really thrived on. He has gained back the weight he lost while his teeth were bothering him plus about a pound and a half. He is slightly pudgy now which is fine with me. I personally choose to mix my guys because I firmly believe a healthy, vaccinated adult cat has almost a zero chance of getting infected by a positive even with prolonged contact and in my experience this has proven to be the case for over 10 years. I also believe as my vet says that the virus only lives seconds outside of the host. I know for a fact Joey and Bailey have actually touched tongues while grooming and that is why I have had Joey PCR tested (tests the DNA), and he is negative, he would be the most likely to get it. I also believe that a healthy adult cat, if they were to get the virus from a positive would most certainly be able to fight it off with their own immune system. I can only speak from my 13 years worth of experience and that is what I base my beliefs on, that and knowing other people in similar circumstances. ------------------------------ Our Story -------------------------------- I became aqquainted with FeLV in 1992, I had my Frankie tested because every single year he would get a URI in December, my vet was constantly asking me if they could test him and I constantly declined, he was indoor after all how could he get it?? Well finally in 1992 I told her to go ahead and test, he was really sick and she recommended I euthanize him, in my eyes he had a cold, you don't euthanize because your cat has a URI, and to my absolute disbelief he tested positive. I took in my other 4 cats and 3 of them also tested positive, my Buddie was negative and none of them were vaccinated because they were all indoor and I didn't think they needed to be vaccinated for that (they were vaccinated for everything else). They had all been around each other from kittenhood, and I believe in my heart that Frankie was born with it as he was sickly all his life. In October of 93 I lost my Skeeter to lymphoma at the age of 7 years, in March of 94, I lost my Mikie to kidney cancer at the age of 5 years, and in January of 95, I lost my dear Frankie to anemia at the age of 9 years. Teenye turned negative and was for the rest of her life, she died of a rare cancer at the age of 16 year in 2000. And I just lost my Buddie who was negative all her life to liver cancer in July 2004 att he age of 13 years old. -- Belinda Happiness is being owned by cats ... Be-Mi-Kitties ... http://www.bemikitties.com Post Adoptable FeLV/FIV/FIP Cats/Kittens http://adopt.bemikitties.com FeLV Candle Light Service http://www.bemikitties.com/cls HostDesign4U.com (affordable hosting & web design) http://HostDesign4U.com ----------- BMK Designs (non-profit web sites) http://bmk.bemikitties.com |
