SPCA's Views on FelV

[Marlene Chornie]

Hello Group,       It's been a little over 3 weeks now since we lost our beloved little Pekoe.  I will be posting more about that at a later date though.  At the time, I emailed the SPCA shelter where we adopted both Pekoe and Digby from, merely to let them know that Pekoe had also passed - not that I expected them to care, because the branch manager exhibited a terrible attitude with us when told they were FelV+  and felt they bore no responsibility for it happening in the first place.  She was also unconcerned that any other cats in the shelter may have also contracted the disease.  Since I had not invited any response from them, I was very surprised when I received one.  It appears that the branch manager that we dealt with is no longer there (what a surprise) and I received the following response from the new manager.  To be honest, I'm a little disturbed by some of the things she said, and I would appreciate any input/comments from the group.  (FYI - Pekoe and Digby were both unneutered males, strays, and were approx. 8 months and  13 months old respectively.  They were diagnosed FelV+ 7 months after we adopted them, at ages 15 months and 20 months.)   "With our limited resources, we are unable to test all the incoming cats for FeLeuk and FIV.  Feline Leukemia is only present in 3% of the cat population as a whole, but that is mostly concentrated in strays.  Since the most common source of transmission is by bite, we generally only test high risk cats, usually unneutered males who are more likely to fight.  We don't as a rule, test kittens under 6 months as the test results are very unreliable.  The SNAP test that we use tests for the presence of antibodies which can take weeks from the time of infection to appear. Because young kittens' immune systems are under developed, it can take 3 months or longer from the time of transmission to the time that a test would be positive.  Therefore, false negatives are very common in kittens 3 months and younger.  Conversely, positive nursing moms will transmit antibodies to their kittens, but only 20% of the time will transmit the virus itself.  In those cases, the kittens would test false positive and be euthanized unneccessarily. I know this information is of little comfort to you at this time, but I felt you were owed an explanation as to how this could occur."         I believe I have a relatively good understanding of FelV from what I've learned with Pekoe and Digby.  One of the big questions I have, from those of you that do rescue work and shelter volunteering is - Do you test ALL cats that come into the shelter, or just the "high risk" ones??????  Guess I'm just second-guessing my comprehension right now.  My husband and I feel that these people just don't get it yet, and we want them to stop contacting us!       I would really appreciate your views on the SPCA's statements.   Thanks so much, Marlene (still missing Pekoe & Digby .....)