My vet puts it much less eloquently. I go in there at least once a week all upset saying "I'm doing X, Y and Z. I don't know what to do." He always says "It's a virus. There's nothing you CAN do." (which is not entirely correct, there are supportive things and immune boosting things, etc - but he means - you can't CURE it.).
If you can let go of needing to control (and if you figure out how to do that..well, I am still learning.. but when I can do it I find I do MUCH better). On 5/9/07, Nina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Deb, You are afraid of mixing because the danger is real. Your household is indicative of that. We might never know how it is that you have 3 previously believed neg cats testing pos. Was the disease dormant in their systems before they came to you, are they in the process of clearing the virus, did one carrier give it to the others? My one piece of advice for you is to keep them separated until you have come to terms with what mixing them might mean. Imho, I don't think you are going to spare any of the negs from the possibility of whatever fate has in store, they've already had too much contact together for that. One of the hardest things we have to learn in being the guardian of special needs animals is that no matter how desperately we want to control the outcome, no matter how diligently we arm ourselves with information and advice, it is ultimately not in our power to keep them safe from illness. All we can do is our best to insure that the time they do have to share with us is filled with as much joy, safety and love that we can offer. Early on I made the decision that I would opt for quality of life rather than quantity. Each and every one of us must make these types of decisions on our own. It's a very personal judgement call that only you can make. We must weigh the potential consequences and be ready to live with whatever the results turn out to be. There are no guarantees with felv or with life. Why do you think so many otherwise caring people still advocate pts? It's the only sure solution to save you from dealing with the possible ramifications of living with felv. No life, no felv. Dealing with the "what ifs" after the fact is always punishing, (what if I'd kept them separate, what if I'd sought out treatment sooner, what if I'd done this or that differently). Researching my alternatives, knowing I did the best I could with what I knew at the time, following my intuition and heart, are my talismans against the bitterness of "what if". Nina Deb Stockbridge wrote: Hi Nina, I Love to hear more and more experiences from all of you that mix negatives and positives...it's building my confidence more each day. What I need to know is do you still keep them together if one still has a persistent cough that just won't clear even after treatment or if one sneezes here or there? My situation as it is now is that I have 3 positives , the two boys that I might have homes for , and my calico girl that I thought I had a home for but after seeing her with symptoms of her cough which I had thought went away, I feel I can't let her move and be more stressed out until I can get her completely healthy and a little more weight on her. My boys seems healthy but may sneeze here and there or have a little cough....nothing persistent or on a daily basis so I was just wondering if it's still OK to mix them with my negative boys? My Calico girl is back on antibiotics and while she was with us that night for about 5 hours ,before she had that bad coughing spell she was fine for the 5 hours. So can she still be with my negative boys while I treat her. You said I should've seen her face when I had to confine her......well I barely could see her face because I was crying my eyes out myself:( She was not put by herself thank god , otherwise I would've grabbed a sleeping bag and slept with her! She was put back with her two feline brothers who are also positive so I hope she wasn't too distraught....I sure know I was though!! I know my kits have all been exposed and I have now vaccinated the negative ones. I just don't know the do's and don'ts of mixing them all together again. I think I'm so scared because I had thought I had 6 healthy cats, 3 had been tested for FELV and showed negative and lived healthy and happily for over 2 years. I then brought in 3 more over the past year of which one tested negative and I never tested the last two thinking they came from parents that were tested. Then all of the sudden one gets sick and I have 3 FELV+ cats, one is my oldest Bengal boy who tested negative previously and then the two that were never tested. None are related. I was told this is a rare situation and if FELV doesn't spread that easily then why are 3 of mine infected? So I either have really bad luck and more than one brought this in my home and the FELV tests I had done that were negative meant nothing or the last 2 I brought in came here with it and spread it to my adult cat. I will never know, but after having been hit with 3 of my 6 cats getting this disease at one time with still one kit to test, to me that makes me think this spreads like wildfire and that is why I'm so nervous about putting them all back together. The first night we decided to bring up my calico girl was after I had fed them all so they didn't share any food dishes and my other kits didn't really even go near her as they were surprised to see her and she just really followed me around the house all night and then fell asleep with me while my boys seemed a bit mad that I was showering attention on her all night and they slept with my Son so there wasn't much contact in that 5 hours. I'm trying to my best to get used to doing this but I'm still in panic mode here and just trying to learn all I can and make sure I do right by all my cats. For now I'm trying to rehome the positive boys that I know will take a move easier and the home I found for my 6 month old boy sounds perfect as he will have a 7 month old FELV+ playmate. This home might take both boys but I won't know until she comes to meet them. So this is where I'm at right now and my mind is spinning every day with more info and seems to change daily on how much I can handle so I'm just taking it all a day at a time and giving them as much TLC as I can until I figure this all out:) Thanks for your advice/input here.....it's much appreciated:) Deb
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