Hello everyone, My name is Megan. I'm a college student with three sibling cats, one of which was recently found to be FeLV-positive. We discovered this after Olive had a severe anemic episode last week all of the sudden and almost died. Her brother's blood was able to restore her, but how long this will last, we don't know. She has seemed happy and feeling well since the blood transfusion, but there's a feeling in my gut that tells me it's only a matter of time before she gets sick again, and I don't know what to do about that. Like I said, I'm a college student, and independent from my parents, which by default means I'm poor.
My vet doesn't know much about treatment, but he is going to talk to the university's vet school. We are considering interferon, although to be honest, I don't know if I'd be able to give Olive shots everyday. I'm in quite a dilemma, because I want to do what I can for Olive. She is the sweetest, friendliest cat I have ever met. All of my friends love her and some of them are also pretty upset about her condition. Part of the dilemma is what to do about interaction with her siblings. I just had them tested (and vaccinated) today, and won't know the results until Thursday. I would assume that they are very likely to be infected as well, yet part of me thinks that they aren't, and the vet thought this, too. I had thought that maybe my boyfriend's cat had transmitted it to Olive, because he has some health problems, and therefore maybe only she was infected. But he tested negative today on the in-home test, so now I'm scared that Olive has had this since she was little, and therefore my other two probably have it as well. Unless, of course, they've developed immunity to it. So, there are my two problems: What to do with Olive, and what to do if my other two turn out negative. If they are all positive, then leaving them together isn't an issue; although then I'm also left with the horrible situation of having three FeLV-positive cats. If they turn out to be negative, I don't know how to separate them. I don't want to risk their lives by having them interact, yet I can't bear to give up Olive. I live in an apartment, so keeping them separate in my home isn't a great solution. If anyone has any suggestions, words of advice, etc., please let me know. I am completely distraught over this. Last night I could not sleep, and I'm already not caring about school, which just started. Thank you for reading this. Sorry it's so long... -Megan
