Hi Lynn, my Squeaky and Stripes tested positive. Squeak lived a healthy life until age 22 years. Stripes was sick on and off and lived to age 16 years. This was before vets (or guardians) knew much and they VACCINATED them for this year after year. Squeaky always got sick for 3 days after being vaccinated. Anyway, have hope and give him lots of love and no stress. The neutering can stress him so make sure he's in tip top shape before you do that. Check out some of the maintenance suggestions for feline leuk positive kitties such as using interferon. Good luck and THANK-YOU for rescuing this kitty from his previous situation. Wonder if you could bring any sort of neglect charge agst the other family. That said, we don't generally press charges here as it means we have to relinquish the animal. Laurie ----- Original Message ----- From: Lynne To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 5:54 PM Subject: new cat
Hi all. I just joined this list after doing all the reading I possibly could find on feline leukemia. I recently acquired a Himalayan male cat around 5 to 6 years of age from a rather unscrupulous family. I was familiar with the cat because all summer he would come over to our house and hang around, mostly wanting attention and something to eat. Recently I discovered he was on a buy and sell site and immediately called the owners desparate to purchase him. Knowing who I am the price went from 150 to 300 within a couple minutes. Anyway, my husband and I had grown to love this little guy and just wanted him to have a good home. Yesterday we took him to the vet where he was groomed, shaved of all the horrible matting under his chest and legs, deflead and treated for a terrible case of earmites. We no sooner got home than the vet called to tell us he had tested positive for feline leukemia and wanted to know how much we had bonded with him and our options. After what seemed like hours of crying I decided we were going to keep him as long as he stayed healthy which he is now. This weekend he is going to be neutered, strongly advised by the vet. This will be strictly a housecat. He's adjusted very well and is adorable. I'm just curious. Does he have a chance at a longer life than I've been lead to believe he has. I'm hearing a couple of years and I just cannot accept this as fact. Lynne
