Obviously, Dorothy, treat your cats the way you're comfortable with, but as someone else has stated, the Cornell info *is* outdated. If FeLV were as hugely contagious as stated, I would now have 4 cats dead of it, since our Patches escaped our quarantine the first night he was with us, and interacted freely with whichever of our cats cared to acknowledge his presence for at least 3 hours, and may have had some of their food and drink as well. Everybody is as robust as ever. Patches was already in the lymph-node-involvement stage, and only lasted 7 weeks with us after that. But if he hadn't been sick pretty much the entire time he was with us, we would probably have had the others vaccinated and let him mingle with them. He so wanted to be out with us, and instead he had to stay in a room alone most of the day. :-( Don't be affronted about your info being called wrong. It's easy to do, it seems like there's more wrong info out there than right. Diane R.
________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dorothy Noble Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 11:26 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: more questions and thankyou You are welcome to describe my information as "inaccurate"; I wrote: Apparently the virus CAN live for a while. I have read in several places that you need to clean any area with a bleach/water cleaner if a + cat has been where a negative one will be staying. It is said that you should wait 30 days after your + cat is gone before you should introduce a new negative cat into the household. I would think that the Cornell University (as well as all of the others documented below) hold a certain amount of credibility - more so than any layman just posting their opinions here. Whatever you believe, I would ALWAYS err on the side of caution and keep all of the litterboxes, bowls, etc separate. Without knowing it, I put my negative cats at risk; they had all been vaccinated for FeLV but it isn't 100% effective. Due to the extreme contagiousness, one of my vaccinated cats now is FeLV positive. Please note the yellow highlighted part below - by following this strictly, my other negative cat remained negative. Suit yourself, but I prefer to be proactive with my cats. What can I do now to protect my cats?? The only method for protecting your cats is to remove any FELV-positive cat from other cats completely. You should also follow strict quarantine procedures including separate utensils, housing, litter pans for the FELV positive cat, and thoroughly washing your hands, clothing and shoes after handling and caring for the FELV positive cat. Do not breed an FELV positive queen!! If you lose a cat to FELV, it is recommended that you wait 30 days before bringing in a new cat, and then only after the area has been thoroughly scrubbed and disinfected with a solution containing 4 ounces of household bleach per gallon of water, rugs vacuumed completely, and all litter pans, food dishes, bedding, etc. have been replaced. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------- * FeLV is considerably unstable and will not survive outside an infected cat for an extended length of time. It is recommended to wait at least 30 days before a new cat is brought into the household/facility in which a FeLV-positive cat once lived * Cleaning: Thoroughly disinfect or replace the food dishes, litter pans, and bedding that were used by the infected cat. Tile or hard surfaced floors should be cleaned and disinfected with a diluted bleach solution (approx. 4 oz. household bleach to 1 gal. water). Thoroughly vacuum rugs to eliminate the virus from carpeting. * These plus the thirty-day quarantine, should be sufficient to eliminate the virus within the household. -------------------------------------------------- Keep a FeLV-infected cat indoors and away from other cats. If the cat dies from FeLV, the Cornell Feline Health Center recommends a waiting period of at least 30 days before getting another cat. The house and cat supplies should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before bringing a new cat home. An FeLV-positive cat that is not sick is probably still shedding the virus. FeLV-positive cats should not be housed with other cats. Deciding what to do with an FeLV-positive cat in a multicat household can be very difficult. There are several options, including: * Euthanasia * Finding a home for the FeLV-positive cat where it will be the sole cat * Isolating the FeLV-positive cat within the home, by keeping it in a separate room and providing a separate litter tray and feeding bowl Because FeLV can be spread through litter trays, water and food bowls, and bedding, these should be disinfected with a solution containing 4 ounces of household bleach per 1 gallon of water, or they should be replaced after isolating the FeLV-positive cat. Floors should be cleaned and disinfected with a bleach solution, and rugs should be thoroughly vacuumed. --------------------------------- If you have previously had a cat with FeLV, wait at least 30 days before acquiring a new cat. During that time, all litterboxes and food bowls should be replaced, and the premises cleaned thoroughly. Belinda Sauro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: This is why inaccurate information is so harmful, Dorthys info is wrong, it dries it dies, talk to any vet who is knowledgable about FeLV if you can find one, there aren't many even today it seems. > Now I am worried. I have been taking good care of Buzz's dishes and washing my hands after I leave his room. If this virus lasts on clothing then I have put my other cats at risk every time I pick them up in spite of the precautions. -- Belinda happiness is being owned by cats ... Be-Mi-Kitties http://www.bemikitties.com HostDesign4U.com [affordable hosting & web design] http://www.hostdesign4u.com ForYouByUs.com [custom printing] http://www.foryoubyus.com ________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. 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