I have/had 4 FELV+ kittens. I was fostering large numbers of kittens and URI cats from the city shelter but all tested negative before coming home with me or after being in isolation, before mixing with negative cats.
As far as I can guess, a pregnant Himi mom that tested negative after giving birth, passed FELV to her one surviving kitten, Lady Baltimore. That kitten was very sickly but with intensive nursing care, was taken to be spayed when she reached 3 lbs in weight and we were shocked to find out that she was FELV+. The kitten was in good health for only about 2 months then started losing weight and died about 6 weeks later. The other 3 kittens all tested negative when they came into the house but interacted with Lady Baltimore during the period before she was spayed. I just didn't dream that she could be positive coming from a negative mom. These kittens all tested positive at about 7-9 months of age. That was 3 months ago so they are all around 1 year of age now. Two were and are in excellent health. One came to me with a bad URI and has always been a chronic snuffler and has on and off periods of sleeping more than usual. His snuffling, congestion, and energy levels improved signifcantly when I did 3 Intranasal FVRCP vaccinations in the eyes and nose, 2 weeks apart, around Christmas according to the advice of a vet that heard about this at a vet conference last year. He has grown well throughout though. Next month when I have the money, I plan to get some blood work on him and talk to the vet about these down periods he has. Otherwise, so far I haven't been convinced about supplements for them. They all eat dry IAMS adult food with small bits of canned ProPlan occasionally. All are indoors and mixed with vaccinated negative cats. I am a research scientist and work for a pharmaceutical company although the immune system is not my specialty. So far, I am not convinced that supplements that are purported to stimulate the immune system have any efficacy. I joined this list to learn what I can from the anecdotal information and am trying to get to the meat of the reports of good results with various therapies. Thanks to all on the list for all of your information! Trissa in Philadelphia "catatonya" <catato...@yahoo.com> Sent by: felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org 08-Feb-2009 15:01 Please respond to felvtalk@felineleukemia.org To felvtalk@felineleukemia.org cc Subject Re: [Felvtalk] Survey AT WHAT AGE DID YOUR CAT BECOME FeLV POSITIVE? CC was positive as a kitten. she was found in a parking lot, so I have no idea. DD was positive when I got her at about 2 years of age. WHAT> TREATMENTS DID YOU DO/ CC got very sick at about 8 months and almost died. We used interferon, immunoregulin, she eye herpes and medicines for that and saw a homeopath.DD has never been sick but once and was put on antibiotics. I give her no special treatments.> WHAT LIFESTYLE DO YOUR CATS LEAD, all indoors > ? LIVE WITH OTHER CATS OR NOT? Yes, up to 10 at a time. there has been no contamination of my negatives. CC lived until about 8 years old, and died of herpes. CC is still fine at around 10 years old.t______________ _________________________________________________________________ How fun is this? IMing with Windows Live Messenger just got better. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/messenger.aspx _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
