Lorrie wrote; "Once this virus is in their bone marrow they will not produce enough red blood cells, and death is inevitable."
I see this differently. So does The Winn Foundation. They say; "Finally, some cats can develop latent or sequestered infection. This probably happens to about 5-10% of cats. These cats, whose virus is hiding in sites such as the bone marrow, will rarely be contagious and are unlikely to develop illness. They will not test positive on routine testing." That is from http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/pages/felv_web.pdf The AAFP also seems to feel differently; http://jfm.sagepub.com/content/10/3/300.full from 2008 says; "Regressive infection is accompanied by an effective immune response, and virus replication is contained prior to or at the time of bone marrow infection. Cats with regressive infection are at little risk of developing FeLV-associated diseases. FeLV is integrated into the cat's genome, but viral shedding does not occur (Pedersen et al 1977, Lutz et al 1983, Flynn et al 2000, 2002). Following infection, regressive and progressive infections can be distinguished by repeated testing for viral antigen in peripheral blood (Torres et al 2005). Most infected cats initially become antigen positive within 2–3 weeks after virus exposure. They may then test negative for viral antigen 2–8 weeks later or, in rare cases, even after many months (regressive infection). Both progressive and regressive infections are almost always accompanied by persistent FeLV proviral DNA in blood. Some infected cats never develop detectable antigenemia. In this case, real-time PCR is more sensitive than antigen detection to detect FeLV exposure" Neither of these sources (and I have others, but those are from the best known entities) seem to feel that bone marrow involvement is inevitably fatal. It is possible that euthanasia is the best option for Polli, but I don't believe that a cat sero-converting to negative gives an imminent death sentence. Just my thoughts, Best of healing energies to Polli, Margo -----Original Message----- >From: Lorrie <felineres...@frontier.com> >Sent: Jun 26, 2013 6:43 AM >To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org >Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Please keep Polli in your thoughts > >Amanda, My thoughts are with you, because I have had many FelV cats over the >years. Once this virus is in their bone marrow they will not produce enough >red blood cells, and death is inevitable. Her vital organs will shut down >and she will slowly suffocate. A transfusion will only buy her a few weeks if >that long. Gentle euthanasia is the only option. I am so sorry, but this is >the kindest thing you can do for her. > >Lorrie _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org