Lee Condolences on the loss of your little Bunny. Sounds like she had a good life with you, Samson and Delilah. You did all you could. I wish you luck in helping the others, and hope your heart break heals soon, through the memory of your furry friend.
Peace Bonnie From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Lee Evans Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 4:50 PM To: Felvtalk Subject: [Felvtalk] Bunny Passed Away This Evening She came to me two and a half years ago when she was around 9 months old. She had been abandoned at an apartment complex, rescued but then tested FeLv+. She was brought to me to see if she would turn negative. She did! I kept her anyway because she had a few bad habits, like biting my fingers when I was sleeping and trying to tear apart my iPod headphones. She was very mischievous. I named her Bunny because she was brought to me on Easter Sunday. She has lived with me and two other cats in my bedroom/home office since that Easter in 2011. About two weeks ago I noticed a change in her behavior. She no longer pestered Delilah, the resident female cat in the room and she seemed to lose interest in sleeping on the bed with me and Samson and Delilah (the two other cats in the room). However she was eating normally and nothing else seemed out of place. I assumed that it was the change in the weather from very hot to nice, cool evenings and then to rain. On Saturday of last week she seemed lethargic. She was not eating her usual amount of food and not drinking her usual amount of water. I checked her gums to see if it might be stomatitis or some bad tooth upsetting her but her gums were very pale and so was her tongue. I immediately thought it was flea anemia. I took her to the vet on Tuesday because Monday is usually very busy with dogs there. She was more lethargic and depressed by then and her appetite had all but disappeared. She was still drinking water. She had no fleas so I asked the vet to re-test her for FeLv. Sure enough, she was positive. She had all the classic symptoms of active FeLv. I was heart broken but still, I asked him to give her some meds to make her more comfortable and perhaps get back her appetite. He gave her cortisone. Today, she was no better. She just lay on her towel and couldn't make it to the litter box although it was just a few steps away. I took her in again and he gave her some fluids, not too much because he said it would make her even more anemic. He gave her a little more cortisone to try to kick start her appetite. I had been syringe feeding her by then. He also gave her a small dose of Convenia and some B-complex but nothing helped. She passed several hours after the vet visit. I probably should have had him help her pass but I just didn't want to give up hope. There is a question here, in all this upsetting dialog. My other two cats who slept with me and Bunny and groomed each other, ate with each other, drank and used the same litter box are around 7 years old. The vet told me that once they are into adulthood, they are not as likely to get FeLv as they would if they were under 2 years old. Is this true? I will have them tested in about 3 weeks anyway to see what happened, if anything. Also, has anyone had the experience of a young cat throwing off the virus and turning negative, then turning positive again after a year, or was that second test after I had held her in isolation for 4 months a false negative? Right now I'm fostering a kitten who has tested negative for FIV/FeLv. She is several rooms away from where Bunny has lived. They never came in contact with each other but I have walked from my bedroom into the kitten's room to feed, clean, etc.. Did I put her at risk? This is desperately upsetting. I have decided not to take in any more fosters with FeLv. I have never had this happen before. Most of my "turned" cats are still with me and are well into several years of adulthood. I usually don't have good results with getting turned cats adopted because most people don't want the possibility that the cat is harboring the disease. Maybe Bunny had it in her bone marrow and tested negative on the regular SNAP test. I should have tested with the IFA also but don't have much money to spare.
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