Debi, personally I would get a different vet if they told me that.
Milkdud lived 4.5 years after diagnosis at age 1 or 1.5. He was
neutered as an adult. Harley has been with me over 4 years, and he was
neutered around 5 months. Two vets in this area have said average
lifespan of FeLV+ cats they've seen in their practices was 2.5 years
after diagnosis, but each had seen a cat that made it 10 years. I
didn't ask whether those cats were neutered or not, but my guess is that
they were.
If you allow an un-neutered FeLV+ male outdoors, he will go looking for
a mate, or a female in heat will find him. He may infect the female,
who will pass it to her kittens, if she doesn't miscarry. He may fight
with other males in the area, passing the virus to them. Outdoors, he
may be exposed to diseases that are not covered by the standard
vaccines, and being FeLV+, he is more vulnerable. I learned recently
that some vaccines don't even cover all possible strains of a virus,
just like each year's flu vaccine for humans only protects against the
strains that are most likely to be prevalent that year. A local vet
treated a FeLV negative cat with a bad calicivirus infection, that had
been vaccinated against calicivirus. But it was a different strain that
infected the cat, not covered by the vaccine.
Also consider that an un-neutered male will most likely start to spray
(6 months, could start any time now), including in the house. We had a
sprayer once that started at 6 months, which continued even after he was
neutered, because it became a learned behavior. And the older
already-neutered cat observed and copied!
Marsha
On 10/27/2014 9:57 AM, Debi Kraal wrote:
I have a male 6 month old Felv + kitty. He's been to the vet for all the
appropriate vaccines. I have 2 other cats. They’re all indoor/outdoor cats.
Where ever they want to be is good with us. We have a large lot, 4 acres,
trees, mice, all things wonderful for cats. My concern is that my vet did not
want to neuter, “Bean”. He said there is some evidence that the extra
testosterone my help with the leukemia. I have never had a non-neutered,
spayed pet, I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable with this. Has anyone heard of
this testosterone evidence?
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