Re: article about feline leukemia by Dr. Susan Little

[catatonya]

My cats share dishes and litters.  And the thing is, just like the message about Killian.  She has never tested positive till now at 11 years old!  And as far as they know she's never been exposed.  I just don't think there's enough known about the transmission, etc... to come up with any hard and fast rules to follow besides keeping positives away from young kittens and unvaccinated cats.  That's about all I worry about now.  The rest will have to take care of itself, because I don't think anyone can know what will happen.

 

If one of my 11 year old cats comes up positive next month does it mean it caught it from my positive, or it's always had it 'sequestered' or something like this case with Killian? And as she says, even though Killian now tests positive she still is perfectly healthy!  She may never get sick from it.   Who knows?  Evidently no one, so I'm not stressing myself or my cats out over things like that anymore.  I did at first, but now I'm not.  I would not bring in an unvaccinated adult or any kitten (unless it was already positive FOR SURE) into my household at this time.  But I would bring in another positive, or an adult, healthy, vaccinated cat ( if I could add another cat to my already crowded household).

 

t

Faye Lewis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

The virus is fragile and has a short life outside the body. However, fresh
urine and fresh saliva would be a risk. However, it seems, based on a some
people's experience that blood exchange is the most efficient means of
transmitting the disease as in bites or being born to an FeLV mother. That
does not mean that saliva, etc cannot pass the disease-- just that it
"seems" to be harder to transmit this way. My two kittens were excessively
groomed by my positive cat, shared food, water and litter boxes and thus far
(24 months) have not been positive and they have each had 9 tests. Now, to
complicate matters there seems to be some genetic protection for some cats.
In other words, some cats are genetically prevented from getting the disease
at all (small percentage) BUT we have no way of knowing if our cats are
genetically protected. My ! kittens may not have gotten the disease because
a)they are genetically protected or b)the virus was too wimpy to infect or
c)they did not lick themselves immediately after the positive cat licked
them nor ate while the virus was still alive or d) some unknown fact or just
plain luck or 3)they may yet still go positive.

No one has said that the disease cannot be passed with saliva, urine, litter
boxes etc. Some of us think that isn't the most likely means of
transmission and we could very well be wrong but are willing to risk it by
not segregating our negative and positive cats. This is not an easy
decision and the answers are not black and white because there is a lot we
still do not know about the disease.


>From: Cherie A Gabbert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: felvtalk@vlists.net
>To: felvtalk@vlists.net
>Subject: Re: article about feline leukemia by Dr. Susan Little
>Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 07:39:2! 6 -0800 (PST)
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>Thank you for posting the article, but now that verifys my concern about
>shared dishes and litter boxes. I have been told different things, one is
>the virus can not live outside the body for a long period of time (15
>minutes) and weakens as time passes, and I am also told, in this article
>too that shared dished and grooming can is the most common way of
>transmission. I am confused, can anyone help me muddle through the facts.
>Cherie
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Lisa and all who are interested,
> I wrote to Dr. Susan about the possibility of her writing an article
>for us and/or the website about feline leukemia and I got this response
>today:
>
>Hi Anne:
>
>I wrote an article some time ago with basic information about FeLV:
>http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/health/FeLV.html
>
>But I just don't have time to update it or write anything more indepth due
>to my travel and lecture commitments right now.
>
>You are certainly welcome to continue to forward questions from the list
>and I will do my best to answer them.
>
>Dr. Susan
>Chapter Author, A Home Veterinary Guide, in:
>The CFA Complete Cat Book
>http://www.cfainc.org/catalog/books.html#completecatbook
>
>Feline Reproduction Manual:
>http://catvet.homestead.com/ReproCD.html
>
>__^^__^^__^^__^^__^^__^^
>Susan Little, DVM
>Diplomate ABVP (Feline)
>Bytown Cat Hospital
>Ottawa, Canada
>http://catvet.homestead.com
>__^^__^^__^^__^^__^^__^^
>
>Anne and Jimi Too Cool, Simms, Sophie and other furry friends in MI