Point taken Sally,
As far as I can tell from my personal stand point, I think FeLV is the worst, but I am sure we can debate on bad or worse all day. There are more vicious diseases out there, as with everything.
Luckily and not so luckily, my expierence with this is limited, I just can tell you watching a kitty bleed to death is very hard to do. Snowball was playing and eating with the bleeding so it just was one of those things. Not to mention my daughter (age 1) bled to death in my arms, many years ago.
Watching and being with a dieing animal is hard no matter what the disease, and we all can attest to it, so I guess it does not matter better or worse sicknesses it is just a shame there has to be any.
Cherie
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear Cherie:
While FeLV is a horrid disease to deal with, with so few givens and so many
unanswered questions, there ARE worse things to deal with. I haven't had any
personal experience dealing with it, but if you were to ask listmember Denise
Uriarte here in San Jose, I think she will tell you that FIP is even worse to
deal with than FeLV. She has dealt with both.
Kittys who develop FIP (a mutated form of the corona virus) may exhibit none
to mild symptoms in the early stages on infection, and that is when they are
infectious to other cats. By the time they are actively showing classic
symptoms of the disease, they are said to be no longer contagious. And some cats can
evidently be latent carriers and never show symptoms, themselves. There is
NO TEST which can positively tell you a cat has FIP...the only way to
absolutely! confirm it is through necropsy. A high corona titer may be an indication,
but not absolutely as a cat exposed to it but not becoming infected may have a
high antibody titer. There are two forms, the dry and wet form. With the wet
form there is excessive buildup of a stringy proteinaceous fluid in the
abdomen or chest and cats with this form succumb rather quickly. With the dry
form, a cat can linger for several months and in the end stages there can be
neurological damage which causes seizures and the cat may be disoriented and
crashing into walls in its distress. Not a pretty sight to observe. Just as with
there being no explanation as to why the FeLV virus mutates into one of its
more virulent subgroups in some cats and not others, I've never seen an
explanation as to why the corona virus mutates to FIP in some cats, but not others.
Immuno-compromised cats, such as those with FeLV are said to be more
suseceptible.
In '03, Den! ise lost two kittens from a litter of three FeLV+ kittens to FIP,
and three otherwise healthy "older" kittens. Two were feral from a mom whose
previous littter had all perished and we have hypothesized she may be a
carrier. Luckily this mom cat who had long evaded being trapped and produced litter
after litter of kittens, has finally been trapped and spayed.
After what I saw Denise go through with those kittys, I would take an FeLV+
kitty over that any day.
Sally in San Jose
