"I was very stupid and naive about pet care and responsibility." As we were all! Growing up, we always had a stray or two who found us--they were all indoor/outdoor, maybe got shots once if they were neutered but certainly never saw a vet on a regular basis. Some met with accidents, one was poisened by a terrible neighbor, three lived to their twenties. And one died of FELV in the late '80s. He had never been tested, was the quintessential 'tomcat'--ruled the entire neighborhood. He developed symptoms & died quickly after my parents left him in the care of a neighbor for a few weeks--unfortunately, neighbor didn't do what they had agreed to & it was probably the first time he had not been with regular food, indoor at night, etc. & he was sick when they got back. Thing is he spent many months over the last few years of his life with me & and an unvaccinated (for FELV) cat when my parents traveled. He probably harbored the virus his whole life and yet despite long exposure, my cat lived to 21! So who knows why some get it and other don't!
"To believe the mis-information out there still even today about FeLV, I would have to believe my luck is phenomenal and I doubt that." Couldn't agree with you more about the misinformation that's out there! And I don't think its luck they all thrived and lived so long, I think its good care and a warm safe loving home--I would never underestimate that! Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Belinda Sauro Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2005 2:20 PM To: felvtalk@vlists.net Subject: My FeLV history [very long] When I first became aware of FeLV, really became aware of it was back in 1992. The story starts in 1984, I had a cat named Kiki, he was indoor/outdoor. I was very stupid and naive about pet care and responsibility. Kiki was not neutered and disappeared for about a month, I checked the pound and neighborhood but couldn't find him. I decided to get a kitten and keep him indoor only, into my life walked Skeeter. I got Skeeter at 8 weeks of age, much smaller than his litter mates, and he had an ulcer in his eye and lost his eye when it ruptured at about 6 weeks of age, I knew nobody else would take him so I did. And believe it or not the very night I brought Skeeter home, Kiki came home as if nothing had happened. He was skinny and very tired and sleep alot, he also had a patch of missing fur on his face and I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with ringworm. I wanted to keep him indoor only but he wasn't having it and about a month after he came home he wanted out, I decided to let him out and I never saw him again. I believe he was sicker than the vet thought and went off and died. This was my wake up call to responsible pet care, although I was still pretty naive. Skeeter as I said was indoor only, I got him neutered and when he was about 9 months old I decided to get him a playmate. Meet Teenye she was a tiny, very scared Man mix that I very soon realized had been abused in her previous home, she was very skittish and you couldn't pet her until you let her sniff your had, and you had to move slowly around her or she would run away. She and Skeeter started out hissing and growling at eanc other and he kept her trapped under the dresser for 3 days but then he decided to let her out and they became friends. Friends in Teenye's world meant she'd let him chase her around for a while and then when she had enough she would hiss at him and swat him, play time was over. She also loved his grooming sessions, he'd hold her down and groom her for a long time, she always put up with this. In 86 Frankie came into our lives, he was suppose to be 6 weeks old and his mother supposedly was killed by a car and he and his sister had been brought into the bar I was at that night and someone was going to take both of them but decided to take only his sister so I took him. When I got him home it was immediately obvious he wasn't anywhere near 6 weeks of age, he could barely walk, I figure he was maybe 3 or 4 weeks old, but he flourished and Skeeter had a real rough and tumble playmate (I think Teenye was a bit jealous). Then in 86, I moved and took my furkids with me and in 88 Mikie joined us. He was the center of attention cat, he had to be the center of attention. If you were petting anyone else Mikie would actually get in between you and the cat you were petting, sometimes this would earn him a swat, but it was understood, Mikie was needy and the others put up with it for the most part!! By now Skeeter was no longer the runt of anything he was a whopping 20 pounds, my gentle giant, the head cat that ruled with a very gentle paw. Everyone loved Skeeter, he was the peacemaker and undisputed king. Frankie was a a very close behind him 18 pounds of siamese lover, my boy, he was a mama's boy through and through. In 1990 I had moved again and Buddie joined the family, she was a tiny little hellion, my orange and white spit-fire. She definitely wasn't not thrilled with all her siblings and made it clear she wouldn't put up with anything from any of them. She was more or less a loner and did things her way, it was understood she was part of the family, but on her terms only, and that included the humans. She didn't seek attention often and if you tried to lavish it on her she would let you know in no uncertain terms it wasn't appreciated and would run away. When she did wasn't a attention she'd come to you, allow you to pet her and walk off when she had had enough, that was Buddie. All of my guys were indoor only, spayed and neutered and vaccinated, in those days the vet I was seeing didn't offer a FeLV vaccine, and didn't test since my cats were all indoors, naively I thought this was OK, in my ignorance it never dawned on me, they all had a life before me and could have come to the family positive. The vet I used in those days was very old (in his seventies), and I don't think he was up on the latest findings on FeLV, he never mentioned testing any new guys for it or vaccinating them for it, and I really had no clue about it, I had heard of it but knew nothing about as far as what it was or what it could do. All of Frankie's life he was a bit sickly, every year in December (since he was a baby) like clock work he would come down with a URI, usually he would get over it on his own in a week or so, but there were a few years I would take him to the vet (a new one now), and she would ask if they could test him for FeLV, I would say no, he is indoor only how could he get it? I thinking all of my guys were indoor only so there wasn't anyway for anyone to get it, again my obvious naivness. I would get antibiotics and in a week or so he would get better. Well in 1992 in December Frankie got his usual URI, but was really sick, worse than usual, his eye's were gunky, he wasn't eating well, and his nose was all crusty, took him to the vet, she asked again can we test him for FeLV? I told Mike my husband, let's get him tested so she will quit asking us about so I told her sure go ahead, but he won't have it he is indoor only. Well guess what, he was positive ... next step get everyone else tested, 4 out of my 5 were positive. Buddie whom I got as an 8 week old kitten, who had never been vaccinated was negative. We got her vaccinated and were stunned and in shock about the others. My vet wanted to euthanize Frankie, my baby, she said he was very sick and probably would live. In my mind he still only had a URI and there was no way I was going to euthanize him, I told her to give me antibiotics and took all of my kids home. Frankie was sick for about 6 weeks, but with alot of love and babying he pulled through. In October of 93' Skeeter was vomiting alot and I was in denial big time, I didn't even see that he had gone from a very healthy 20 pounds down to a smaller though not sickly looking 12 (he was a tad overweight at 20, but he was a russian blue mix so not much, he was just big), he was starting to look a bit gaunt though. So when I finally saw it and when he didn't beg for his Kentucky fried chicken which he loved, and in fact would throw up when he tried eating it, it hit me he was sick. I took him to the vet and he felt his tummy and said he was full of cancer and there was nothing they could do, I wish I had known a third back then of what I know now, I wouldn't have simply taken the vets word and done nothing, I would have found out what my options were and then decided, but I didn't and we lost Skeeter a week later, he could barely walk and was wasting away in front of us. Then in December of 93 and I felt a lump on his side, we took him right in and tests confirmed cancer in his kidney. We decided to try chemo and Mikie responded very well, one treatment and the lump disappeared. He tolerate the chemo well at first but then like all chemo patients, his appetite waned and in February the tumor returned. Mikie my sweet "I have to be the center of attention boy" was not doing well, he had not minded the 45 minute drive twice a week for chemo at first, but now he cried and obviously hated it, so after the tumor came back we made the painful decision to stop chemo, and in March we lost our sweet Mikie. Everything was fine until January of 95, in fact Frankie had not gotten his yearly URI, but I was now very on guard about my furkids every move, and Frankie wasn't acting himself, he was eating OK, he wan't acting sick in any way but he wasn't following his daily routine. As I said Frankie was my boy, he licked the inside crook of my elbow every day, multiple time a day while he kneaded my arm. Every night he would come to bed, lay on my stomach and kneed my arm for about 10 minutes and fall asleep right there. Well he was still coming to bed and laying on my tummy kneading my arm, but he would get up after ten minutes and get off the bed. I just knew something was wrong, I told Mike we needed to take him in and get him checked. His bloodwork showed he was very anemic his count was down to 6 my vet was amazed he was alive, let alone in as good a shape as he was in. His breathing at the vets started to get a little labored and she told us we do a transfusion but it wouldn't last more than a week or two, and the anemia would eventually kill him. She suggested we euthanize him, again this was my baby and he wasn't even acting sick, other than his breathing was a bit labored. I told her I would take him home and decide and bring him back in the morning, either for a transfusion or to let him go. I finally went to bed and was awoken at 11 exactly by a bllod cudling scream, I jumped out of bed and found Frankie on the kitchen floor, he was convulsing and after it subsided, he crawled over to his favorite cupboard (Frankie could open the cupboard doors and would get inside of them all the time, the potato cupboard was his favorite to hide in), and scratched at the door, I opened it and he crawled in behind the potatoes and died. To this day I have no idea who had it to start with, I only guess it was Frankie because of his lifelong history of being sickly. If this is the case he was obviously born with it and lived to be 9 years old. It could have been Kiki came home with it and gave it to Skeeter, who at the time was 8 weeks old and lived to be 7 yrs. Or maybe Skeeter had it all along and gave it to Kiki who was already sick with something and that pushed him over the edge. If I had to guess I truly believe Frankie was born with it. And I know for a fact Bailey had it at 5 months of age, when he found me and I had him tested. He is now almost 10, he will be 10 in May. So I have to say, I just from my own personal experience believe many more cats do live to be older and just aren't documented, especially today with all of the supplementing and treating the immune system to keep it strong. Mikie was the youngest I lost and he was 5 years old, still well above the average age vets will tell you. And Teenye, let's not forget her, she turned negative and was until the day she died of a very rare cancer at almost 16, she was a couple of months shy of 16 years. Bailey has been healthy until last year and we are now dealing with stomastisis, he has had all but his canines and little teeth in-between them pulled, and that helped a great deal, but there is still some inflammation, so we are going to put him on a very low dose of prednisolone and keep a very close eye on him. This is very tricky because of his positive status, but without doing that his inflammation will continue to cause problems and stomastisis is very painful and eventually it will effect his eating and we all know FeLV positive kitties can't afford to lose weight. My point is that I don't agree that it is very unusual for a cat to remain healthy with FeLV for many years, because even if Mikie was the one that was the + and exposed everyone, he lived to be 5, and the others would have been exposed for a minimum two years starting with Skeeter who died at 7 years of age, and Frankie would have been exposed for 4 years and died at 9 years of age. But as I said I truly believe it was Frankie or Skeeter, or Kiki that was the original carrier and that would make their exposure for even longer. And I know for a fact Buddie was exposed at 8 weeks old since she was the last to join us and she lived to be 13 (lost her to liver cancer at 13, last July), and I also know that Bailey was + at 5 months of age and is now almost 10 years old, so I don't agree that most cats are infected as kittens and they are unlikely to live to age 11, I wouldn't say it is the norm, but I don't think it's as rare as people believe, I don't even think today that it is that rare for cats to live to be 5, 10 or older while positive. And I also disagree from my own personal experience that it is as contagious as once believed, all 6 of Bailey's sibs have lived with him for all of his life, they all eat sleep, play, use the same litter boxes and groom each other, and nobody has ever turned positive, granted all of them were vaccinated adults, except Joey who was about 2 months younger than Bailey and vaccinated, when Bailey joined us, so the risk wasn't as great that they would get it (although many vets even today will tell you the risk is great). And I took Bailey to three vets, all three said I should euthanize him because he would die by the time he was 3 months old, and they were serious. Thank God I knew better and didn't follow their advice, but how many cats die because people think their vet is all knowing and follow their advice. All I'm saying is we are all humans, and there is not one human alive today that hasn't been wrong, or made a mistake in their life, so take anything anybody tells you with a grain of salt, and use your own life experience to guide you if you think something doesn't sound right. I was so paranoid when we where going through the 15 month period and losing our furkids, and when Frankie died, I swore I would never put myself in that situation again, and long came Bailey. I know even today after all this time together it is possible for one of his sibs to become infected by him, but I also know it is highly unlikely as long as they are vaccinated and live in a failry stress free home (I believe stress is a big factor in setting the virus off). I also know all of my guys almost certainly wouldn't be here today because they were all stray's or dumped. I also believe greatly in the power of positive thinking and while Buddie was sick with cancer I tried with all my might to always be positive and not even say anything negative about her condition in front of her, and that things happen for a reason, as hard as it may be to understand the reason sometimes. She lived a good year with her cancer and was a completely different cat while sick, she became very lovable and we bonded like we never had her whole life, it is a gift I will cherish always. To believe the mis-information out there still even today about FeLV, I would have to believe my luck is phenomenal and I doubt that. -- Belinda Happiness is being owned by cats ... 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