Belinda
You have been through alot, and are a wonderful person because of it. I am still nervous about mixing but, I can just pray for the best. Thank you for sharing.
Cherie
Belinda Sauro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Belinda Sauro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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 wo! uld 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 thro! w 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 ob! viously 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 e! xperience 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
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