Feline Leukemia Questions

mavgirl

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At what age is it appropriate to test? If my new kitten comes up positive, what precautions can I take to protect my 6 year old kitty? thanks
 

katiemae1277

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Hi! I know a little bit about leukemia as I currently have 14 precious babies that are positive....
Upon doing some research I have learned that it is VERY rare for a kitten to get a false positive, the leukemia test tests for antigens rather than anti-bodies and antigens are produced by the cats own body, not passed through the mother's milk like anti-bodies are. The suggested age is 16 weeks, but I believe you can get an accurate result from a test as young as 8 or 10 weeks. If the kitten does test positive, my honest advice would be that you must keep him separated from your other cat, even if the other cat has the vaccine as the vaccine is, at best, only 85% effective. I would never want to risk infecting another cat. Is there a reason you suspect the kitten may be positive?
 
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mavgirl

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My kitten is approximately 8 weeks old now. The vet suggested to wait a month prior to testing. My other cat tested false positive when he was a little guy (he's now 6) but later tested negative and has for the past 5 years. I do not suspect for any particular reason that my new kitten is positive. I am only asking so that I may make a more informed decision if she does test positive. THanks
 

katiemae1277

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Originally Posted by Mavgirl

My kitten is approximately 8 weeks old now. The vet suggested to wait a month prior to testing. My other cat tested false positive when he was a little guy (he's now 6) but later tested negative and has for the past 5 years. I do not suspect for any particular reason that my new kitten is positive. I am only asking so that I may make a more informed decision if she does test positive. THanks
I'm so glad to hear you got one of the lucky ones! they say that some cats can beat the virus- where did you get your new kitten from?
 

jen

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Originally Posted by Mavgirl

My kitten is approximately 8 weeks old now. The vet suggested to wait a month prior to testing. My other cat tested false positive when he was a little guy (he's now 6) but later tested negative and has for the past 5 years. I do not suspect for any particular reason that my new kitten is positive. I am only asking so that I may make a more informed decision if she does test positive. THanks
I have heard that somtimes it can take about a month or at least a few weeks for a poisitive to show up on a cat that recently caught FeLV from another. Anyone know if this is true? I assume that is why your vet said to wait a month before testing. The cats I have had tested, the vets always said keep them in for about a month before having them tested. I usually ask them to just do it now anyways. Most of the cats I have had tested are older unneutered males. So I assume that if after all these years, they haven't gotten FeLV they probably haven't in the past month either.
 

katiemae1277

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Originally Posted by Jen

I have heard that somtimes it can take about a month or at least a few weeks for a poisitive to show up on a cat that recently caught FeLV from another. Anyone know if this is true? I assume that is why your vet said to wait a month before testing. The cats I have had tested, the vets always said keep them in for about a month before having them tested. I usually ask them to just do it now anyways. Most of the cats I have had tested are older unneutered males. So I assume that if after all these years, they haven't gotten FeLV they probably haven't in the past month either.
I have heard this
but I'm guessing that if the kitten were only 8 weeks old the only other cat(s) it would have been exposed to would have been its brothers and sisters and mother? That's why I'm curious as to where she got the kit from.

Leukemia is a crazy disease, one of my cats first tested positive, 4 weeks later negative, was given the green light to socialize with the family's other cat and then restested positive again 6 weeks after that
So far the other kitty has tested negative twice so hopefully it wasn't passed to him
And to be honest, I've heard that if a cat tests postive then negative, the disease may be "hiding" in the bone marrow and could resurface at a later date- how insane is that? more really needs to be learned about this thing
 

georgethefish

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my vet told me that unless my cat will go outside, which she won't except for on a lead, that i don't need to get her vaccinated for leukemia. we live with another cat though, who also only goes out on a lead. there are also lots of cats in our complex. does anyone have feelings about this?
 

katiemae1277

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Originally Posted by georgethefish

my vet told me that unless my cat will go outside, which she won't except for on a lead, that i don't need to get her vaccinated for leukemia. we live with another cat though, who also only goes out on a lead. there are also lots of cats in our complex. does anyone have feelings about this?
I really wouldn't think your kitty would need the vaccine, the virus does not live very long outside the body, if your kitty isn't sharing litterboxes, food or water dishes or mutually grooming each other than the risk is extremely low of getting the disease
 
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