FeLV + FIV quick question

So I'm bringing home two new babies tomorrow who are 4 months old and have both been tested for FeLV & FIV and the results were negative. Once they test negative that means they don't have it right- I mean it doesn't jestate or anything? Please forgive my ignorance... I don't want to put my current boy's health at risk. Thanks!

As long both have been tested and are negative your kitty is at no risk. The only problem is if you let them outside and then of course it's a risk for any cat allowed to roam. Congratulations on your new friends! Les

It is always a good idea to have them retested 3 months after the first initial test. The virus does have an "incubation" phase in which it would not be detected in the bloodstream. So, for example, if they were exposed 2 weeks before the test was run, they would still show up negative.

i actually thought it worked the other way round - if they are exposed to it, they will show positive in a snap test, but can fight it off, which is why they needed to be retested in 12 weeks. If they have outdoor access, their status could change.

Hiya Desley

Yeah you are right,its not that the incubation period,its the fact that there can also be a false negative on the first test too.

i actually didn't think the possibility of a false negative was very high, so if it was negative, then they are fine - although just checked Glasgows site now and realised that they do recommend 2 tests - although she might have been with me longer than teh incubation period when they wanted to test (due to a high temp for no reason). Better get her booked in for 2 months time. Do you know if this is the same with in house tests?

The in house tests are the same ones that they run in a lab (called an ELISA test). There are more confirmatory ones to use if a cat tests positive.

Originally Posted by booktigger

i actually thought it worked the other way round - if they are exposed to it, they will show positive in a snap test, but can fight it off, which is why they needed to be retested in 12 weeks. If they have outdoor access, their status could change.

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No because once the cat is infected, it has to go through a long process before it shows up in the blood. The main area in which it will become either transient or persistent is in the bone marrow. Until it passes through the bone marrow, the cat will show up negative.

Make sense??

I think that if the kittens were in a "risky" type environment, like a shelter where all the cats were kept in one room, or even born outside to an unknown mother I would definitely test again, but if they were born in a home where the mother is not known to have either disease and their exposure to other cats was very limited or non-existent I wouldn't worry.... so basically it has a lot do do with the kittens' background on whether you should restest

Well, I just read this on the Glasgow site (only place in UK to do the conclusive test)

For this reason, when cats are tested for the first time, it is recommended that they be tested twice, 12 weeks apart. A very small percentage of cats which are FeLV positive are in the process of developing immunity after which they will become negative; this is another reason for testing healthy cats twice. Cats which test positive twice at a 12 weeks interval will be permanently infected. In nature, many cats which are exposed to FeLV recover from the infection. Recovered cats have no FeLV p27 in their blood but may have antibodies to the virus. There is a test for these (virus neutralising) antibodies and it is important not to confuse this test with either the p27 or the virus isolation test.

And yes, your post makes a lot of sense, and it is quite worrying when I know a lot of rescues routinely test but I think they might only test once, I am doing a bit of a survey on that at the moment.

Originally Posted by booktigger

Well, I just read this on the Glasgow site (only place in UK to do the conclusive test)

For this reason, when cats are tested for the first time, it is recommended that they be tested twice, 12 weeks apart. A very small percentage of cats which are FeLV positive are in the process of developing immunity after which they will become negative; this is another reason for testing healthy cats twice. Cats which test positive twice at a 12 weeks interval will be permanently infected. In nature, many cats which are exposed to FeLV recover from the infection. Recovered cats have no FeLV p27 in their blood but may have antibodies to the virus. There is a test for these (virus neutralising) antibodies and it is important not to confuse this test with either the p27 or the virus isolation test.
And yes, your post makes a lot of sense, and it is quite worrying when I know a lot of rescues routinely test but I think they might only test once, I am doing a bit of a survey on that at the moment.

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to me that means that cats who have fought off the virus will have those anti-bodies, but that is not what the regular test tests for?

this is my resource http://www.aafponline.org/resources/...Guidelines.pdf someone on here actually posted this for me, extremely informative

but basically the bottom line is, there is SO little really understood about this disease, and I've experienced some things that really go against all verterinary literature as well

The ELISA tests for the FeLV antigen and FIV antibodies.