FIV/FELV testing ?

Hi I am new to FIV/FELV testing. I was wondering how long it takes to get the results of these tests?

Is this something the vet can do in office and tell me before we leave or will it take a week or so to know?

Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.

I took a stray cat into the vet last week to have her tested. They drew some blood and I had the results within 10 minutes or so.

Originally Posted by AbbysMom

I took a stray cat into the vet last week to have her tested. They drew some blood and I had the results within 10 minutes or so.

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They draw the blood and mix it with a conjugate solution. Then they put a few drops into a combo snap tester. Over the course of about 10 minutes dots will appear. One dot is good, meaning negative. Then I believe 2 dots on one side is FIP pos, two on the otherside is FeLV pos, and more than that is both FIP and FeLV positive. Forgive me if I'm mistaken on any of this, it has been a while since I have done the tests myself.

You can get the results within minutes as stated above. I took my kittens and had a result quickly.

Something to keep in mind with the in office tests (SNAP tests), they often have false positives. One of my cats tested FIV+ but a DNA test was done and it came back -ve. So if you have -ves in the office then they are reliable but a +'ve isn't necessarily so.

From what I understand, the tests aren't reliable for kittens under 12 weeks of age, so it's best to either wait until kittens are older, or retest once they're older to confirm results.

Originally Posted by Lorina

From what I understand, the tests aren't reliable for kittens under 12 weeks of age, so it's best to either wait until kittens are older, or retest once they're older to confirm results.

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Most vets do the testing at 8 weeks and the results are accurate. It's an issue of getting a vein big enough to draw from, not that the tests are unreliable.