Mt OJ has FlK

We found out yesterday that My OJ has feline leukemia. no one else in the colony seems to have contracted it, we had all there boosters done... hopefully that will be enough to keep everyone else safe. I'm sad and my heart is heavy, scared I will lose him too... He is healthy for now, and that is all I can know for sure. Time and he will tell me when that changes...

I m so sorry to hear that. Just give him all the love and comfort you can.

I will keep you and him in my prayers.

ah shame man thats awful! i dont know anything about that but is it not treatable?

Here's wikipedia on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_leukemia_virus

No, it's not treatable and it's considered fatal.

My entire colony of 6 outside cats has FeLV and so do Nuts and Attitude. Mama is at least 2(most likely older) and I'm sure she's had it all her life and she is happy and healthy. I went out to feed them this morning and Mama came running full tilt to get to the bowl. Her daughter Biter has it and she's prolly around 18 months(she was a kitten last winter.) The 3 kittens we have left from this summer all have it.

Some cats live a perfectly normal lifespan, my vet told me his uncle had a positive cat that lived to be 17, and died of old age. All of mine are very healthy. The biggest thing is Attitude ends up with eye infections(she has had one corneal ulcer but that was kicked no problem) easy but I just keep eye ointment on hand and treat her as needed, and that's no big deal. The only other health issues we have had was Mama's rectal prolapse and that didn't have anything at all to do with leukemia and a very normal URI during the summer when we had 3 adults and 12 kittens. Attitude did have a corneal ulcer but it was totally healed in less than a week, the vet was shocked at how fast it healed. Nobody is sick and everyone is doing great. Vets love to give gloom and doom prognoses but from what I have observed I haven't seen it. None of my cats have any of the issues in the wiki article. They all run and play and have wonderful happy lives. Attitude and Nuts fly through the house, getting in trouble and being normal kittens.

Have him retested in about 3-6 months, it is possible he was exposed to it and that is why the test was triggered, he might totally fight it off. Attitude and Nuts have a very faint positive and they have had it since before they were born so their immune systems almost fought it off. Is this infection a new thing, or has he never been tested before? An adult cat should have the immune system to kick it, he seems a little old to have a new infection, but I would still have him retested if you have only had the ELISA test.

I'm sorry you got this horrible news, I know I was so devastated and I swear I cried for a week straight but then I noticed that no one was sick and no one was suffering, they were all happy healthy cats and were normal in every way. This isn't an automatic death sentence. I know Attitude and Nuts might have a shorter than normal lifespan but there are guarantees with any pet as I'm sure anyone here can tell you. My friend's perfectly healthy kitten died for no reason, the vets never could figure out what happened to it, it wasn't sick or anything. She was younger than Attitude and Nuts who are 7 months old.

Stay off the internet doing searches on it, that did a lot more harm than good, they focus too much on gloom and doom and not the other side the cats, who do live a long time and die of old age or the ones who never show a single symptom and never have any complications from it.

Taryn

I care for a colony of feral cats that were transported from behind a busy restaurant on a busy road, they stay on our property now. There is about 15 plus cats and all have been spayed/neutered. All of them have tested positive for feleuk, we just lost one this past week that was only three years old, he had been in perfect health up until about a week before he died. We also lost 4 this past summer( two were older cats and two were teenagers), even with medical intervention, they all passed away. The vet we work with had initially told us we should put them all down we said NO WAY! they all have it anyway. Good luck and I will keep your cats in my prayers.

Thank you for your warm thoughts. OJ is doing wonderful for now.. if not a little spoiled and fat as I can't get my mother to stop giving him "extra" treats. He lays with me in the early morning, puts his head right on my shoulder... I have to say its one of the best feelings in the world to hear his purr in my ear as I wake. We will have him tested again in a couple of months as that is what the vet has suggested, no one else tested positive, so we got them all updated on the vaccine. We just have to keep praying and hoping that we get one more day with OJ, that's all I could ask for anyway...

He is 11 years old, right? Did you just find this out? Was he sick?
Could this be a false positive to a shot he took before? Is he a strictly indoor cat?

He is 11 years old this year. He is an indoor only and kennel contained animal. (We have a LARGE area set up for the cats to run around outside but it is completely contained) He had been vaccinated in the past, and the vet said it could be a false positive. He also said there are types of Feline Leukemia which cats can fight off on their own as well as a non aggressive type which may never show symptoms. I will have him tested again in 5 months as was suggested by the local vet here. Just wish Mom would stop fattening him up.. LOL

Hum.... See... Yes, this is a shot that often does give false positives... It is also a shot that is known to kill healthy cats... If your cats are inside cats, healthy and not aggressive, I would think VERY carefully before vaccinating them against Leukemia. There is really no need for it.

If you have a cat inside that has FOR SURE Leukemia, then it is another story, and even so I would think twice...

If you vaccinated all of them, then all of them run the risk of testing false positive...

I may be wrong, but I don't think the FeLV vaccination gives a false positive, but the FIV one does? I remember this coming up before, and I don't think it has ever 100% been concluded - but as per my vet the FeLV vaccination will not give off a false positive if the cat is tested after the vaccine.

Here is a thread I turned up in a search to try to see if my head is screwed on straight today or not!

The FeLV vaccine does not cause false positive. The FIV one will cause your cat to test positive for it permanently but the FeLV vaccine doesn't cause false positives.

Taryn

Ok, point taken, I thought it did... Sorry, I take it back, thank you for letting me know. Feline Leukemia does have a lot of false positive though (and false negative...)
Still a very dangerous shot for a cat, and I would never give it to an inside cat, unless I knew for sure one of them was a carrier. That is just me... Well, my contract for my kitties don't allow me to do it anyways...

I should have clarified, the vet did not indicate that the vaccine would cause a false positive, only that it was possible that OJ tested as a false positive, or that he had tested as a false negative when we had it done last. We do have one FIV positive cat and all the others have been tested and once given negatives we had them all vaccinated.

Originally Posted by phendric726

I should have clarified, the vet did not indicate that the vaccine would cause a false positive, only that it was possible that OJ tested as a false positive, or that he had tested as a false negative when we had it done last. We do have one FIV positive cat and all the others have been tested and once given negatives we had them all vaccinated.

Click to expand...

If he is a strictly inside cat, and all the cats tested negative... plus he tested negative before...... I can only believe he is negative. How else could he possibly have gotten it?
I hope and have all my fingers and toes crossed for this to be a false positive.

We had the vet out again to test the rest of the cats and inoculate those who were feline leukemia free... it amounted to 16 tests (total) and 15 inoculations! A hefty vet bill but worth every penny. Also I had the Vet do a wellness exam on OJ whose kidneys are functioning perfectly and shows no other signs of the Leukemia, (Other than the positive test) which we had done again and was still positive.

We will have the vet out to test again in 6 months to make sure it was not transferred and just isn't showing u, but its looking good for us!! Even the vet was impressed and a bit surprised!

Thanks for all the positive thoughts and prayers, it really has meant the world to us!!

It is so great to see someone taking such good care of their cats. I wish everyone was like you.

Bless you and all your fur kids.

Really if no one else got it from him they might of already been immune to the FeLV unless you kept him away from the others really well, and they had been exposed prior to you finding out he was positive. Most adult cats are immune or have a high resistance to the virus. The amount of virus necessary to infect 100% of newborn kittens would infect 30% of adult cats.

Maude was vaccinated and was tested before being sent over the bridge and she was negative and they all ate and drank from the same bowls and used the same litter boxes.

He could just be positive, not all infected cats even show any sign of it, others can get really sick and die. There is no reason he can't possibly live out a full happy healthy life. It's hard because you don't know who will and who won't have issues with it. Attitude and Nuts are both healthy happy active kittens, and the outside cats are all happy, active, and healthy. Some do carry the virus their entire life and die of old age and never have any symptoms or evidence of the leukemia other than a positive leukemia test.

Good for you for keeping him and not getting rid of him because of the leukemia because of the other cats. If they have been exposed to OJ chances are they have already been exposed and their immune system fought it off(and they are now immune to it.) Hopefully none of them come up positive for it. Like I said most adults have some immunity to it and it's really hard for them to catch it. Like I said Maude was vaccinated and then her Attitude and Nuts were all exposed to each other and shared their food bowls(they all ate from the others dishes, they all had their own food bowls) and water bowls and litter boxes, they all used all 3 depending on where they were, if they were in the bedroom they used the one in the bathroom if they were in the living room with us they used one of the 2 boxes in the kitchen and she was never infected. They also occasionally touched noses and occasionally one would lick the other.

I wish all cat owners were like you. You are a great person for not just getting rid of the cat just because it has leukemia. Chances are, as I said, they have already been exposed and their immune systems fought it off and they now have full immunity to it.

You also didn't put him to sleep just because of the diagnoses. I hate to say it but if the vet hadn't vaccinated Attitude before the blood test came back positive I would have had her put to sleep because I thought she was suffering. I had already put money into her(the vaccines) so I couldn't just have her put down. I was mad at the vet for vaccinated her before we got the results because I just spent money on a cat that was going to die. I eventually realized when watching all of them, 6-8 kittens and 3 moms, all positive for it and realized no one was suffering, they were all enjoying life and I wasn't going to let a diagnosis of this, for something they might never shown symptoms of make me upset. They were not suffering, no one bothered to tell them they were sick. It wasn't necessarily a death sentence.

Like I said I'm upset at myself for even thinking that way, but vets have to do all the gloom and doom of it and not that it is something a cat can live with for many years and never show symptoms. I know they have to since 50% die within a year or 2 of diagnosis(according to my vet.) My vet told me that some live long full lives and died of old age or something unrelated to the leukemia. He said he had an uncle who had a cat with it and it lived to 17 and died of old age. That was comforting.

If Paul ever decides to get another cat(Maude was his cat) I would love to foster cats with leukemia. Don't know if it will ever happen but I'd love to give a leukemia positive cat a normal home life until a forever family adopts them.

I really wish more people were like you.

Taryn

Taryn, Thank you for sharing the story of your wonderful cats. It makes me feel better about OJs situation.

having OJ PTS or sent away was never an option for me, He is my baby. I don't have children, I'm nearing 31, my cats are the children God has granted me and I will do what ever it takes for them. When Casper got sick and didn't want to eat I fed him Del Monico steaks as I dined on lettuce grown at home, (I wasn't going to get him to eat the lettuce, lol) my point being that my animals have always had more comforts than I have afforded myself, because them being happy and comfortable makes me happy. The first vet tried that doom and gloom story on me, I called my old vet from back in Indy and he spoke with me for over a half hour about how this might and might not effect OJ the way it did Ray, only time will tell.

I will watch him, keep close eye on his "being" and IF I see problems I will deal with it then. In the meantime I am not going to count down his days just yet, much like I wouldn't give up on my child, I shall not give up on him.

Thank you all again for the encouragement and support, came at the best of times!!