A friend is housing FeLV+ cat with another cat

I found out today that a friend of mine in TN is housing a FeLV+ cat with her FeLV- cat. At first I thought I'd mixed up FeLV and FIV, but she said it's definitely FeLV and that the + kitten is getting treatment.

The cats don't live separately... the + kitty lived with her fiancÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] for awhile but something happened and she couldn't stay there anymore, and they couldn't find anyone to adopt, so my friend had to bring her home. The apartment is too small to keep them separated. She said they do litter 5x per day and supervise feedings and wash the bowls after every meal.

What do you think about this??? Is this a wise idea?

It's her choice, I guess. Do you know if the older cat is vaccinated against FeLV? I did know someone who chose to keep a FeLV+ cat with her 9 other FeLV- cats (having them vaccinated), and after he died she had them all tested and none tested positive. And adult cats supposedly have a natural immunity approximately equal to the immunity provided by the vaccine. So the older cat could be fine. It is a risk, though. Probably not one I would take but if that's what she's chosen I don't know what you could say about it.

The older cat is vaccinated, so that's good! I don't plan to say anything as she is quite adamant about it and it's not my place anyway. Just wanted to know if y'all could provide insight or any experience.

Someone here (Taryn) had an older vaccinated cat with her FeLV+ cats, and the older cat never got it.

To me, that's crazy, a huge risk, and I would never do that. I have seen the heartbreaks the members with FeLV kitties here at TCS have gone through, including Taryn, who lost several to it and never in a million years would I risk my own of getting it.
The vaccine is good but it is not fool proof. She needs to make absolutely sure that her kitty gets the correct vaccine yearly (there are two types, core and non-core, for different levels of risk).
Ultimately it is her choice, and you really can't do anything about it, but to hope and pray for the best. IMHO it is a risk I would never take.
At the very least I would separate them and take all the precautionary measures.... But to simply leave them to co-exist? Never.
FIV? Absolutely.... FeLV? Not in a zillion years... Just my opinion FWIW

Originally Posted by Willowy

It's her choice, I guess. Do you know if the older cat is vaccinated against FeLV? I did know someone who chose to keep a FeLV+ cat with her 9 other FeLV- cats (having them vaccinated), and after he died she had them all tested and none tested positive. And adult cats supposedly have a natural immunity approximately equal to the immunity provided by the vaccine. So the older cat could be fine. It is a risk, though. Probably not one I would take but if that's what she's chosen I don't know what you could say about it.

Click to expand...

This immunity happens to a certain percentage of cats.... It is not that adult cats have immunity by any means.... A percentage of them do (about 30%).... That number IMHO is not that high... at least for such a a devastating disease
http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/Pages/FeLV_Web.pdf

That site was extremely unscientific, using words like "probably" and "might" rather frequently. No studies were cited for the 30% figure, or for any of ther other claims they make. I'll try to find the studies, I'm not sure they're online, but one I read in JAVMA said that in one study, only 13% of unvaccinated cats over 18 months of age who were repeatedly exposed developed FeLV.

And there is no "core" FeLV vaccine. FeLV vaccine is always considered non-core. As far as I know, there is no different vaccine for those at high risk of exposure vs those at low risk of exposure.

ETA: here's an abstract of one study, I can't figure out how to find the full thing. And I can't figure out how to link to PDFs from my phone. But for what it's worth: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/187771?dopt=Abstract

Originally Posted by Willowy

That site was extremely unscientific, using words like "probably" and "might" rather frequently. No studies were cited for the 30% figure, or for any of ther other claims they make. I'll try to find the studies, I'm not sure they're online, but one I read in JAVMA said that in one study, only 13% of unvaccinated cats over 18 months of age who were repeatedly exposed developed FeLV.

And there is no "core" FeLV vaccine. FeLV vaccine is always considered non-core. As far as I know, there is no different vaccine for those at high risk of exposure vs those at low risk of exposure.

Click to expand...

Unscientific? That is just the Wynn Feline Health Institute.... When it comes to cats, Hardly unscientific ....
If you do studies, you know you can't make 100% affirmations, that is the reason for the "probably" and "might" and "may". Anything that is not 100% is referred to in those terms. It would be misleading, if done otherwise).

I would prefer to see studies cited in any paper like that. . .but maybe that's just me .

I do not think that it is wise, the housing of FeLv positive cat with the FeLv negative cat. However these are not our cats so I am not sure what else to say other then Willowy is correct . But I agree with Caroline in regard to housing FeLV positive cats with FeLv negative cat.

It's not a risk I'd want to take. We have an FIV+ kitty living with us, but like you say, FIV is NOT FeLV, and is a different situation altogether.

Actually, we were recently discussing the issue of FeLV+ and FeLV- kitties in one home, but in the context of what precautions need to be taken when going from the FeLV kitty area to the FeLV- kitty area, so the "given" was that they're separated.

Originally Posted by Willowy

That site was extremely unscientific, using words like "probably" and "might" rather frequently. No studies were cited for the 30% figure, or for any of ther other claims they make. I'll try to find the studies, I'm not sure they're online, but one I read in JAVMA said that in one study, only 13% of unvaccinated cats over 18 months of age who were repeatedly exposed developed FeLV.

And there is no "core" FeLV vaccine. FeLV vaccine is always considered non-core. As far as I know, there is no different vaccine for those at high risk of exposure vs those at low risk of exposure.

ETA: here's an abstract of one study, I can't figure out how to find the full thing. And I can't figure out how to link to PDFs from my phone. But for what it's worth: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/187771?dopt=Abstract

Click to expand...

And that 13% number came up in the discussion. Here's the thread: FeLV, Living with in a multicat household

This was the reference I found:

Originally Posted by LDG

This is not the study I found yesterday. It's older (1976), but very interesting! Basically it was written before the FeLV vaccine existed, and it was seeking to determine if the epidemiology of FeLV was such that it made sense to pursue a vaccine. But one of the outcomes of the study was the determination that a) cats exposed to FeLV can develop immunity, and b) in this study, 12% of non-infected cats became infected in a multi cat environment. I don't know if this study was larger than the other one or not. Either way, here's the study: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/co...2/582.full.pdf

Click to expand...

And while I normally agree with Willowy about articles using citations, The Winn Feline Foundation is one place where I know the information is based on scientific studies, cited or not. For me, it's the same as if I were reading something published by the American Veterinary Medical Assocation.

And Willowy, whether the articles are available beyond the abstract is dependent upon the journal. PubMed usually hosts the abstracts - once you find the article, you have to then search on it to find out if it's actually available anywhere. Most journals requiring a subscription do not make the articles available for free. You have to have access to a library that subscribes to have free access to articles, or sometimes there are sites where you can buy individual articles from certain journals.

OMg No, I wanna cry right now! I lost Princess and Baddy to FeLV and never in my life I will risk my 4 babies to that horrible disease. My two babies suffered so much, it is the most horrible disease I've seen in a pet.

When I found out Princess and Baddy were positive, I kept them apart in a room, away from the others. I cleaned with lysol everyday and I used different shoes whenever I entered the room. I also washed the clothes I wore when i was i contact with my sick babies.