Curious about others experience with a negative Felv/Fiv test

Hi all,

I am a newbie to this site, well not too new as I've read the forums on here without actually signing up. I have an almost 2 year old DSH kitty names Stella. She's healthy up to date on shots etc. she's my first and only kitty. I have recently acquired an 8 month old kitty that showed up on my mom in laws door. The cat is so sweet and loving. Not scared in the least of us humans. Took to vet got it neutered, vaccinations and all that good stuff. I also had it tested for felv/fiv. It came back negative. Clean bill of health for Cayenne. Now my vet said its an option if it makes me feel better to get the kitty retested in a month just to make sure. My other kitty and love of my life, is negative.

Sorry so long in getting to the question but would you recommend getting it retested?
What have been your experiences with this process? Are negatives usually accurate?
I'd just hate to have Stella kitty get ill.
I'm a new kitty mom so any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

The rescues I know about would often retest as if the cat has just got infected the antibodies (which is what the tests detect) might not yet be present.  At her age there's no danger of a false positive from her mother.

So glad you've had her neutered.  I take it she was wormed as well?

Thanks so much for responding. Yes I sure did. I even brought the vet a little surprise so he could do a fecal float. The little guy was checked from head to toe. Dewormed, no ear mites. No problems at all according to vet. Well just fleas but we treated that with revolution. He has to go back in 3 weeks for his booster shots.

So your experience or from you have been told at his age , being a little older, the test being negative is pretty accurate?

Thanks again

What you won't get is a false positive because of antibodies from his mother in his circulation.  I don't know how common false negatives are, and cats that have just acquired one of the viruses don't give a positive immediately hence the second retest.

However I don't know how common it is where you live or what your cat's background is and those might both affect if you want to retest or not.

Depends on how much of a worrier you are. Usually a re-test on a cat of unknown origin is done 3 months after the first. (or is it 2 months, now I forget. But it's not one month) It can take that long for the anti-bodies to show up after exposure. When I rescued an adult stray cat who had been outside for at least six months and showed signs of fighting, she tested negative, but I did have her retested three months later. Not that it mattered at that point since she was fully integrated by then. But I need peace of mind.

Welcome to TCS and congratulations on the rescue!

Orientalslave: Thanks for the info. Yeah I'm not sure how common it is where I live. I'm in south Louisiana. And not sure about his background. Definitely doesn't seem like a kitty who fought or had a rough life. You'd swear he'd been around people all his life. So sweet. Always coming up wanting to be rubbed or scratched.

Otto: Thanks also for your response. It's funny you said worrier I'm sure if you asked my husband and family it'll be a unanimous yes! This little guy had no evidence of every being in fights. No bites. No scratches. I think I will retest just to have piece of mind. Like you said. I'm sure he will be fine. Just have to think positive!

Thanks for the welcome!