Did my vet give me bad information? (Feline Leukemia)

I recently adopted two stray kitties I found in a box on the street.

Their names are Donut and Sparks. Donut is doing ok, but my vet did a snap test (that's what he called it) and it showed that Sparks has Feline Leukemia.

I trust him on that, the test thing showed positive. But after that, he told me that he needed surgery. Now me, not knowing anything about Feline Leukemia,

posted it on "Caring for Strays and Ferals" and I got responses like this





The vet already did the surgery, and I am picking up Sparks in a while. What surgery did he do? The reasoning he gave was:

His reasoning was that usually cats can produce antibodies at Sparks' stage of the virus, according to my vet. However, Sparks can not produce those antibodies. For whatever reason, the vet refused any injections or pills, so they have to insert the antibodies into his bloodstream manually (by means of surgery).

I'm pretty confused, because I'm not really sure about what this disease actually does, how Sparks got it, etc.

What should I do?

I saw your post in the other forum and looked on the internet for treatments.  I didn't see anything that involved surgery.  I even did a google search for experimental treatments and all I found involved injections.  I even found something on injecting cobra venom.  That doesn't mean that what he is doing isn't legitimate or that he is scamming you.  It could very well be so cutting edge that nothing has been formally published so it can't be found on the internet.

Just a thought. What about telling the vet you couldn't find any information on FeLV and surgery. that it interests you, and ask for literature or online references on the subject.

@Denice  yeah, that's what I found too. I'm actually going to pick up Sparks and bring him home right now, so I'll ask.

@cocheezie  I'll do that. Thanks!

Not going back to this vet, unless it's "so cutting edge that nothing has been formally published so it can't be found on the internet."

Thanks for your help!

I definitely think that is the route to go.

Remember that a positive test needs to be repeated depending on the age of the kittens in a month or at 12 weeks of age.

@Quiet  Sparks and Donut are both 4 months old, so if it said positive, does the test have to be repeated?

I picked up Sparks from the vet today, he's home. He's hiding, so I don't know if he's ok.

I also just realized that Sparks' breath smells really bad, much worse than Donut.

Yes it should be repeated.  I don't know a lot about this.  The way I understand it a kitty can in the very early stages of infection fight off the virus and become FeLV negative.  I don't know anything about percentages but I don't think it's like a super rare thing.

The hiding after coming home from the vet is pretty common.  The vet is a scary place for a kitty.

Yes, I know about the hiding. What the vet said was that he was at that very early stage, but was unable to produce the antibodies to fight it off. I have no idea if that's accurate though.

The test should still be repeated. Do you know what the surgery actually consisted of? You had mentioned something about him getting antibodies through his arm or something? Do you think the vet is talking about him getting some iv transfusion through an iv catheter? That wouldn't be surgery but it would require hospitalization.

I think that you should ask for your kittens medical records. Copies of them. Including the results of the test. What area are you in. No need to be specific, just a general idea. If you don't mind. I am very curious as to what the vet is talking about here. There is no surgery for feline leukemia as it is a virus and in the entire cat would be involved. I am not saying that one positive test is a death sentence I am just curious as to what this vet is doing. Could there be a language issue. Meaning maybe the vet doesn't have command of the language in the area he is in and is using the wrong words?

Yeah, poor kitty will probably be hiding for a while. Make sure you offer food where ever he is so he doesn't skip a meal due to fear of having to go back to the vet.

What about the other kitty? Was he tested?