Feral with respiratory virus - is she a risk to my old vaccinated kitties?

I want to move my feral Mamacat into my home this fall (she is tame now, which was a major effort since she was an adult feral) but the vet says she has eye discharge almost for sure from a respiratory virus she had as a kitten (herpes or calcivirus). I googled it and see that the 2 most common viruses can be shed throughout the cat's life. She currently is snuffling because she had a major tooth abscess and had a fever from that, so the chronic condition has temporarily (I assume) gotten worse.  My old cats with kidney failure and one has IBD also are 15 and have been vaccinated for these viruses. Is there a lot of risk to them if I move her in? Mamacat has been vaccinated too, but she already had this disease before I got her and vaccinating now does nothing to stop her shedding virus everywhere the rest of her life.  Also, I have not tested Mama for FIP or FIV or FLV. Mamacat's kittens (2 of them, one at a time, cuz I trapped her with a kitten but she was already pregnant) did not have symptoms of anything and my brother has them and they never have come down with anything in the past 2 1/2 years. My old kitties were vaccinated for FLV years ago. Should I do that FIP/FIV testing before I move her in or is it unlikely she has those since she's been healthy as a horse except for the eye discharge and broken tooth? The kitties do not seem toooooo hostile when they look at each other in the yard (actually, not bad at all) but you know, Mama hasn't been in the old kitties' territory yet. Thanks for any input.

Congrats to you on "taming" on adult feral

If you have any question at all about the safety of your "in house" cats and their on-going health conditions, and co-mingling them with Mamacat and HER on-going health conditions, I would ask my Vet about it.  He/she should know ALL your cats histories and I think they would be the best person to make that determination. 

Good luck with the integration, if it all works out for them to be together, which my gut tells me should be fine.  Let's just hope they like each other

Hey, thanks! Mamacat took almost 2 years to tame, but there were family health problems I was helping with and winter that made it take longer than maybe it should have. She is a major cuddle bum now, and jumps up on me in the old recliner I put in her outbuilding for training purposes. She plays string good, but I'm still not able to pick her up without her being scared as anything and she is still very leery of me looming over her, but getting better.  Her babies tamed right up sweet as can be. 

I hesitate to call the vet because it seems that I am annoying them, because I just went thru the subQ thing with another kitty. But I guess I will call. 

If your old cats are vaccinated then that should protect them from contracting her herpevirus.

Once her abcessed tooth is removed she will settle down stress-wise, and her normal health should keep it at bay for the most part.

You can also give her daily lysine on her food.

It doesn't sound like she will be positive for fiv or felv if she has lived as a feral and has always been very healthy.

The telltale signs of an unowned cat having these viruses are poor health.

It's not a bad idea to have her tested anyway, but think she will likely be neg.

The only thing that would matter would be felv positive, because your cats would be at risk and possibly  able to contract it over time.

However the more recent info on felv contagiousness says it is not as contagious as once thought, and that it actually takes years of constant interactions/shared dishes/mutual grooming to even consider there is a risk, especially in adults with healthy immune systems.

FELV pos cats do appear unhealthy. Not what you described.

Thank you so much for your answer! My indoor kitties were vaccinated for FLV, but not FIP or FIV. 

Actually there are no vaccines for FIV and FIP.

FIP is not contagious to other cats, as it is within a single cat's system whether they get this or not.

FIV is only transferred by deep bite wounds, not the kind in play but that bleed and infect.

Sounds like you are good

I have to respectfully disagree with Kat mom, the fact that your other cats are vacationed doesn't mean that they are fully protected from getting the virus your feral Mama has. For one, no vaccine is 100% and there are also different strains of these viruses and the vax doesn't work against all of them. However, I don't think the risk, which is quite small, is reason enough not to take the kitty in and if it was me I would have no problem letting this cat mingle with my cats. If she's having a flare up now it may be a good idea to wait to introduce them until she gets a bit better. In the meantime I would start all the cats on L-Lysine to help boost their immune system and break down the herpes virus in your feral in case that's what she has. The risk that your cats would get sick is there but, imo, it's small. I have one with khronik herpes and fortunately none of my other cats have it. Even if they did its nothing more serious than a cold for the average cat.

I would, however, definitely test the new kitty for FIV and FeLV (there is no test for FIP). The FeLV vax is only about 80% effective (if I remember correctly).The fact that the mama's kittens are fine doesn't mean that she hasn't caught something since they were born and it's entirely possible that they could all have FIV sinse it can take many years to see any symptoms. It's very unlikely that her kittens that your brother has caught FeLV from mom since they would have gotten sick by now but it's possible that mom could have piked it up after they were born. It does take some time to start showing symptoms after infection of both FIV and FeLV so a cat could seem healthy but still have the disease. Because FeLV is such a serious disease I think every cat should be tested before introduced to other cats, even if it's unlikely that she has it. Rather safe than sorry.

I would start all cats on Lysine for a few weeks, maybe long term for Mama cat since she seems to have a chronic issue, keep Mama isolated for 14 days, treat her symptoms and get her tested for FIV/FeLV in the mean time. You may want to get both your other cats re-vaccinated for FeLV a couple of weeks before you introduce the cats and an extra precaution. The vax they got years ago may no longer provide any protections.

I would also get a regular shek up and a fecal test done too as another precaution.

I hope this post wasn't too rambling :-)

Good luk with your new family member!

Okay, sound technically I stand corrected.

The fact is, vaccines are highly effective, but are not guaranteed to be 100% .

In the rare instance that a cat does contract the herpevirus, it is minimal.

The vaccine has done it's job.

I would not worry about this, personally at least.

My 2 personal cats, who I would give anything for and to protect them, are exposed to many different things all the time really.

In my cat rescue, I am the medical advisor and have a separate cat room behind my house where I take in any sick cats or kittens, injured/recovering too.

I also take moms with newborns, and so on.

I have cared foe felv positive cats, fiv positive cats, panleukopenia kittens, herpevirus galore, calicivirus, including the limping strain, every parasite, worm, fleas, lice, mange, earmites, eye infections, and on and on.

Every single one of these are contagious to other cats.

Granted, I am not saying that I drag all these infectious things into my house and pass to my girls, but through the years, I guarantee they have been exposed, likely more times then I care to know about, the biggest most common ones at least!

Herpevirus and calicivirus for sure.

There is no possible way I can completely prevent this unless I were to strip and disinfect myself everytime I left the cat room and walked in to my house.

My girls had their last vaccine they will ever get about 6 years ago.

Prior to that, it had been 5 years.

They have never caught anything, neither have ever had herpevirus, calici, or anything else. Now they would certainly be higher risk cats because of what I do.

I have heard enough from very trusted experts at U.C. Davis veterinary teaching school, that they have known for a good 18 years that if a kitten had at least 2 consecutive vaccines as a kitten, then a 1 year vaccine, they are actually protected for life.

It's just like us, do we get annual chicken pox vaccines, measles, mumps, etc.? No. We get these vacs as children and are considered protected for life.

The old standard is out the window to all the new reports and studies, and it is high time the old school vets got with the program too, since over vaccinating has very negative results.

A PROVEN and common side effect is kidney disease, the number one cause of death in older cats now, and it used to be cancer.

Why did this change? Vaccines, crappy food, all the junk additives, etc.

Sorry, will get back to my point.

While there is not a solid 100% guarantee that infact, it is not possible for your cats to contract her herpevirus, it is rare. If it did happen, it would be very mild.

FELV (leukemia) ? Cats, once they reach 1 year old, have a very strong immunity already built in.

FIV, I would not worry about. She is not likely to go and give the cats a big deep bloody bite. 

I would get her tested for felv when she goes to the vet, but highly doubt she will be positive.

If so, then you should vaccinate your cats for felv. Otherwise, please do them a favor and do not.

There are just too many risks and these are only 80% effective. Not worth the high risk of sarcomas at the injection site.