Feline Leukemia Nightmare- Need Answers

Found a cat in October brought him to the vet. He tested positive for feline Lukemia on the snap test & negative on the blood sent to the lab. Was told the snap test gives lots of inaccute results and puts lots of cats to sleep every year when they aren't even affected with the virus.

The vet told us to wait a few weeks, keep him separated from other cats and thqat we will test again to cover the incubation period. Middle of January( 3 months) we brought him back and the lab blood test was negative again. Vet said he was good to go and can be around other cats.

Last week he keeps throwing up after eating and we bring him to the vet. She tests for it again and the lab is now positive. He has been around our other cats and now we are panicking.

How is this possible????? Please help.

Oh, boy.  I'm so sorry this happened.  Have you asked the vet what went wrong?  After two negatives tests, you were right to have the confidence to introduce the cats.

From what I understand, a cats immune system can defeat the virus, so even if your other cats caught it, they may be healthy enough to fight it off.  I am no expert, so I am hoping others will chime in soon.

Something just occurred to me - have all the cats been vaccinated against FELV?  Could the third test results be because of the vaccination?

If you have to test your other cats,  though, I think I'd insist they use a different lab, just because ...

Thank you for your response. The vet called today and confirmed that a different lab also said it is positive. I can't believe this is happening. She wants us bring in all cats tomorrow to be tested. But who says it's going to be accurate when apparently 3 months & two results weren't enough.

Do we put the positive cat to sleep? I don't know what to do.

If you can quarantine the infected cat, he or she may recuperate.  I am not sure this is a death sentence, although it depends on the cat and on your circumstances.

I do not know that much about FELV.  You might want to repost this in the Cat Health Forum.  There are many members there who will have more expertise than I.

Good luck at the vet tomorrow.