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Yeah, we're showing mild to moderate and possibly treatable symptoms, so who knows. As long as this continues to respond to her meds, I'm hopeful that we can at least give her a taste of relative health before it's her time.Originally Posted by esrgirl
Abby was diagnosed with FeLv when she was about a year and a half old. She also had the latent form of the disease. I had her tested and vaccinated when I first adopted her. She was totally healthy, but within one month of diagnosis she got severe vomitting and diarrhea and we had to put her to sleep. When she was diagnosed the vet said she could get sick the next day, or ten years down the road. She said the vast majority of FeLv cats die within their first two years of life, that is when they make it to their first six months (which most don't). All the research I've read said the same thing. You never know. It is good to keep her stress level down. What I found with Abby was that if I kept her and Annabelle separated her sickness was worse. We ultimately decided to not separate them. After Abby died we had Annabelle tested 3 times over four months and she is still negative. Annabelle had such a hard time after Abby died. I really don't think the FeLv diagnosis is a good thing. Maybe it is better than FIP, but 100% of cats with FeLv die too and the death isn't pretty. I just hope she's one of those cats who will make it a good ten years or more without incident. The vet did say that the cats with the latent form have a better chance of surviving longer, but Abby only lived to be about a year and seven months. The sickness that came on was so fast and severe that there wasn't anything they could do for her. The vet said most of the illnesses, like anemia, that pop up can be treated successfully. She said the opportunistic infection that Abby got isn't treatable. FeLv is just like HIV/AIDS and a lot of the illnesses a cat will get are similar to what a human transitioning to AIDS will get- cancer, vomitting, infections, neurological problems, etc. Just like with people some strains are more rough than others and will kill faster. Some people live 20 years with HIV and don't get AIDS until much later in their infection, other people will develop AIDS almost immediately and die within five years .
I don't want to be the person that says this is horrible, horrible news, but in reading most of these posts the feeling I'm getting is that a lot of people don't understand how bad FeLv is. It was horrible for Abby, truely horrible. One of my mom's friends had a cat with FeLv and she lived to be 12. It doesn't always have to be bad, but it usually isn't good.