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Long-- upset, misdiagnosis, Feline Leukimia, pregnancy & other ?s
Sorry in advance for the length of this.
We have 2 cats. One is 10 that we adopted in Ohio. She is perfectly healthy. A little after we moved to WI, we adopted a 6 month old kitten in Jan 2007. From the beginning this kitten was "different". The most loving cat I have ever been around, but always sort of sick. We took him to our vet of course, got all the tests, vaccines, etc... was told he was clean and likely just malnourished. He got better, but in 2008, he got uveitis (spelling wrong) in his eye. We took him to a eye specialist, they tested him again for FIV and Feline Leukimia as they said this was most common in cats with it. Came back negative. They said they did not know what was causing it. Then they said he had herpes. So we gave him a high protein diet, lysine powder in his food, etc. He was better from then until now for the most part, with some more little things along the way (a sore that would not heal on his nose that we had biopsied, bad teeth that need to be cleaned every 6 months, etc).
2 days ago, he started to act weird. He sat on a rug in our bathroom, peed on it and would hardly move. After a few hours, I called our vet and made an appointment. About an hour after that, he started to breath funny and the vet appointment was not until the next morning, so we took him to an animal hospital. he was given chest xrays and some blood tests and put in an oxygen chamber. he was stablizing, but they wanted to keep him overnight. I went back this morning and the vet there said they were going to do an echo later today on his heart as there is fluid in his chest and he seems to have congestive heart failure. They said he was also anemic so they did a feline leukimia test and he came back positive!
I was so shocked and upset. He has been tested several times, goes to teh vet for his physicals (just there 2 months ago for his annual). They told us he did not have it and he is indoor... and our other older cat has been around him... and BTW-- I am 22 weeks pregnant myself! I told the doctor the storey about his health problems with his eye, the times he was tested (all negative), They said that was unsual but it was possible it was dormant and was testing negative at some point and now it is active and testing positive.
So-- what do we do with other cat. She also tested negative when we tested her when we got her and then again after his eye problem when they were testing the other one. If she is negative (which who knows if that even means anything given the tests that were negative of the other one) what do I do? I have no way of seperating them, we don't live near our families. I could drive 10 hours and have my family take care of our older cat... but can't do that until this weekend.
Also, I was on the internet and found this article http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/resources/brochure/felv.html that freaked me out even more. we have a 2 year old son and I am 22 weeks pregnant. It says at the bottom that the young and pregnant women should not be around positive cats.
I have a call into my OB as well to ask her thoughts.
Any advice for us? I am not sure what to do.
TIA!
Re: Long-- upset, misdiagnosis, Feline Leukimia, pregnancy & other ?s
There are a few ladies here that work with fostering/adopting out FeLV/FIV+ cats, so hopefully they'll chime in with information and/or resources for you.
First off, it looks like repeat testing is recommended, so you might want to have the vet run another test on the + cat to see if it comes back + again. Likewise, get your other cat tested to see if she's been infected. Repeat testing might be necessary/recommended in her case as well. If your other cat is -, there is a vaccine and I'd recommend getting it. My cats are both full indoor, but they're also both vaccinated just in case!
You can talk to your vet and OB about the situation considering your pregnancy and young son. Hopefully they'll have recommendations or advice for you moving forward.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
I work with FIV and FeLv cats thanks to experiences we had with the tests being irregular, they've kind of become my pet project. I inadvertently fostered a litter of FeLv kitties...they were negative at 10 weeks, positive at six months, and negative again at a year. Same with FIV, we had kittens who were positive for FIV up to six months, then negative and consistently negative since. All the vets say that false positives are rare and false negatives are rarer and this has NOT been my experience. With the kittens I've worked with, the tests have been a crap shoot. I've even had inconsistent results with adult cats.
What I have always relied on from the Cornell article is this: There are multiple stages of FeLv exposure that can cause a positive test. A large percentage of cats who are exposed WILL NEVER GET FELV. This is especially true when the cats are adults, otherwise healthy, are well fed, vaccinated and well cared for. Immune compromised cats, kittens and seniors (14+) are especially susceptible. Of the cats who test positive something like 40% will shed the virus on their own and will re-test negative.
Even if your kitten is positive and stays positive he can still live with you and your other cat and you can bring other cats into your home. FeLv lives outside the body longer than FIV but I believe the evidence is that it lives outside the body for hours, not days or weeks. I had two adult cats living with my FeLv kittens. One groomed them every day, played with them, shared food and water and has never been positive. We've been testing him for four years since they were adopted and he has been absolutely fine. FeLv does live in saliva I think, so it technically can be transmitted through sharing food, water, grooming, but if your other cat is healthy and well cared for the risk is very low. The risk of herpes transmission is higher for example.
One of the homes we adopted an FeLv kitten into has two other cats. Her very elderly sick cat did contract FeLv. The kitten is now negative. She vaccinated her other senior cat and that cat has been absolutely perfectly fine. I would go ahead and vaccinate your other cat for FeLv and make sure she gets it every year, but I would not separate them for all time. If she hasn't gotten it already she is probably resistant, the vaccination would be your back up.
The article on pregnancy says they don't recommend FeLv cats because they are susceptible to other illnesses and can transmit them. Keep in mind that most FeLv cats are outdoor or indoor/outdoor kitties. If your cat is inside he shouldn't be picking up funky infections he can share with you, I would bet they are thinking specifically of toxiplasmosis. You can't get FeLv.
Now is the bad part: He is older to be false testing positive for FeLv and with his other immune issues (herpes, I have a cat who has herpes too) and the fact that he is showing severe symptoms, I would guess he really does have FeLv and is at a stage where it is not treatable. The average lifespan for kitties with FeLv is short, maybe two years. I would ask about having the IFA testing mentioned in that article done and if he's positive, I would probably put him to sleep. I am a firm believer in not euthanizing cats solely for their test results, especially given how unreliable the tests have been in my experience, but when cats who are feLv and FIV get sick they get sick fast and they get very very sick. My experience has been that once they reach that point you can't get them back to being healthy but will be putting them through the experience of a lot of unpleasant treatment. That's obviously a very personal decision, but based on my experience just my opinion.
You can pm or email me anytime, my email is my nest name at gmail. I am not a veterinarian, but this is a huge area of interest for me and I've done a lot of work, research and consulting with people who stay up to date on the research re. FIV and FeLv.
It is pretty effective. I also wanted to add this site: http://www.marleyfund.com/felvfacts.aspx
The group is amazing. It is a rescue for FIV and FeLv cats and I'm sure they can answer a lot of questions you might have. They have been awesome in helping me in the past even though I am nowhere near them or affiliated with them.
Thanks so much kellbell! So helpful!
I will ask for the IFA test. I am not sure what I will do just yet if it is positive as well. I know the one they got a + on was the other as it was just done in the office (not sent out).
I will also ask that my older (healthy) cat get tested on IFA, not just ELISA to ensure she does not have it.
The weird part was that until yesterday, he was not having bad symptoms... it came out of nowhere. I know that if he has it... then he has had it since before we got him, which means he has lived for at least 5 years with it as he has never been exposed to other cats or been outside since we adopted him other than our healthy older cat and she certainly did not infect him.
Thanks so much kellbell! So helpful!
I will ask for the IFA test. I am not sure what I will do just yet if it is positive as well. I know the one they got a + on was the other as it was just done in the office (not sent out).
I will also ask that my older (healthy) cat get tested on IFA, not just ELISA to ensure she does not have it.
The weird part was that until yesterday, he was not having bad symptoms... it came out of nowhere. I know that if he has it... then he has had it since before we got him, which means he has lived for at least 5.5-6 years with it as he has never been exposed to other cats or been outside since we adopted him other than our healthy older cat and she certainly did not infect him.
This is usually how it goes, they normally show very sudden chronic symptoms. Which is kind of a blessing and a curse I think. Sometimes you can successfully treat them for quite awhile and other times not, but I haven't heard of many FeLv cats living a long time, usually just a few years. If he does had it and has had it 4-5 years that is a long time for him to be so healthy and you all should be very proud of that. I have no doubt it would be because he has received such excellent care and nutrition.