Rescued Kittens & FIV/FeLV

[amandathetexan]

Ugh... Help!

A few weeks ago we were given three two-week-old kittens that were abandoned/orphaned. Having three cats of our own, we were reluctant to take them, but nobody else would. Since we're in the process of moving we've been able to keep the kittens in the new place and our cats in the old one.

Now they're between five and six weeks, apparently healthy, eating dry food and using the litter box. They had an initial vet visit, resulting in a "they look healthy" response and some deworming. We are tired of living split lives and miss our cats, and want to be able to keep them together.

After researching the fiv/felv tests, I'm thoroughly torn! Can we test them with confidence? It would cost us approx $300 for the vet visit, and can't afford to just retest later if they aren't reliable.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks,
Amanda

[Lizzie]

At the shelter where I volunteer, they use the snap test for FIV/FeLV and consider it almost totally reliable for FIV. No test for humans or animals is absolutely accurate every time because there is always room for human error. If a cat tests positive for feline leukemia on the snap test, they send a blood sample out to confirm. If a kitten tests positive on the snap test they keep them isolated from other cats for six weeks and repeat the snap test. If that is positive, they send out blood to confirm.

It's not unusual for kittens that were raised in less than ideal circumstances to test weak positive for leukemia at 6 weeks and then negative at 12 weeks.

If your kittens test positive to FIV you can keep them with your other cats, as long as the kittens don't give deep, penetrating bites. Quite a few of us here have FIV+ cats with FIV- cats and that's fine. If you want more information on up-to-date thinking on FIV, just ask and we'll post some good web sites. There are still plenty of vets, and shelters, who believe all FIV+ cats should be euthanized.

If your kittens test positive to FeLV, then you have a problem. Your choices are to euthanize the kittens, keep the kittens isolated for several more weeks and re-test (which you don't want to do), or make sure your adult cats have been vaccinated for feline leukemia and hope for the best. I've had a leukemia positive cat live with 9 other adult cats, as have a few friends of mine, and the virus was never passed on to the others. It's quite a risk. You and our cats could be lucky, or you could find yourself shelling out more than $300 if your cats become sick.

If you are lucky enough to have a spay/neuter only clinic in your area, they will often do those procedures, vaccinate and test for much lower prices than your vet.

[moosmom]

The kittens MIGHT test positive if they're tested before 12 weeks. If they are littermates, only one kitten will need to be tested. If it tests positive, chances are they are ALL positive. You only need to test one to see if they all have it. If the mama is available, you can test her. If she's negative, her babies will be too.

Thank you for taking these precious babies in. Good luck with your move.

[amandathetexan]

Thanks a ton to both of you - that's a lot of good info.

It's amazing how little resources there are, everything I could find contradicted another source.

I guess we'll bring in one little guy or gal and go from there. From what I've gathered, a false negative is impossible, so that's a relief.

[kb2yjx]

Last year we rescued a 5 week old kitten, Baby Annie. She tested + for feline leukemia. Our vet told us we could retest her again at 6 months, keep her isolated from our other cats. She also was not doing well, and had lice. We made the heart breaking decision to let her go to the Bridge. Good luck with your kittens....

[moosmom]

I had a beautiful rescue kitten, Marina Mar, who I bottle fed. I adored her and took her to my vet (no longer my vet, for obvious reasons) to be tested and vaccinated. Marina was about 12 weeks old. The vet told me she did a snap test and it was positive, and she asked me, not WHETHER or not I wanted to have her euthanized but WHEN I wanted her euthanized. I was horrified and devastated!!!! I called my friend Deb, who is the president of the rescue organization I volunteered with. She told me to bring Marina Mar to HER vet and they'd draw blood and send it out to best tested, as it is very common for young kittens to falsley test positive. The blood test ruled out what my vet had diagnosed. I was SOOOOOOO thankful that I got a second opinion. She went on to win awards at cat shows. One of the judges said she was a "Turkish Angora Wannabe".

Marina Mar lived only to the age of 3 1/2, sadly. She was in the advanced stages of Temphagus Areolus (sp?), a bacterial infection that is comparable to cancer. She went to the Bridge in 1999.

Please keep us updated on their test results, please.