Leukemia + and a healthy cat...advice please!

Hi everyone,

I know...I haven't been around in ages. Life has been very hectic and I just haven't had time to get online much. But I have a question to ask all you cat experts.

Someone my husband works with has a 5 year old leukemia positive cat. I don't know for certain if the cat was tested only once and came up positive or if it was confirmed with a second test or not. But they were told the cat is positive. It is healthy and not having any issues at this time.

They now have a little orange female stray coming to their house and would like to bring the cat into their household. I of course told them they first have to get the stray into the vets and determine if this orange female has any health issues before they can really make any decisions. But from what she has said both her and her husband are becoming attached to this orangie and would really like to take her in no matter what her health issues.

From what I have read it isn't recommended if this stray is negative to try and integrate it in with the positive male resident cat. So I was wondering what everyone here felt about the situation and if anyone else has had this situation come up.

So far for myself all my cats have tested negative except for 2 strays that tested positive but they were both extremely ill at the time and needed to be humanely euthanized because they were suffering so I haven't had to deal with this issue myself.

Any opinions are greatly appreciated. At the moment the stray has been brought in and isolated until further information has been obtained as to it's health.

Denyce

For six years, my leukemia postive cat lived with my other cats and none of them caught it from her. She died at 7 years, over five years ago, and they all died of age-related disorders in their late teens. One is still alive, Ginger, and turned 20 last June. However, and it is a big however, they were all adults when they shared space with her, and they were all vaccinated yearly for the first 3 years they shared with her.

Kittens and young cats are very vulnerable to transmission of this virus and I would not place a cat under 2 years with a FeLV+ cat, even one who was healthy and not shedding the virus heavily. Like your friend's cat, my Seshat was healthy which is the reason my vet approved her being with my adult cats. However, when the leukemia virus took hold of her system, it was extremely distressing and very, very fast - not something I would ever want to experience again unless I adopted a FeLV+ cat.

Also, the test they do at the vet is not conclusive. I can't remember what it's called, but there is a lab test that they need to do before giving a conclusive answer. A little research online will give you the test info.

Lizzie and Denyce - would vaccinating the younger cat make a difference?

How effective is the vaccine now? When I was going through this, there was a significant percentage of non-effectiveness but that may have improved over the last several years. It was also around the time that vets were seeing a significant increase in vaccine-site sarcomas - that's why I stopped vaccinating mine, preferring one risk over another.

One thing I didn't think of in my previous response was the fact that the cat they are thinking of taking in has been a stray, which generally means he/she has had to develop a strong immune system to survive. That was another factor in my decision to allow my FeLV+ cat to share general space, the others had all been strays.

We have no advice, just Prayers for those Cats, that all will be well with them.

Here are the facts on felv vaccines. I just got this info from my vet in canada. My 2 year old Vixen is felv+ and we wanted to know about getting another cat so here is what we were told.

40% of all cats are natually immune to the felv virus. Out of the 60% of remaining cats that can contract the virus approximately 85% of these when vaccinated the vaccine holds. In other words the vaccine works on 85% of the vaccinable cats. But that leaves about 15% that even when vaccinated will not respond to the vaccine and will remain at risk. So it will be extremely risky for the 15% of the 60% that are not natually immune to contract the virus if in intimate contact with an infected cat. This virus can only be contracted through intimate contact. Being though blood, urine or feces, inter-grooming between infected and non-infected, scratches and bites. I was told it is similar to the HIV virus in humans. Stress is also a factor for the felv+ cat. minimal stress is suggested. If the infected cat is stressed a lot by change and newcomers into the home it is not suggested to take on another animal. Mainly for the well being of the felv+ cat as the immune system is so delicate in the infected cat. I am sure there is more I am not thinking of right now but will let you know if I can think of anything else. Also, if you want I can contact my vet and have him forward all info to you on this matter.

Michelle