Viral diseases in adopted kitties

I'm thinking about this for a while now. It seems to me that the risk of adopting a cat with a viral disease (like Feline Leukemia or FIP) is relatively high. I think this is especially tragical when there are already resident cats in the house.

Did it ever happened to you? And where did the kitty come from? And where do you think are the risks especially high?

I don't ask these questions to make people stop adopting, I just think everyone should be aware of this risk and be careful and never adopt a second kitty without having it checked by a vet before.

Or maybe I'm just too scary and it doesn't happen as often as it seems to me...

You ahve raised a Good Point Kirtsen as Angels brought fleas into the house.
I am lucky that it was not anything worse like FIP.
I am no longer letting the Porchies into the house or letting the Found Cats have any contact at all.

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I am no longer letting the Porchies into the house or letting the Found Cats have any contact at all.

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That is a very good decision, I think, Gary. I know you had some tragical incidents with FIP lately. Must be bad in your area. :(

BTW, my Aysche, who had Feline Leukemia AND FIP, came from a hobby breeder. She had no contact to other cats after her adoption, so I'm pretty sure that she already carried the viruses when I brought her home. A very sad story ... :(

Kirsten

It has never happened to me but it is one of my biggest fears. I did not let Samantha in the house after she was given to me until I had her tested and checked by the vet. Thank God, she was given to me on a Sunday and I was able to get her into the vet first thing Monday morning.

It has never happened to me, but whenever I bring in new fosters, the FIRST thing I do is have them vetted. They do not enter my home until then (and if they do, they remain separated)

In the last year I think the rescue has only brought in 3 or 4 cats with FIV or FelV, none with FIP. I kjnow two of the FIV positive kitties came from the same colony. Considering the hundreds we helped this year, thats a pretty small percentage. Jen, correct me if I am wrong.

We didn't have anything that severe, although Chloe did have a major URI and was pregnant (at only 10 months old) when we adopted her from an animal shelter. We feel like the shelter personnel was not aware of the pregnancy, as she was not showing at the time.

Not a kitty I adopted, but one I was planning to...I was house-sitting for my boss, and she told me about a teeny feral kitten she had been feeding and trying to trap. On the last day I was there he was asleep next to the food and I was able to pick him up and stuff him in a carrier (Red flag #1). I immediately took him to the vet where he tested positive for FIV and FeLV and was euthanized later that day. I wish I had had some treats to give him or a heated blankie or something to make his last hours more comfy.

My fosters are always quarantined at first. I have been fortunate in that the worst they've had is upper respiratory, worms or the dreaded ringworm.

I got Chuck from a breeder who was giving away the "not perfect" ones.

He ended up having a horrible respritory (sp?) infection soon after he came home. Poor thing was so sick.

Adopting through Petsmart they are tested before being made available for adoption. Skinny and Cindy (who were neighborhood strays) were tested before being introduced to the others. It just makes SMART pet owner sense to keep everyone confined from each other until tests are done.

All of the cats I have or have had or rescued all were rescued by me not from a shelter or the like.

I always take precautions & keep them seperated in a quarantine room until they are checked by a vet and have the leuk/fiv tests done. If I happen to get them to the vets right -away (within the first day or ) I still keep them seperated for days just in case they have a URI or another contagious illness that isn't showing symptoms yet.
And I always have my cats checked for luek/fiv yearly, in case it wasn't showing up yet on the first test and also to make sure they haven't caught it. They are vaccinated for Leuk but not FIV.

A reputable shelter/rescue generally will NOT adopt out a cat with diseases to a home with current cats. In fact, yesterday when my brother was looking for a second cat, he had to turn away and was denied to adopt a very precious cream/orange colored kitten because she has some sort of disease and it's contagious.

I know there are a lot of people who don't bother to test for certain diseases and adopt them out to homes with other cats leaving them at risk. :( Personally, i'll never get any animal from a shelter/rescue that works out of their home.

In other words, it's never happened to me (although i've never adopted a cat myself, my friends/family always ask me to come along and help them choose pets to adopt.)

It's encouraging to see that so many of you made positive experiences. :)

Cathy, that's very sad about that kitten you wanted to adopt! :(

Kirsten

Our newest cat Zaou is a carrier of "ringworm". Of course my 2 other cats got infected..... . But that is all over now :)

I NEVER allow a new kitty into my house without first seeing the vet and being tested and vaccinated. There are FAR too many risks involved to not be careful. My cats come first. I protect them like I do my kid. Gary, you are very wise.

MooShoo tested positive for FIP when he was 10 weeks old. He doesn't have it, it just means he was exposed to it.

I have had kittens that I rescued and kept isolated that died from Feline Panleukopenia (Distemper). I had to literally wash down the walls, carpeting and everything in the room and seal it off for a year because it is the type of thing that can stay airborn for up to a year.

Our rescue cats are combo tested (FeLV/FIV) before entering the program. One cat in the 4000 rescue history came down with FeLV (false neg on the test)
The cats are immediately vaccinated against distemper. FVRCP.

There is no way to tell if an unfortunate kitty has FIP or may develop it. I don't think we can do any rescuing if we are that afraid of FIP. It is unpredictable, and sad. I've lost 2 former fosters.

There is always the possibilty of RW, and the probability of URI.

How else can we save them considering there are viral diseases? Only by being cautious as possible, I guess.

The VAST majority turn into healthy, happy cats.

So, Kirsten, the risk of FeLV/FIV is extremely LOW, if they are combo tested.

The statistics for FIP are low also, kittens, elderly and immuno-comprimised cats have a higher risk. I believe it is under 2% risk.
In my case, it took the kittens at about 7 months of age.
Being that FIP is 'partially' genetic (which cat will mutate the corona virus) there is no way of determining the true risk to resident cats.
Breeders have a slightly higher incidence of FIP.

I've never had this problem with cats however I did have this problem with a dog that I adopted from the shelter who had distemper and had to be put down.

Generally though I always excpect any cat adopted out of one of our local shelters to come home with a URI. They are usually in a cage, tons of cats in a room and they are stressed which causes it. Both of Alexa's cats had a URI when she adopted them and so did her sisters. But I don't count that as anything serious. So I voted that I've never had this problem.

I've never had this happen to me yet and hopefully I never will. When I adopted Storm from the Humane Society he did come down with an URI and he also had fleas, ear mites,coccidia, and probably other internal parasites. He was a mess but luckily the only cat I had at the time so nothing spread. Now my local Humane Society has become much better so these things don't happen as often. Sky was also from the Humane Society and I later found out that he had tapeworm but my vet told me that the fecal test doesn't pick this up so I was the one who noticed he had tapeworm. I'm just glad that it wasn't contagious. Starr came down with ringworm and also had coccidia which I already knew about and he was from a rescue /shelter group.


A friend of mine adopted two kittens who were brother and sister and they had been strays. Unfortunately the male kitten developed FIP when he was only about 3-4 months old and his sister developed it when she was a little over a year old. :( She had adopted them from a rescue group and I had even recommended the foster mom to her. I still feel terrible about this. :( I know there's no good accurate FIP test yet but hopefully there will be one in the future.

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She had adopted them from a rescue group and I had even recommended the foster mom to her. I still feel terrible about this.

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Oh, this is terrible! :( I would feel bad about this, too, even though it's not your fault and you couldn't know... But it's sad. :(

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I know there's no good accurate FIP test yet but hopefully there will be one in the future.

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Oh yes, I hope that, too!!! An accurate test AND a treatment! I really hate FIP.

Kirsten

I voted that it has never happened to me because I have only had my resident cats get sick from fairly minor illnesses they got from new kitties. But, it was traumatic enough that I am very cautious about letting any new cats near by babies. They are my family and I have to protect them. As much as I admire those who do the riskier rescue work - I simply do not have whatever it takes. If my kitties were to come in contact with any of the serious viral illnesses, I would be a total wreck. Any new cats I adopt must be tested in any way possible and also remain separate for a moderate amount of time.