Quote Originally Posted by jenluckenbach View Post

The vet said FELV can "hide" in the bone marrow. I wonder if it can MOVE into the bone marrow, to possibly come out at a later date??
That's what the vet suggested happened with Ted, that the virus was in his body (bone marrow) but hiding. He lived to 12 years and died of renal failure, but he never was in truly robust health. The virus seemed to be on a slow simmer all his life, hidden but effective, and never became full blown. I'm sure there is a lot more they have to learn about this virus.

The shelter where I volunteer has an area (including an outdoor enclosure) just for their FeLV+ cats. They do follow up the ELISA with an IFA test to be sure.

When Seshat tested positive I was told to expect at most three years but she lived for seven in part, I think, because she was old-style Siamese which is a tough and long-lived breed and partly because I pretty much dedicated my every waking and non-working-for-a-living moment to her. It was wrong of me because the other cats were side-lined too much but I think it gave her an edge to fight off any infections that came her way. It also made losing her that very much harder, I had a hard time hanging onto reality for the first few days.