Anyone have experience with feline leukemia?

[t_chelle16]

Scout, our youngest cat was just diagnosed with FeLV. She got an infection after being spayed and so far has been unresponsive to antibiotics. She's now on the strongest stuff the vet has. If she can manage to kick the fever, he says she can come home and as long as she doesn't pick up any colds and doesn't get stressed, she could very well live for years. We're very hopeful that that's the case. And really, other than being pale and having a fever, she's acting normal and looking pretty good.

The problem is, we have 3 other cats. Only one has been vaccinated before so we took them in and had all 3 tested and the other 2 vaccinated (should get the results tonight). Our vet said that if Scout does pull through the infection and gets to come home, there shouldn't be any problems letting her around the other 3 cats (assuming they're negative) as long as they're vaccinated. But I've also read that the vaccine is only abut 90% - 95% effective.

So does anyone have any experience keeping a FeLV+ cat with vaccinated FeLV- cats?

If we really have to keep them separated, that's what we'll do, but it would be nice if she didn't have to be quarantined for the rest of her life.

-Chelle

 

[65conv50]

Sorry to hear about your cat. I lost an extremely affectionate cat to FL after a valiant year-long battle. Her brother lived in the same house, but we lost him to encephalitis before Kismet got sick, so don't know about multiple cats. I understand the vaccine is extremely effective, so I would go with your vet's analysis.

Good luck.

 

[t_chelle16]

Thanks. Mom was doing more research online and found out that only about 15% of the cats that are vaccinated and exposed actually get it and of those, only about 15% actually get the kind that makes them sick.

And I think my vet's reasoning is if the other cats have it, then being around her isn't really going to change much. And if they don't, they've been around her for 3 months already (with 2 of them being unvaccinated) and haven't gotten it so odds are pretty good that they won't get it especially since they are all vaccinated now.

We did go to see her again today (dad didn't get to see her this morning) and she's acting a bit better; wanting to get down & explore. So hopefully the antibiotic is helping.

-Chelle

 

[t_chelle16]

Just got a call from the vet. Tennessee is positive, Romeo & Emily are negative. So we're just going to play it by ear and keep a really close eye on them. If Ten starts showing even the least little sign of not acting right, we'll take her in to get looked at and be put on antibiotics (she's acting perfectly fine for now, though).

I don't think we're going to try to separate them. Romeo & Ten are absolute best buddies and it would break their hearts to be separated. And I've heard from a couple people who had a positive cat with a vaccinated negative cat and didn't have any problems.

-Chelle

 

[zookeeper]

I think that's a good call. We had a cat several years ago that had FL and she lived, played and fought with our other three cats, yet lived to be a ripe old 12 years old and never passed the disease on to the other three. We did make her an inside-only kitty, since as you know cats tend to hide when they get sick and we didn't want her to get a curable fever, then hide under the house and die. She didn't seem to mind, since she was now closer to the food bowl...

 

[65conv50]

Good luck with the cats. I think you are making a good call....

 

[t_chelle16]

I think that's a good call. We had a cat several years ago that had FL and she lived, played and fought with our other three cats, yet lived to be a ripe old 12 years old and never passed the disease on to the other three. We did make her an inside-only kitty, since as you know cats tend to hide when they get sick and we didn't want her to get a curable fever, then hide under the house and die. She didn't seem to mind, since she was now closer to the food bowl...

Thanks, that's encouraging. We're still not entirely sure Scout is going to pull through because she still has the fever (it's been about a week and 3 different kinds of antibiotics). But the thing is, she's still eating good, her incision from the spay is healing nicely, and she's acting pretty good. She never was a really active cat, but when we visit her (at least once a day), she's alert, looking around, and crawls back & forth between us so everyone can hold & pet her, and she's purring her head off the whole time. Our vet wants to give her at least until the end of the week. After that, I think we'll bring her home even if she still has the fever. Maybe being in a familiar, comfortable, low stress environment will help.

Meanwhile, Ten is acting perfectly normal (she loves to play fetch more than most dogs :roll: ). Our vet said that about 40% of the cats that test positive still beat it and completely eliminate the virus from their system. There's also a chance that even if she keeps the virus, she could just be a carrier and never really get sick. So we still have a lot of hope.

-Chelle

 

[t_chelle16]

Just a little update on Scout.

We've brought here home but the prognosis really isn't that great since she basically has no immune system.

Her fever had been running around 104 (102 is high-normal, 106 is fatal). A couple days ago it went up to 105. They put her on some meds for the fever and it's down to 104, but that's more a matter of treating the symptoms than the actual cause. But there's really nothing else our vet can do, so she's back home where she's comfortable and not quite so stressed and we have the fever meds and antibiotics to give to her. We're going to keep her separated from the other cats so she doesn't pick up anything else from them, and we'll just see how she does.

Oh and everything (including all kinds of meds, 1 1/2 weeks at the clinic, daily exams, an in-clinic blood test, and the leukemia test) only came to $45. That's one of the many things I love about this vet. Not only is he an excellent vet, he also tries his hardest to keep costs down so people can actually afford to treat their pets rather than have them put down because they don't have the money.

-Chelle

 

[zookeeper]

Sorry to hear your kitty hasn't improved, but it sounds like you've found a good vet. A few years ago, our Siamese cat, "Thomas P. Cat" had a kidney failure and even though we took him to the vet as soon as we realized he was sick, the vet wasn't too optomistic about Tom Cat's outlook. But he realized that we didn't have this cat as part of our family have for 14 years just to throw in the towel the first time he got sick. So he suggested some antibiotic therapy just to see if it helped at all. He told us right up front that it would be about $200 and we agreed it was worth a shot. After a few days (the vet assured us he wasn't in pain) TC wasn't any better and sadly we had to have him put down. We weren't asked for any money that day, and when the bill did arrive a few days later, instead of the $200+ bill we expected, it was only for around $40 for a couple overnite stays. When we asked why, the receptionist at the desk simply siad that's what the vet told her to charge. Needless to say, we have taken the rest of our "herd" there ever since. Even Jeffy, our Rottweiler who's so scared of the vet he pees on his own leg just walking in the door of the place is welcomed there. How can you not love a vet like that?

 

[t_chelle16]

Yeah, my vet is really good. I've seen him try really, really hard to talk people out of euthanasia because he still thought there was hope.

He's the same vet we took Lizzy to when she had cancer. It started out in her toes and he tried every antibiotic he had, but eventually had to amputate those two toes. Then it went to her face and we had to have her put down (she went from fine to swollen & barely able to breath in 3 days). But we were bringing her in at least 2 - 3 times a week and he only charged us for the initial visit and antibiotics (a bottle of amoxicillin is only about $3).

And when Romeo ate sawdust (hardwood sawdust is toxic, btw) he was there for 3 or 4 days and got pumped full of antibiotics. We gave him the okay to do whatever tests or x-rays he thought were necessary (any other vet would jump on that opportunity - $$$) but he just said they'd wait it out with the antibiotics and after a few days Romeo was back to normal. All of that only cost us about $40.

-Chelle

 

[stang302v8]

Sorry to hear about Scout. I lost my cat to feline leukemia years ago. she wasnt so fortunate-she lived only 3 weeks after being diagnosed with the disease. she had contracted it from a stray cat, and she had stopped eating and moving. she just laid there on the couch for her 3 weeks. the shots and vaccines didnt help at all- so it sounds like your scout is doing 100% better, and probably will have a great outcome with this ordeal, as long as she keeps eating and moving around. glad to hear that she is still hangin in there though!

 

[Max Power]

I have never regretted the decision to make my kitty an indoor kitty.

 

[t_chelle16]

All our cats actually are indoor cats (that's why we never bothered with testing/vaccinating for FIV/FeLV). But we've recently adopted 3 cats (Ten in Mar, Romeo in May, and Scout in Oct). Testing them just didn't occur to us (stupid mistake, I know).

Took a couple pics earlier:

-Chelle

 

[t_chelle16]

Just took her temp and it was 101 (right in the normal range). Of course she's still on temp lowering meds, but it's been almost 10 hours since she had the pill so at least things are looking up.

-Chelle

 

[t_chelle16]

It's all over.

She started having really bad seizures last night so we had her put down.

At least she got to experience a good life while she was with us. I'm sure it was better than what she had before and probably better than what she would have had if we hadn't adopted her.

It's too cold for us to burry her (we're getting freezing rain right now) so we let them keep her and we'll plant something really nice by Chester's rose and Lizzy's silver mound in the spring.

Now we're going to keep a really close eye on Ten and make sure she doesn't get sick (she's still perfectly fine, though). In a few months we'll test her again because sometimes they can fight the leukemia virus off. And in a couple weeks, Romeo & Emily have an appointment to get their 2nd shots and we'll have them tested again just to be sure they're really negative.

-Chelle

 

[mudbilly]

<img src="http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b299/mudbilly/kittyheaven.gif" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

 

[StangDreamin']

Awwww, Jeeze, Chelle. I'm sorry to hear about Scout - it's always hard to losee a four-footed family member, especially one so young. Pass along my condolences to the rest of your family.

Not to change the subject too much, but mudbilly: I'm betting you got that graphic from a particular webpage dedicated to webbers who have lost favorite pets. If so, it's one where my daughter Jessie's two Dutch Mini-Lops (rabbits)are listed. During a computer crash, we lost the web page URL; and would like to get it back. Let me know.

Jimmy

 

[mudbilly]

Not to change the subject too much, but mudbilly: I'm betting you got that graphic from a particular webpage dedicated to webbers who have lost favorite pets. If so, it's one where my daughter Jessie's two Dutch Mini-Lops (rabbits)are listed. During a computer crash, we lost the web page URL; and would like to get it back. Let me know.

Jimmy

sorry, but i just did a quick web search for sympathy cards and found that one here

http://cards.webshots.com/cats/sympathy0.html

but since you asked, i did a another quick search and found this list of places......maybe the name of one will ring a bell with you, or you can just click on them all

good luck

http://www.gonebutnotforgotten.us/petloss.html

 

[65conv50]

So sorry about your loss. I know how it is. We lost Mr. Boots (age 15) to a tumor last spring (while we were on a Caribbean cruise and he was at the vet's). His twin brother, Shoes (smaller white paws), searched the house and cried for him for 3 weeks! Shoes is OK now, but we all still miss his brother.

 

[t_chelle16]

Thanks. It's been a hard year. We lost Chester (20) to kidney failure and Lizzy (17 to cancer & probably kidney failure too). We almost lost Romeo to poisoning (dumb cat eats things he shouldn't :roll: ) and Trixie (dog) is getting on in years and has arthritis and a heart murmur.

-Chelle