feline lukemia

[dems4me]

How can you tell if a cat has it? I have all my cats up to date with their shots of course, but during the snow, I let in two strays and kept them in the bathroom. They have grown on me in the past 2 years and I finally can get them not to run (at least not as fast) away from me. Both were cold and wet and had icicles on them. The big fluffy male (all matted up though) had ice stuck to his fluffy feet and was having a hard time walking (frostbite?). Eitherway I took them in and kept them in the bathroom and then when it got a little warmer out (yesterday) I let them out and bleached and disinfected the room in case they were carriers of anything. The one female has a scratch next to her nose that doesn't seem to heal and its been like that for a few weeks and her eyes are watery - she is a domestic shorthair. She has been fixed from previous owners that have not come forward to claim her in the past few years. Any suggestions?
I can't afford a feline luk test for either currently, but I do make sure they have fresh food and water outside everyday and treats on holidays. So very longwindedly (sorry) how can you tell if a cat is carying Feline lukemia???

 

[Hello6]

Does your local shelter or ASPCA do testing? I'd been paying out through the nose for that test before and now it only costs 15 bucks for a "feline combo" (test for FIV and Feline Leukemia) at the ASPCA. Isn't there a low cost shot place off of Great Mills Rd?

The runny eyes could be conjunctavitis (sorry bout the spelling). It can come along with upper respiratiory problems too.

I've been told that there are no outward obvious signs of dormant Feline Leukemia.

How do the ears look? Usually it's the ears and tails that get frostbite the worst.

Good luck!

 

[Hello6]

FeLV-RELATED CONDITIONS:

Other conditions that may be caused by FeLV include: blood in the stool, decreased stamina, immune suppression, bleeding disorders, excessive drinking and urination, abortion, infertility, "infant mortality complex" (the unexplained deaths of newborn kittens), arthritis, ulcers at body openings (i.e., mouth, anus, vagina, and eyes), immune diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, cystitis, cloudy eyes, and neurologic abnormalities.

Click here for whole thing

 

[cattitude]

http://www.luckyones.com/luckyones/luckabout.htm

http://www.calvertcountyhumanesociety.org/

Give both of these organizations a shout. Sometimes Calvert Humane will assist with getting animals vetted. Lucky Ones does cheaper vet care, but I think they only do well animal stuff, but they may do the testing.

 

[dems4me]

thanks for the input. I wasn't aware how cheap you can get the tests at different places. I'm not sure where Great Mills Road is. I can check around for a cheap test. FILV is definately a terrible cat disease that I would hate to see spread anywhere to anyone's animals. The ears appear to be ok, the fluffy guy (pappa john) won't let me go near his ears or feet. I can just pet him a little (he's very bumpy due to mats) and he's moody as to when he will let me pet him. If I can pick him up it is only for periods of 15 seconds or less -- I can not fathom the idea of squishing him into a cat carrier or the female (patches) for that matter to even get them to the vet. I'm still working on warming them up to me. I think the vet may just want to put them down if they think they are strays or something.

A friend of mine had hand raised ferrel kittens and signed over papers at a supposedly no-kill shelter for them to take custody of the kittens and then the tech. came out and told my friend they were going to kill all the kittens she had hand raised and because she signed a paper there was nothing she could do. She cried all day and then the vet office called back apologizing and informing her that they were indeed friendly and "placeable". I just don't want anything similar happening to these cats. I want them taken care of but I don't want them killing them or anything. Does that make any sense?

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by appyday
I had two cats tested for Felv and Fiv last week at Well Pet...$38 each cat...so basically $20 per cat...everywhere else was almost double.

Felv is usually not airborn..but cat to cat contact..ie litter box and food/water

URI upper resp is airborne...good luck..

the female does have watery (not cloudy eyes) and she does sneeze from time to time. If I kept them in a bathroom with the door closed and disinfected the room afterwards -- what is the likely hood of my other cats getting an URI?

Where is Well Pet located? Do they accept walkins? Do you know what their hours are?

 

[dems4me]

Will do, thanks! Do you recall offhand if they are open weekends? Maybe I can wrestle the cats in on Saturday and they can probably detect a URI if they have any also.

 

[Toxick]

Story Time

We adopted a cat from the Animal Shelter. I think the fee was like $70 to have the cat fixed, checked it for feline lukemia, and feline HIV and some other ailments.

So we bring the cat - who spent most of its life in a dumpster - home, and it makes a bee-line to the laundry room, bolts behind the dryer, and doesn't reappear for 3 weeks not even to eat.

(We had to throw food behind there so she wouldn't starve).

Well eventually we drew the cat out, and little by little it got more and more comfortable around us. Finally about 3 months after we got the cat, we had a friendly pet.

And three weeks after that, the cat was found by me under our porch issuing a weak howl that I thought was a dying bird or something.

We took her to the vet, who told us the cat had feline lukemia and only had a matter of hours to live, and should be put down. (For which they wanted to charge me $250, at which point I told the vet to go pound sand - at which point they agreed to euthanize the cat for no charge - but I digress).

So that was really nice. We get the entire family attached to a cat, who then dies of something that I paid the Animal Shelter to ensure it didn't have




If you're going to get the SPCA or the Humane Society to check your cat, I'd have it re-checked by a vet or someone else who actually cares about the well being of the animal.

 

[dems4me]

Oh Tox, I'm sooo sorry to hear that! That is just aweful. I may have tried to sue or something. Did you ever get another cat or a kitten? How recently did this happen?
Were there any symptoms or anything.

I would suspect the cat was never given a shot for feline lukemia. A vet told me once that you have to test the cat first for feline lukemia - if it is positive and you give it the shot to protect it, it will kill the cat. If the test comes back negative, only then can you proceed to give it its innoculation shot against feline lukemia.

Did that make any sense?

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by dems4me
Oh Tox, I'm sooo sorry to hear that! That is just aweful. I may have tried to sue or something. Did you ever get another cat or a kitten? How recently did this happen?
Were there any symptoms or anything.

No, I'm not going to sue. It wasn't the money that I was worried about - it was the fact that my family and I got attached to a cat that we thought was healthy, and the next thing we knew it was dying.

I never saw any symptoms until I found the cat under the porch. It was running around being his usual self one day, and the next I fish him out from under the deck heaving and moaning.

Those were really the only symptoms that I noticed. I wasn't sure what the heck it was - I thought she had gotten out of the yard somehow, and got hit by a car or something.


It was quite unsettling.

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by appyday
Tox...let me get this straight....did you let the cat outside after you had it tested? even the vaccines are not 100%. And there is an incubation period...If I get a new cat befor I introduce it to my other cats I have it tested for Felv & Fiv and wait 30 days and retest...only way to make sure...sorry to hear about that.

Well, like I said she pretty much stayed behind the dryer for a few months before deciding to join the family. After she came out of hiding, she stayed inside almost the whole time - except maybe once or twice when she got out - and a few times when we let her run around the back yard.

I didn't know lieukemia had an incubation period. I thought it was cancer.