Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a nine week old kitten that had picky eating patterns and liked to spend her time under the heater. I didn't think much of either of these activities. When I left for work friday morning she was fine. When I got home, she was having problems keeping her balance, she was cold, and having difficulty breathing. I rushed her to the ER vet only to find she was FeLV positive.

He said it was strange that she would go downhill so quickly with it. Has anyone else experienced such a drastic change over just a few hours time?

She was so sick we made the decision to put her down. Unfortuantely I have three other cats that now have to be thoroughly tested. One has been already, and he came up negative, thank goodness. Vet wants to wait six months and retest him, and I still need to get the other two tested as well.

Here's a pic of the little one I lost

Although she was FeLeukemia positive what may have made her get sick so fast might have been some sort of secondary infection which her little immune system just couldn't fight off. It is hard to know for sure.

Again, I am sorry you lost that precious little one.

Thank you so much. I knew little to nothing about FeLV until this happened, and have been researching it as much as I can since then. I do think there's a fairly good chance that my other kitties will be just fine.

It's amazing how much I got attached to the little lady in the short time I had her. I'm almost taking her death harder than that of a lab I had for thirteen years. I think it's because she was so young and it seemed to happen so quickly. I dunno.

I'm hoping in six months, when the other three test negative *crosses fingers* for the second time, to get a little pixie-bob from a breeder. But only one that has been proven FeLV negative at least twice!

Sorry to hear about your little baby! May I ask where you got her? From what I have read, the young ones succumb more quickly than older cats.

We had rescued a 2-year old FELV+ tomcat last summer and placed him in an animal sanctuary, since we couldn't keep him ourselves or find anyone else to adopt him. He caught a cold last week and it escalated rapidly into organ failure. Bruiser, a tough but sweet tom, passed away on Tuesday. It makes me sad, but I know he was surrounded by people who loved him instead of out in the cold.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that your other little ones are OK. I have read that false negatives are less common than false positives, so that is good.
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ellen
gracie & voodoo (& Puss 'n Boots)

A coworker actually found her under a car. There are a lot of ferals in the industrial area where I work, and my coworker's son was allergic to cats, so I took her with me. She did have worms, ringworm, earmites, and fleas, but we got all of them cleared up. My vet was a bit surprised we only found one at the age she was, but since she was put to sleep the vet figures the reason we didn't find any others was because the FeLV had already killed them.

One of my other kittens is currently fighting a respiratory infection. It's very likely she caught it and that led to her going swiftly downhill.