Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A pregnant stray, Lucy, adopted our house a couple weeks ago. We decide to keep her. We took her to the vet to make sure she was safe to introduce to our other inside cats. She wasn't since I'm posting here. The vet told me I could put her down now. Which isn't going to happen since she is still health and happy. I could spay her now aborting the kittens. which has risk in it's self with the stress and chance for infection. The last is to bring her inside into a separate part of the house. Then try to get her to full term which may not happen and is a stress to her body as well. I would prefer to not abort them if there is a chance of any of them not having leukemia. I also want I want her to live as long of a life as possible. I would appreciate any advice.

Hi There,

This is really a tough one because no matter what you decide to do the cat is going to be stressed.

I think that the best thing overall would be to take this cat in and keep her isolated in her own room. She should be able to carry the kittens to term since she appears healthy at this point. However, this can end up being a real heartbreaker if the babies are all born with the FeLV virus. Most likely they will be infected and they may not live long.........still I think having the kittens will be less stressful for mom than undergoing a spay. I am assuming that this is an advanced pregnancy.

Has the vet said anything about re-testing the mom-to-be? This should be done since there is the possibility that the test did not give an accurate result. The test is very easy to run but there is always the possibility of human error. I think it's very distressing that your vet is willing to euthanize this kitty just because of a positive test result. Some cats can live for years with the virus and it's even possible that a cat can "throw off" the virus and become negative.

Thank goodness that you were knowledgeable about having this newcomer tested. I have heard of people taking in strays, not testing them, and losing cats as a result. It's so sad.

Take care, and please let us know how things go.

Regards,
PHKitkat

Thank for the response we came to the same decision last night. She has her own room upstairs away from the rest of the cats. She seems very happy. She is about half way through the pregnancy so we will take her to the vet probably one more time before she gives birth and get her re-tested then. The vet said to wait a month or two after the kittens are winged till we get them tested because they will test positive for awhile after.

Hello!

I just wanted you to know that we have two FeLV positive cats. Our first, Axle, we caught when he was a kitten. His mother was also a stray. The second, we adopted from a very nice couple because they couldn't keep her. (We haven't named her yet) She was also a stray, and turns out she's around 6 to 7 mos old.

The test you want to get done for FeLV is the ELISA test. It's extremely accurate, and it's usually the 2nd test Vet's give for a more accurate result.

More than likely, the kittens will be FeLV positive. There is also the chance of the virus going into remission, and there is a medicine which pretty much forces the leukemia to stay in remission. It's called Interferon.

Our first cat, Axle, is now 3 yrs of age and doing VERY well. The kitten is also doing just as well. Some people will TRY to tell you that cats/kittens with FeLV will only live for about a year. This is not true. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this. If they're healthy, kept on a healthy diet, and have lots of room to run and play for exercise, they will be just like normal, healthy cats who CAN and WILL live a full life.

There are some cases, though, where if symptoms are SERIOUSLY bad (due to other reasons, other than FeLV, mind you) that things could go downhill really quickly.

There are rescues that will take in special needs animals. I do not know what area you're from, but the rescue we found our kitten through is called Stray Cat Blues, Inc. here in PA.

Good luck and hope this helps.

We found out a couple days ago that she was our neighbors cat. She is six years old and has been a indoor/outdoor cat. Their children came over to pick her up when they heard we had her. I had to go over and tell the family about the leukemia they said their other cat died from it a couple years ago so they knew about it. I told them how important it was to keep her indoors so not to infect the other cats in the neighborhood. I had to also tell them the bad news that the kitten may have it as well. I gave them the medication for her mouth sore and left. Thirty minutes later I had three children crying at my door that they couldn't keep her. They came over today to ask if they can have the kittens when they are born after I check them for leukemia. I'm not sure if I have the right to say no if they are health but I don't want the kittens to fall into the same problems as their mother. None of their animals are spayed or neutered and they have two pit bulls with puppies.

Hi There,

I just wanted to say that I think it's wonderful that you adopted these 2 very special kitties!

Take care,
PHKitkat