Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

David Mills — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 01:35:10 GMT

We test about 1000 cats per year and haven't seen any in the last 5. There must be colonies out there from the replies but we haven't come across them.

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

intelligenteaser — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 22:36:11 GMT

Unfortunately i have seen it within the last 2 weeks. I do work at a charity practice and have PTS 2 young cats (from separate unrelated households but both multicat) this year who have been very unwell and tested positive on in-house tests for FeLV (and one positive for FIV (also v sick so i think also pts) as far as my memory recalls,but may be wrong -may even have been 3 feLV) but previous to this year (i have been working in this area about a year and a half now) I would say I have seen more FIV positive than FeLV...(if i ever saw feLV??). unfortunately not all cats are vaccinated in this area but we also tend to always do full vaccines including FeLV even for "indoor" cats.

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

Anthony Dennison — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 14:06:48 GMT

I had 2 cases, both from the same house, about 2 years ago. 1st cat presented with massive kidneys, anaemic, FeLV +ve. Did quite well for about 6 months then crashed. Other cat in the house went about 15 months later.

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

Bob Russell — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 15:15:42 GMT

I do think this is one of the great achievements in the last 30 years. When I first qualified it was really quite common.

The combination of efficacy of the vaccine and the difficulty of transmission means for most places it is rarely (if at all) seen.

FIV is a different matter but as with FeLV there are distinct pockets of infection! Worth having a chat with your lab the next time you phone them. They generally have a good fix on the high risk areas.

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 15:14:30 GMT

That 1:20 was sick cats, so agrees fairly well with my figure for colony cats when all were tested pre-neutering. I think in owned cats we've reached the magic figure of 80% population immunity needed for the disease to die out, but the feral colonies are a seperate population, and it's still present there

Wynne

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

Neil Wheadon — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 15:00:19 GMT

FIV, a trickle of them

I had an amazing one the other day, a polydipsic 17 year old indoor cat (for the past 8 years) persuaded the client to do a TDDS screen, all OK aside FIV+ (As Alex Gough once said, the more you look, the more you find)

FeLV, not for some time, (and I still look for it) but I'm old enough to recall Virbac Leucogen and the impact this has made long term. I reckoned on 1 in every 20 sick cats having it, big kidneys, anaemia.

A success story

Neil

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 08:41:49 GMT

It definitely seems to be the isolated colony. If the 1st 3 or 4 in a colony are clear, you can be reasonably optimistic about the rest.

Wynne

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

Thomas Johnson — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 08:34:00 GMT

[quote user="Mike Nikolaou"]

Hi all,

We routinely check for FIV/FeLV on vaguely off-colour cats and although I occasionally see FIV, I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I saw a cat with positive FeLV results.

Out of curiosity, does anyone still see it? and how frequently?

[/quote]

I can't remember the last time I saw FeLV. We do some feral cat neutering for our local CP branch and we test all the cats for FeLV and FIV, we occasionally get an FIV +ve, but in the 5 years I've been here I don't think we've had an FeLV +ve.

RE: Feline Leukemia - when did you last see any?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 08:11:28 GMT

Not for ages in owned cats, but I don't give my clients the option of a "cattery vaccine" All vaccinated cats get the full vaccine (Purevax RCPCh Felv) I also don't encourage "casuals" by undercharging the basic consultation fee, so very few owned cats I see aren't fully vaccinated.

I do the work for a rescue cattery. so have quite a lot of mature strays brought in. I'd say 10/20% of these are FeLv +ve This varies. I can go ages without any, then there's a colony neutering when 1 after another tests +ve, so the virus is still lurking in the background.

Wynne