FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Robin Grimmer — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:56:02 GMT

If a cat is FIV + it is + for life. If a cat is FELV + but seems otherwise healthy, you should test it again in 6 weeks as some cats will become immune.

If it has other signs eg neoplasia, anaemia then it is probably persistently viraemic.

I seem to do felv/fiv testing a lot less these days. They both seem to be a lot less common. Do people agree?

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Simon Neuhoff — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:01:31 GMT

I don't know anyone who routinely tests for FIV/FELV in normal kittens - and I've locummed for a lot of practices in the past.

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Anthony Todd — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:12:36 GMT

[quote user="Utlendigur"]What have I done to rattle your cage?![/quote]

Not rattled at all, I'm on your side, as I tried to show with my plausible scenario.

What do the routine testers do and say if they get a positive result, by the way?

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Utlendigur — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:38:39 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Todd"]

[quote user="Utlendigur"]don't test them routinely[/quote]

OK, you routinely test a normal, newly acquired kitten, much loved, doted on by three young girls, still in their posh school uniforms, with over-stressed mother from Highgate who arrived in her BMW X6 15 minutes late.

Eeek, it's positive, the whole bunch are distraught and in floods of tears!!

The kitten's got AIDS, it's going to die......

"Will my children catch it?"

"Should we see the doctor"

"The breeder said it'd had all it's injections and was protected for life"

What do you advise?? What do you do?

Now that will be very very hard to fit into a 5 minute consult at 6.55 on a Friday night.......

[/quote]

What have I done to rattle your cage?!

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Anthony Todd — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:00:38 GMT

[quote user="Utlendigur"]don't test them routinely[/quote]

Eeek, it's positive, the whole bunch are distraught and in floods of tears!!

The kitten's got AIDS, it's going to die......

"Will my children catch it?"

"Should we see the doctor"

"The breeder said it'd had all it's injections and was protected for life"

What do you advise?? What do you do?

Now that will be very very hard to fit into a 5 minute consult at 6.55 on a Friday night.......

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Utlendigur — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:42:48 GMT

No, don't test them routinely. Cost of test would be more than the cost of the felv component of the vaccines, and when I have discussed testing prior to vaccinating in adult cats, owners have generally just opted for vaccinating. I do warn owners of kittens that have caused concern eg homed early because "mother was ill/died", or from not very good homes, not well on initial visit, that the kitten could be infected already, but even then the take up of tests has been next to nothing - only usually if they already have another cat or have previously lost a cat with felv/fiv.

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Mark Holmes — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:20:46 GMT

[quote user="amanda nicholls"]

I agree with Wynne and I wouldn't like to try to take blood (even a small amount) from a wriggly 9 week old kitten!

[/quote] Easy..... GAS IT turn it upside down and bleed it with the head down. I generally gas all kittens for bleeding and some puppies depending on size and wriggliness.

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Joyce Whitehead — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:36:53 GMT

We certainly don't test routinely. We have done quite a bit of trap/neuter/release on ferals in our area in the last year, funded by CPL, and they require testing as these are a high risk group. We recently had an FIV postive queen with 6 week old kittens. As the kittens would test positive on a snap type test because of their antibodies, we did viral PCR on those, and thankfully all were negative and could therefore be reared and rehomed.

For some reason CPL then decided to retest the kittens on a snap test once they went there - and surprise surprise they were positive. After a panic, they redid the PCR and they indeed were still negative. (Waste of money there for CPL - but apparently some headquarter order to test all cats pre homing).

Incidentally we have got blood from semi feral 6 week old kittens, and they were surprisingly well behaved - better than some of the tamer and older ones!

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Rob Loxley — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:31:47 GMT

I'd only test high-risk groups as per Gareth. My understanding was that if the queen was viraemic she is unlikely to carry kittens to term, and if only latently infected unlikely to pass it on to her kittens.

Remember that kittens from an FIV infected queen may passively acquire antibodies and test positive without this meaning they are infected, and those antibodies can take some time to go (ok, maybe you could do viral PCR in antibody positive kittens). Also that any cat testing positive for FeLV antigen may clear the infection so should be retested at a later date.

Also remember that as the prevalence of these diseases is low in the healthy cat population, the positive predictive value of the inhouse tests is not as good as the headline sensitivity/specificity %s might initially suggest.

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Amanda Nicholls — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:14:41 GMT

I agree with Wynne and I wouldn't like to try to take blood (even a small amount) from a wriggly 9 week old kitten!

Re: FeLV/FIV bloods as routine?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:37:20 GMT

My understanding is that the standard (Idexx combo ) test is a leukaemia ANTIGEN test, so should work at any age.FIV is an ANTIBODY test so it would produce false negatives

Doing all new kittens seems an overkill,unless you're in a very high FELV area, or a rogue breeder is selling kittens from a leukaemia infected cattery

Wynne