My cat's previous kittens had leukemia. Is her new kitten infected?

You have a little bit of a tricky situation. The only way your 8 year old cat can get Feline Leukemia is if the kitten is infected and shedding the virus. Since the kitten tested negative before you brought him home, you know he was not shedding the virus at that time. BUT since you know he was around another cat that could have have been shedding the virus, he could still become positive from that exposure (which can take a little while to test positive for). The safest thing to do for your 8 year old cat would be to keep him separated from the kitten for the next 90 days, then retest the kitten for Feline Leukemia. If he is negative at that time, then you can reintroduce them. Good luck! I hope everything is fine and that was helpful. Let us know if that doesn't make sense or if you have any other questions. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Feline leukemia is spread mostly by fighting and breeding and most mature cats have some natural immunity. There is always a risk if you haven’t had the kittens tested so I would request a Felv/Fiv test and if they are negative then your cat should be safe to play with them. I don’t wait until they are six months to test kittens. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Munchie.

I am sorry belvedeer was positive for feline leukemia. The test is very reliable and most likely if he tested positive he does truly have the disease. However if he is really young you can re test him at 6 months of age. At this time all the maternal antibodies will be gone from the kittens body. I would recommend retesting at 6 months. If Belvedeer is over 6 months than the test could always be repeated in 2-3 weeks just to double check and make sure the test did not make a false positive.

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that Stassi has been diagnosed with lymphoma. If Stassi and all of your other cats have been indoors only, and were all negative for FeLV to start with, there is next to no chance that your other cats have contracted or will contract FeLV. It is statistically improbable that Stassi has tested negative for FeLV four times and would still have FeLV, unless she may have been exposed to another cat in the past 4-5 years that has FeLV. Lymphoma is a fairly common type of cancer that can occur in cats with or without FeLV. I hope that helps to clarify your concerns. I'm really sorry that you and Stassi are going through this situation.

Keep in mind that many diseases have similar symptoms, so the only way to definitively know if a kitten has a specific disease is to be blood tested for it, and I do recommend having that done if you suspect your kitten may have one of these diseases. Kittens born to mothers infected with feline leukemia can have it, and symptoms include anorexia, slow and progressive weight loss, poor coat condition, enlarged lymph nodes, fever, pale gums and other mucus membranes, persistent diarrhea, eye conditions, and infections of the skin amount many other symptoms. Symptoms of FIV include fever, poor coat condition, anorexia, diarrhea, eye conditions, infections of the skin, bladder, and upper respiratory tract, weight loss, and various types of cancer and blood diseases which are more common in cats with FIV.

While technically they are at risk, they are adults that have been vaccinated so it is less likely they will contract the virus. Cats at greatest risk of infection are those that may be exposed to infected cats, either via prolonged close contact or through bite wounds. Such cats include: 1) Cats living with infected cats or with cats of unknown infection status 2) Cats allowed outdoors unsupervised, where they may be bitten by an infected cat 3) Kittens born to infected mothers Kittens are much more susceptible to infection than are adult cats, and therefore are at the greatest risk of infection if exposed. The degree of virus exposure sufficient to infect 100% of young kittens will infect only 30% or fewer adults. Nonetheless, even healthy adult cats can become infected if sufficiently exposed. It is best to separate the cats. If it turns out that sister's cat has FeLv, it is not an immediate death sentence. Retrovirus-positive cats may live many years without related illness.

Hi and thanks for using PetCoach! Sorry to hear about Boots. I have never personally heard that for Feline Leukemia. The vaccines for FeLV do not cause a positive test result BUT previous FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) vaccines cause a positive test result that cannot be differentiated from a natural infection. One positive FeLV test in a healthy cat is always suspect. False positives do occur and if you really want to know, I would advise that you go get a confirmation test done at your veterinarians office. The test is called an IFA or Immuno Fluorescent Antibody test and this is specific for FeLV. This disease along with FIV are very complex and sometimes very confusing with respect to the results. Let me provide a website link here so you can learn more about these retroviruses in cats. Good luck with Boots. https://www.catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines/retrovirus-management-guidelines