Is my cat's Toxoplasma test reliable and does it check IgG/IgM?

It is a bit complicated as positive toxoplasmosis titer does not mean that your cat has toxoplasmosis. It means that she was in contact with the virus at some point during her life and that she developed some immunity. Repeating the blood test and confirming rise in toxoplasma titer is consistent with ongoing toxoplasma infection. However, if Susan does have toxoplasmosis (which is not that common disease in cats) your wife should not be in contact with her during pregancy. Please, note that the source of infection for us are cats' stools, particicularily not the fresh ones but a few days old or older. I would suggest your wife to discuss this situation with her GP or obstetrician and see what they would recommend.

Toxoplasmosis can be diagnosed by blood work or a fecal examination. However toxoplasma takes 24 hours after a bowel movement to become infectious. So if your sister cleans the box daily, and showers daily, and wears clean clothes daily then the likelihood of contamination approaches zero. I am a veterinarian, and touch cats daily, and had my antibodies tested before pregnancy and I have never been exposed. I hope this helps explain this for you. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Panleukopenia is a feline parvovirus. They don't make a direct test for it but most clinics use the canine parvovirus test to get a result. False positives are very rare, occurring only in about 0-6% of tested samples. Vaccine induced positives are also rare with about only 1/64 recently vaccinated kittens testing positive. This is with the IDEXX brand test. Other brands had a higher rate of positive results following vaccination. So, without more information as to what test your vet used and how long ago she was vaccinated and with what vaccine (if she was even vaccinated) it is difficult for me to say much on the subject. If an IDEXX test was used I would trust the result. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Good question. This is a complex disease that most cats are exposed to. Most cats that are just exposed but don't end up sick with the disease are going to come up positive for antibodies against the virus. However, a pet is only confirmed to have this disease if they have positive Antigens. Therefore, since your pet Sonia had a positive antibody and negative antigen, this means she was exposed to the virus, but has not developed the full blown disease. With this said, cats can at any point do what is called seroconvert to the active strain of the virus and become sick since they are carriers of the gene. If your pet becomes sick in the future, rechecking the antigen levels is highly recommended. Because your pet is a carrier for Coronovirus (FCoV), loose stool may be seen, but nothing more severe than that. Here is more information on Coronavirus (FCoV) in pets and also information on how pets can seroconvert into full blown FIP (FIPV) from exposure to this virus. ---> https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4951308 ---> https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4951549

FeLV is a non-curable disease which means that once your cat has it he will carry the virus for the duration of his life. I am not sure which SNAP test was used on Tom, but the IDEXX FeLV/FIV SNAP has a sensitivity of 98.6% and a Specificity of 98.2% for FeLV. This means that there is only a 1.8% chance of a false positive on the SNAP. However, it is important to note that cats who have been vaccinated for FeLV can show a positive result on the SNAP. IDEXX recommends that any positive FeLV SNAP be confirmed by IFA. Although there are no statistics shown for discrepant results, they do recommend repeat testing after 28 days rather than euthanasia: http://www.idexx.com.tw/pdf/zh_tw/smallanimal/snap/triple/fiv-felv-diagnostic-guidelines.pdf

The VDI-TK test has a sensitivity of 0.78 and a specificity of 0.91 (High Positive Specificity >0.98) A highly sensitive test means that there are few false negative results, and thus fewer cases of disease are missed. The specificity of a test is its ability to designate an individual who does not have a disease as negative. A highly specific test means that there are few false positive results. Based on that, I would say that it is a reliable testing method for feline lymphoma. Here is a link about this testing that may answer more of your questions: http://vdilab.com/pdf/25_TKfelineTechSheet.pdf Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Hi, thanks for using PetCoach! Your Doctor can test you. If you are negative then you should avoid gardening or doing things with the soil as toxoplasma lives there as well. Then I would have your husband clean Cecile's litter box or you do it wearing gloves and wash your hands. I would also keep your cats indoors. As a Vet, I have been exposed, who knows when or how, and I had a normal pregnancy. Below is a link to the CDC's page on toxoplasma. It should answer all of your questions! I hope this helps and I wish you the best! https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/index.html