My FeLV positive cat has no symptoms. Should I get an IFA test?

If there is any suspicion of FeLV, an immediate check up is required as this can be ruled out easily with a simple in house test. Please get in touch with your local veterinarian. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! An exam fee ranges form $45-50. Vaccines are about $25-30 each, The cat will need 2 FVRCP vaccines 3 weeks apart and a Rabies. FeLV and FIV testing is about $50. Deworming is about $30 (depends on medication used). Fecal is you elect to send it would be about $45. Spaying costs about $200-300. I hope this helps!

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.

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

a blood smear is quite reliable but i would still recommend having an additional blood test (Elisa, IFA or PCR) to have a confirmation. unfortunately the disease is not curable but it is manageable and many cats can live many years with the disease.

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

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.