How to prevent disease transfer from a stray to my 8-week kitten?

It would be prudent to keep him separated from your cat until he is examined by your veterinarian. The kitten should be dewormed, given flea medication if necessary and vaccinated before he is introduced to your cat. A blood test for FeLV and FIV is also recommended.

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.

Kittens can take weeks to get to know each other although some never settle down as friends. I would recommend keeping them isolated until fully vaccinated and also tested so as not to spread viral infections unknowingly

I'm glad you are doing your homework before bringing new fur babies into the situation. Most shelters will routinely deworm their pets and test for leukemia and FIV. So you definitely want to make sure these treatments/tests are run prior to adopting the new kittens. Its not unusual for new cats and kittens to break with upper respiratory infections within the first 2 weeks of being adopted. Herpes virus is very common in cats (some estimate 80% of cats carry the virus) and it comes out in the stress related to being in a shelter and being rehomed. Now, this is not going to happen to every cat/kitten but its not unusual. Therefore, your best chance to avoid this would be to get a cat/kitten that has been kept in a foster home. It will likely still have herpes but the environment should be less stressful, therefore less risk of the virus becoming active. Keep the new pet separated for 2 weeks. That way if it does have an outbreak, you will at least have it contained. You could also put your cats on 500mg of lysine twice daily to help booster their immune system. Kittens get 250mg twice daily. Please post again if you have any further questions!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I'm glad everything tested negative for Kitty. We do not have an test for panleukopenia. And we do not test healthy cats for it. Cats with panleukopenia are sick: vomiting, diarrhea, low white blood cells. We sometimes use the dog Parvo snap tests to test cats who are sick that we think may have it but we usually diagnose it based on signs and blood work (CBC=complete blood count). I would keep her separate from your other cats for 2 weeks. I am assuming your vet started her vaccines and gave her the first FVRCP vaccine which has panleukopenia in it. She should have a second booster 3 weeks after the first one. If you want to be 100% safe, keep her separate until 2 weeks after the 2nd booster (5 weeks total, that is a long time!). But I would think that if she had no signs in 2 weeks she is likely fine. I usually see stray cats or new kittens pass upper respiratory viruses more often than panleukemia. I hope this helps!

Yes, I would keep both cats completely separated (separate litter, bowls...etc) until you have your new kitty checked out and treated for parasites as well as tested for Felv/FIV. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Congratulations on your new pet! Physical distance is not as important as actual contact. If your new kitten is in a cage or crate, this still likely allows for the cats to touch each other through the bars. Certain viruses can be transmitted in nasal discharge, saliva, and cats can scratch each other even through small openings. I recommend trying to keep this cage in an area your other cat cannot reach or in a bathroom. I hope this helps and am happy to answer any other questions you have!