FeLV Testing, Vaccines, Treatments... what I learned. Maybe it'll help someone else.

radarlove413

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If you've seen a few of my previous posts about Dunlop, he was my sweet baby Tabby that unexpectedly passed away from FeLV anemia. He went downhill in the week between diagnosis and when he refused syringed food and water. There's a lot of stuff we didn't know, so I have to try and NOT blame myself for the past. I'm just putting this out here, what I learned from what happened to ME, in case it saves somebody else from going through the same thing. I don't speak for everyone.

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Testing:

-The FeLV vaccine DOES NOT cause false positives. This commonly gets mixed up with FIV. The FIV vaccine will cause a cat to test positive for FIV on the SNAP test.
-False positives on the SNAP test DO happen. There are claims out there that it's a large failure rate, like 30%. In actuality, it's more like 10% for the IDEXX.
-False negatives are way more common. This is because there is not enough viral load to trigger the test. This is what happened with Dunlop.
-If you adopt, a stray from outside or even from a humane society, it's a good idea to get two tests done 60 days apart. We did not know this. So, when Dunlop was in the cat fight, he had just been infected. Not enough viral load. Our vet never told us this. A lot of vets won't, because some people elect to put FeLV cats down right away after diagnosis or clients don't want to pay money for an extra test.
-A positive cat can STILL test negative on the SNAP test if they are in the regressive state of infection. This means they aren't sick, and can't spread it to other cats, but it's hiding in their bone marrow. For peace of mind, get a PCR test done. Yes, they are more expensive, but they will tell you if your cat has ever been exposed to FeLV, what stage they are at, and all that stuff. If Dunlop had that, it would have shown he was regressively infected.
(I am getting my remaining two cats PCR tested in June once the 60 day period is up)

Treatment with one positive test

-Most vets are aware that false positives happen. However, when your cat is very ill and there's a strong positive test, the chances of it being wrong are small. The internet makes this seem like it happens a lot more than it actually does. You don't hear about all the poor people whose cats passed, more about those pet parents who got lucky. So they will treat your cat as a presumed positive to be on the safe side while waiting for a PCR test.
-Blood tests, xrays, and urine tests factor into this. Dunlop had pancytopenia, which means his red blood cells, white blood cells, and platlets were all very low. He wasn't visible ill with a respiratory infection, no enlarged lymph nodes, nothing of the sort.
-You'll read that a common treatment for cats until more tests can be run are Prednisolone (steroid), Doxycycline (antibiotic), and vitamins are used. If the cat is not anemic, a vet may also start Interferon. Interferon can also suppress the bone marrow, so most vets won't suggest this right away if the cat is anemic because it can make it worse.
-Dunlop's initial treatment was Prednisolone at a high dose, along with an injected steroid and B12. The steroids made him drool and very nauseous. We added Cerenia, but that only helped him on the first day. My vet didn't try him on Doxycycline because it can REALLY upset a cat's stomach, and she didn't want him going off of food completely at that stage. We both wonder if it might have helped, but there were really only two ways we could go at that time of crisis. We've both had to make our peace with that.
-MOST CATS tolerate Prednisolone fine. They'll get a great appetite and it helps with everything. Our baby was in the minority. He went downhill after they were started, but he also would have passed away if we hadn't done anything.
-Cerenia can also make some cats go off food. We didn't give it to Dunlop one day, but he still refused food. This side effect, again, is very minimal, but the internet makes it seem like it happens more than it actually does. You can also try Pepcid AC for nausea. We did. but it didn't work.
-If Dunlop's blood had improved or stayed the same, we would have done antibiotics. But it declined. The only thing that improved was his Leukocytes, but those are released as a side-effect of Prednisolone.
-Erythropoietin can help with anemia by encouraging cats to make more red blood cells. We tried to get this. But because of covid drug shortages, it wouldn't have been in for weeks. Dunlop died before then.
-If Dunlop had rallied, we would have gotten the PCR test to confirm FeLV. My vet wasn't sure if he'd make it. The test wouldn't have come back until his follow up appointment on Tuesday. It wouldn't have changed his treatment, so she wanted to save us a bit of money in case he went downhill.

Types of anemia, transfusions, and quality of life:

-You'll often hear about two kinds of anemia. Regenerative, which means the bone marrow responds and starts making more red blood cells. This is the kind of anemia FeLV cats normally rally from with the use of steroids and antibiotics.
-Non-regenerative anemia: the bone marrow doesn't respond. This is unfortunately what happened with our baby. We will never know if his anemia had been caught sooner if it would have responded. Based on how it went during this last week, I'm not sure. Maybe it was better than he didn't let us know how bad he was feeling until the very end. Or else he would have had more weeks filled with medicines that made him sicker and his people worrying.
-Transfusions can help with regenerative anemia. They also have their own risks. If you're lucky, there's a facility in your area that can blood type your cat and get donor blood. We weren't. The nearest one was 4 hours away. Dunlop couldn't be sedated with his anemia, so the trip might have killed him.
-Even then, your animal can reject the blood and die, or their immune response gets worse and destroys the donor blood in a manner of days.
-Regenerative anemia, it can buy your baby time to recover. With non-regenerative anemia, the animal will often feel worse after only a few days or weeks, because their bone marrow cannot replace these lost cells.
-Every time you do a transfusion, the risk of rejection can go up. The stress and hospital stay can also kill some cats, so it's best to judge your own animal's stress level.
-There's an experimental option of using dog's red blood cells. You filter out as much of the plasma as possible. You don't need to blood type match your cat with this, and most clinics can make this happen. But this is only a temporary measure. After a few days to a week, the cat's immune system will destroy the foreign red blood cells. Our vet felt like this would happen with Dunlop.
-Quality of life: Dunlop was okay with syringe feeding until Thursday. He kept his mouth clamped shut and got distressed when we tried. He was suffering. He was tired. There was a very low chance he'd return to a quality of life without meds that made him sick (steroids). The stress from being hospitalized, again, would probably kill him. (he went into respiratory distress after his second vet trip) It broke our hearts, but we made the decision to help him cross at home the next day. Overnight he got a bit worse and started showing signs of renal failure and lack of oxygen, so I hope like h#&$ it was the most compassionate decision. He was such a beautiful boy. We loved him so much. He saved both of our lives and came to us when we needed him most.

Special note: don't be scared of feeding tubes. If you feel like your cat may crash, it's often easier on them to have a feeding tube. You can inject the food and medicine while they are resting. It's a lot less stressful than syringe feeding. We didn't have that option because he wouldn't survive sedation. I wish I had asked for one when we first found out he was severely anemic. You just need to clean the site daily. It doesn't interfere when they start to eat on their own either.

Anecdotal treatments that may help:

-Check out the Facebook group "Owners of FeLV+/FIV+ Cats" for perspectives on these. They were helpful with Dunlop.
-Boiled chicken livers can help cats with anemia eat. This is due to their high iron content. Some people have said it appeared to help their cats' anemia.
-Interferon has some good results, but there's not a lot of official literature about this.
-T-cycte has apparently helped some cats in the early stages of FeLV. You'll read some good things about it online, but it's expensive, and a lot of vets will say it doesn't help like some people claim. Use your judgement.
-Same with RetroMad1
-Again, my cat was too severely ill for these to get to me in time. I just read about them in case my other cats got FeLV.
-Have an open conversation with your vet about their treatment. Keep in mind, if there was a miracle drug for FeLV it would be used EVERYWHERE. It's a horrible disease. We all want it to end. If it looks like it works, of course the veterinary world would use it. (Like Prednisolone... it works most of the time). If you have the money/time to try experimental therapies and your vet trusts it could be good for your cat, go for it. But don't beat yourself up if it's not an option. We do the best we can for our kitties.
-The internet is a good resource. But, there's millions of cats with FeLV out there. The percentage of people who post about their cats' treatment is a very small percentage of this wider pool. It's full of a lot of good ideas, but also some that may make your pet sicker if you don't talk with a vet first.

Guilt/Blaming the Vet:

-Vets are people too. Mine felt horrible about this whole thing. Dunlop first started going in April after an eye injury. Nobody knew he was FeLV positive. He'd had a perfect blood test in September. She didn't want to stress him out again with a blood test for a superficial eye injury since he'd been good 6 months ago.
-People give vets &#@# all the time about paying for extra testing. A lot of them won't really ask if you'd like extra blood work/tests done unless they suspect something is wrong because most of the time it's a negative reaction from clients. Either owners feel bad because they cannot afford it, or they get mad at the vet because it's "wasted money".
-At Dunlop's last eye recheck, he was calmer than usual and maybe had a slight heart murmur, but his eye had healed perfectly. He'd been healthy, seemed fine, and I had told her he always behaved at the vet unless he was in pain. I wasn't allowed in the office because of covid restrictions, so she thought his niceness meant he was on the mend. (He was always a sweetie with me in the room unless he was getting actively poked with needles) His anemia was probably getting severe at this point, but nobody thought to look for it. Why would a healthy cat, who is presumed to be FeLV negative, be randomly anemic?
-I noticed him eating litter a week after this appointment. He was due for a recheck in a few days for the eye, so I was told to monitor him and see. His gut flora might have been wiped out by the antibiotics, so we had a probiotic to give him. Pica can be caused by a lot of things. He was a tabby, his gums were dark and all his paw pads were brown, so it was pretty much impossible for us to see if they were pale or not until it was too late. She never noticed them being pale in the office either.

-After your pet passes, ask your vet if you can have a conversation with them in a few days. I did, and it really helped us both resolve what happened. Catching his anemia a few days early probably wouldn't have saved his life, it was non regenerative. She got to explain why we chose certain treatment routes over others. My vet was putting in so much unpaid time to research FeLV, treatment options, and find ways to save him. She was a professional doing the best she could. We were loving cat parents doing the best we could. We could have taken him for a second opinion, but again, with the limited treatment options for FeLV, the outcome probably would have been the same and stressed him out more.
-FeLV sucks. If Dunlop had survived this somehow, he could have gotten cancer and died months from now in a more painful way. Or an infection. Or slowly wasted away. I wish with all my heart he was still here, but at the same time, with his personality he wouldn't have wanted to be chronically ill. Again, try to zoom out from the moment and look at your animal's overall quality of life.

Why the FeLV Vaccine is important

-My other two cats, Donatello and Cocoa, are being PCR tested in June after the 60 days is up. It will tell us if they were infected. I need that peace of mind.
-What happened to me was a freak occurrence, but thanks to my indoor household being vaccinated, I hopefully don't have to worry about my other two cats dying of FeLV. If they hadn't been vaccinated, they almost certainly would have caught FeLV from sharing the water fountain, dishes, and litter boxes.
-The vaccine CAN have side effects. But also, it's usually WAY more horrible to watch your animal die from FeLV when it could have been prevented. If you can make it work, the extra money you pay every few years for the vaccine can save their lives.
-Any new addition I may add to the household will be getting PCR tests and going through a quarantine period. I can't change the past, but this experience scarred me and I want to do the best for my cats in the future.
-I will also be taking my cats for semi-annual checkups and blood tests. I would rather have slightly overkill than go through this again.

Lastly, I have pet insurance, so I don't need to worry about most of these costs. I understand it's not feasible for everyone, but if you can get it when your cat is healthy, it's a lifesaver. All our cats had bloodwork, FeLV/FIV snap tests, and that stuff submitted when we signed them up. Since they all had negative tests at the time, our FeLV costs will be covered outside of our deductible.

If you made it to the end, thanks! I hope this may help somebody else out there.
 
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fionasmom

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Again, you have been most kind to have taken the time to write this very clearly organized account of your experiences with the treatment of your baby Dunlop. It is really a memorial to your love for him that you are willing to reach out to others who might be able to learn from his experience.
 
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radarlove413

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Again, you have been most kind to have taken the time to write this very clearly organized account of your experiences with the treatment of your baby Dunlop. It is really a memorial to your love for him that you are willing to reach out to others who might be able to learn from his experience.
Thank you. I found information like this helpful when I was in the crisis, so I wanted to pay it forward.
 

JulietteTruong

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Thank you for this amazing write-up!
I just got my Juli her second dose of the FELV vaccine yesterday too! Her first dose was a month ago. This is her first time getting the Felv vaccine, at age 8, now that she also spends time in my backyard. Prior to moving here she was only indoors. Even though the yard is enclosed and she can’t get out, I decided to be safe. I did struggle with getting it at first.
 

tortiesandtabbies

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Hi and thank you so much for the detailed post. My male kitten (just turned 11 months) was tested positive with the IDEXX Combo Snap test yesterday at the city vet (despite initially testing negative at the primary vet's clinic a month ago.)

We have been trying to find the cause for his high fever and anaemia for the past few weeks. His latest blood test doesn't look too good but our primary vet is working on a plan on how to move forward from here.

Really appreciate all the information that you wrote, it's tricky to find something besides cats with FeLV can have happy, healthy lives when in our situation, it's the progressive kind.
 

jaws239

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Although it hurts my heart to read this, it was what I've been trying to find -- the "this may be the progression" info that no one else seems to want to say online.

radarlove413 radarlove413 Dunlop's journey was not in vain. He's helping other families through your generous sharing of information. I'll keep yall & others in my thoughts as we travel this journey with our 6 mo old BabyBoy.
 
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