CAN I GIVE A FELINE LEUKEMIA VACINE TO MY CAT WITHOUT “TESTING” FOR THE DIEASE? I CAN’T AFFORD THE TESTS.
I have eighteen cats, we only founf out ONE has sly leukemia. we wish to buy vacines & only give it to a others. Someone pronounced “no, it competence kill them” a little contend “it won’t hurt”, They pronounced if they have a mildew already it’d set it off & they’ll be passed in days. They wish $50.00 PER CAT to exam them before to giving a vacine, we can’t means that. Do we give a others a shots or only lay & pray?
Posted on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am by admin · Permalink
In: Tips · Tagged with: "testing", Afford, Cant, Diease, Feline, Give, Leukemia, Tests, Vacine, Without
In: Tips · Tagged with: "testing", Afford, Cant, Diease, Feline, Give, Leukemia, Tests, Vacine, Without
11 Responses
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
I think they do that to prevent it.. so it should definutely be okay and is a good idea.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
I would vaccinate all of them to help insure that if they dont have it they dont get it and have the one that has it euthanized. If you give it to your cats and some of them die because of it then they may have had the disease anyway and would have had to have been put down anyhow.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
Yes, you can vaccinate w/o testing for the disease. We have people test b4 vaccination for a few reasons:
– you need to know the viral status of an animal
– if you vaccinate for FeLV and then test for FeLV at a later date, you will most likely get a positive test result. This doesn’t necessarily indicate a true case of FeLV, but the vaccine can cause the positIve result and it will very difficult to determine the true viral status of the cat, ie you may never really know if the cat is infected or not
– you don’t want to ‘waste’ $$/ vaccine on an animal that already has the disease
– you don’t want to expose viral negative animals to FeLV infected animals
It is however, generally safe to administer the vaccine to an infected animal – they just won’t receive any viral protection. There is a very slim chance that you might stress the immune sytem with the vaccine administration, but immediate ‘activation of the FeLV virus and death’ are NOT going to happen.
Feline Leukemia is not an automatic death sentence. However, keep in mind that FeLV is VERY, VERY contagious and it would be a good idea to assume that ALL of the cats are positive if you are unable to test for the disease before you vaccinate. Many cats live long, realitively healthy lives with the disease. It is IMPERATIVE that these cats NOT be allowed outside – at all, ever – due to the likelyhood of infecting other cats. Viral transmission can occur even through window screens of open windows or by casual contact with common surfaces like bowls or even places where scent markings are left. You or your guests can also carry the virus with you to other places, so make sure if you go to visit a friend that has cats that you change clothes and wash your hand well b4 you go and don’t pet your guys on the way out.
Your vet will need to be told that these guys are likely FeLV positive should they ever come down with ANY illness, esp respiratory illness. This is b/c the vet will most likely treat them much more aggressively then a cat that is not viral positive. They will often prescribe stronger antibiotics, for longer periods of time in viral positve cats than they would for immune-normal cats. Make sure that you seek vet care at the beginning of ANY illness for these cats – if they are immunocompromised, waiting a couple of days to see how they are going to do may cause the illness to quickly progress and greatly reduce their ability to recover from even a mild illness.
I know this is scarey news to get, but all is not as bleak as it might initially seem. Praying is always a good idea, though! Good luck!!
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
You have 18 cats, you can’t afford to care for them, and one has a potentially fatal illness? You need to give up at least 12 of these cats. You clearly can’t care for them and are making it worse. My kitten is blind because of this kind of thing, he lived with a collector who could not care for him, and HE WENT BLIND! You should also consider therapy if you are a horder. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but this situation is not healthy for anyone, including you.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
just sit and pray im scared that if you give them the vaccine they will die if not just ask a vet
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
I just looked it up in PubMed (I’m an MD but not a vet btw). There are apparently different types of vaccines, but they are all recombinant or inactivated, none of them seem to contain live virus. This type of vaccine rarely causes major problems.
If these were my cats, i would take the risk. If indeed one or more of the animals die, they would probably have been doomed anyway.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
IF one has it it will get spread very easily through litter, through beds, toys. So if they don’t have it now, they will get it. I guess if you can’t afford the tests then you have to take the risk and give them all the vaccine.
It’s hard enough to afford and take care of one cat. How did you think you’d be able to afford 18?
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
To have a sick pet is unfortunate and worrysome, much like having a sick child. With that said you must know that to have so many pets, children or any species of animal living in close proximity without the benifit of immunization is asking for disaster and heartache.
Take your advice from a vetranarian or other animal medical specialist and in the process learn about ypour species of choice. If you cannot afford to take care of them properly then reduce your numbers until you can do so. It is only fair to them as well as your neighbors. Good luck.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
Years ago I took in 3 shelter cats; 2 had FIP in their systems. The older one was negative so the vet said he could vaccinate her but she would have to live somewhere else for about a week, so that’s what we did. The baby, Max, died at 6 mos. from FIP which is a horrible, horrible disease. Little One is still, knock wood, fine after 11 years (the FIP stayed dormant), and the one that was vaccinated is also fine. I would say, as my vet told me, that once a cat tests positive for FIP he cannot be vaccinated. I think it would be a mistake for you to try to vaccinate the others on your own. Can you isolate the one that tested positive, or find him another home so that he won’t shed the virus and infect the others? Good luck to you; you seem like a real animal lover.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
I don’t know who “They” are, if it’s a vet or a humane society, but I recommend calling the humane society and telling them about your situation. Their prices tend to be much lower than other vets, and it is their mission to save animals humanely.
Ask if maybe you can get a bulk discount or something. In the meantime, make sure you isolate the one with FeLv. It can be transmitted by them eating from the same dish. I lost a cat once because of that exact situation.
I’m sorry one of your cats is sick. I hope none of the other ones get it. While it’s very noble of you to open your home to so many needy animals, you might want to reconsider having 18 cats if you can’t afford veterinary care for all of them. I hope they’re all fixed too. If not, maybe you can bring that up with the humane society too and see if they can help you out.
Good luck.
on October 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
Permalink
First, you should be discussing this with your veterinarian.
Ideally, you should test all of your cats and it does cost about $50 for individual tests. You may want to ask about drawing blood from them all and sending the blood samples all at once time to an outside laboratory. It may cost less that way.
You can vaccinate the cats without testing and it won’t hurt any that have it. It just won’t help them.
As you can, you should test all 18 cats to seperate the ones with FeLV from the ones that don’t have it. All cats need to be spayed and neutered–ASAP. All cats should be vaccinated yearly. Any new cats you EVER get need to be tested and vaccinated before joing the group. Your cats will be healthier as a group if you follow this.
If you can’t afford to take care of this many cats, you need to rethink if you should have this many cats.