The kittens have received lots of generosity

They have enough carriers to cover them all, they have two beds and a cat condo, four litterboxes, good food and good water. They are swimming in toys.

I want to restate my thanks to everyone who has helped me, who has supported me and these little guys. To the folks on freecycle who have been so generous with their donations, to the folks on craigslist who have been so generous with their donations and emotional support...thank you.

As hard as this has been, I would do it again in a heartbeat. It is impossible for me to turn down such small creatures in need. I have learned so very much from this experience so far, but the journey isn't over yet. Fear not, I will see this thing through to the end.

lunasmom

Zest may have a home

A nice woman in Texas has an FeLV positive kitten for whom she would like a companion. She's a rescue worker who fosters dogs mostly, but specializes in the shy and undersocialized. Zest is the neediest of the kittens in terms of socialization and I am excited at the prospect of finding her a home. When I know more, I will write more, but there are discussions ongoing for transport and arrangements. I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing falls through.

lunasmom

About placement

They can be placed in homes where they will be only cats, indoor only, unvaccinated for FeLV (preferably unvaccinated, period) with the understanding that they may develop lymphoma or other immune deficiency related disorders and may need special care and medication. They will need to be somewhere low stress.

They can be placed in homes with existing FeLV positive cats.

I can try and find a sanctuary to take at least some of them and continue to try and support them financially (sponsor).

In the meantime, I hug and kiss and pet them as much as they will stand, keep feeding them the good stuff and hope they stay healthy for a good long while.
They can live happy lives, the big question mark is for how long. Some cats can live to be 15, some never make it to two. The younger they are when they are exposed, the worse the prognosis. They can go downhill fast.

What happens now

I cry for a while.

I sent the notice to update their petfinder listing to definitely FeLV +. I emailed a local sanctuary to ask them if room opened up in their FeLV room, would they please let me know. I am going to contact other sanctuaries via the FeLV list and see if I can put out the word that these guys still need permanent homes and if anyone would like one, please please consider adopting them. The sanctuaries are a last resort if I can't find them homes and they run out of time in my apartment.

They are luckily healthy at this point. So I have some hope that they can make it to happy homes for at least some time. Odds are that at least one or two won't live beyond 2 years, but hopefully I am wrong.

Then I go cry some more.

With a heavy heart, I post the test results

All five kittens tested positive on the IFA. So, they are definitely Feline Leukemia positive and are almost 100% likely to stay that way for the rest of their lives.

I want to go and scream into my pillow and curse fate, but it would be pointless.

Now I have to update their petfinder listing and start looking for permanent homes for them with this new information in mind.

sadly,
lunasmom

With a heavy heart, I post the test results

All five kittens tested positive on the IFA. So, they are definitely Feline Leukemia positive and are almost 100% likely to stay that way for the rest of their lives.

I want to go and scream into my pillow and curse fate, but it would be pointless.

Now I have to update their petfinder listing and start looking for permanent homes for them with this new information in mind.

sadly,
lunasmom

OK, kittens back from vet

No test results until next week. We did not do the in-house test today because it would be redundant and wasteful if the out of house test which we just did comes back positive. If the IFA comes back negative, then we will do the in-house test to confirm. If the in-house ELISA test comes back positive, then we talk about the discordant results. But, otherwise, he said they are growing nicely and, I quote, "For FeLV kitties, you sure look healthy!" so there's that much.

No one went flying across the office. No one tried to maim the staff. The flooding and pouring rain did not keep us from our appointment or keep the vet from opening his practice. But, we couldn't have them weighed because they don't have a scale for kittens that size. This is the one real drawback with using a vet like this--I have usually spent the extra money and gone to big animal hospitals because they have amazing facilities with technology out the ear and state of the art knowledge and equipment. This vet doesn't even have a computer, or a baby scale. But he has shown more willingness to work with me than at our first visit.

So, they will get weighed at 16 weeks, which seems like a long time, but since they are obviously gaining weight and size, and he did not seem at all concerned, I guess I will let it go. I might call my regular vet and see if I can setup a tech appt. to use their scale and just weigh them. I will have to see if they will let me do that. But all in all, looking good. I am keeping my fingers crossed for next week's results, but still trying not to get my hopes up. Expect the worst, hope for the best. lunasmom

Good thoughts for kittens--it's RETEST DAY

So the kittens have their appointment with the vet today at 4:15pm. I am going to ask the vet to please WEIGH them this time, check them for parasites, consider a SECOND course of deworm, which I thought was standard, and test each of them for FeLV on both the ELISA in-house test and the IFA out-of-house test.



I expect kittens to be upset, but hopefully this time I will work with the vet to produce calmer kittens than last time. No more funky weird faux paw stick to separate them. Hopefully, I may even have enough carriers for them all before the appointment. I have two, thanks to another generous freecycler who donated one to me yesterday. I am scheduled to pick up another one this afternoon, and hopefully a few more soon. At least this way even with three it will be easier than all of them in the BIG one like last time. And now they have collars so I can tell who is who and so can the vet.

Cat Condo!

We have condo action! Thanks to the generosity of a northern NJ freecycler, we now have a cat condo for the kittens. The kittens immediately checked out the new digs, played king of the mountain on top of it, and generally speaking appear to approve.

Pictures to follow!

lunasmom

I feel like a superstar!

Everytime I walk into the bathroom I am greeted by five sets of kitten eyes. At first, they used to just scatter and hide. Now, they generally hang out and wonder if they are going to be groomed now or if I am here to retrieve some object from under the sink with just a quick scritch.

If I start petting one, inevitably it turns into three trying to push their heads under my hands, or their butts, vying for my attention. All but Zest, who is still a little stand-offish. Even Dijon has started coming around, though a bit hesitantly. It's very exciting to me to see the progress I am making with them. lunasdad has also been able to go in and get his kitten fix without much scattering, a development from which he derives much satisfaction. He is the king of cats, for some reason, and he has no idea why. He has never had cats before, I think, and yet they flock to him. My own cat, Wynnie, has turned coat and defected to his side of the bed. Traitor!

So, lots of ping pong action, plenty of pets, a vet appointment on Friday and a possible cat condo in their future. So far, they are doing well and I feel very lucky. Gotta go give them some good night scritches and crawl into bed.

lunasmom

Leads on rescues

A good samaritan who is donating some kitten supplies to me passed along some information on rescues in my area who are no-kill. I do not know whether they take FeLV cats or not, but I will look into this as an option for splitting the litter to improve the socialization factor. It would be nice to have the support of an organization as well, or the help of another foster home. No guarantees, and I am not really sure what kind of help I am looking for at this point, but I will look into it and see what they say.

She also gave me a possible lead on a forever home for one kitten. Why does that make me a little sad? I want them to find homes, but I guess it's sad to split them up and send them away.

Another foster kitten was lost today by someone I know, to Pan. Leuk.. She's lost too many. It makes me very very sad. These diseases are just nasty.

My total respect to people who foster and rescue regularly...this has been emotionally draining for me. As rewarding as it is, I cannot imagine doing this all the time. It's so heartwrenching.

Many thanks to Freecycle.org

How do I thank the contributors to this site? I posted a request for cat items on this list and I have gotten responses offering me cat carriers, litter, a litter pan, and above my hopes, a little cat condo for the kittens so they will have something to climb and SCRATCH in the tiled bathroom.
 
I am grateful for so much generosity.
 
Thank you freecyclers!

Kittens getting some local "press"

I wrote to my local paper and asked if they would place a courtesy listing for myself or other rescues trying to place special needs pets and they agreed that they would do so happily. What is great is that The County Seat (http://www.cntyseat.com/) is delivered every couple of weeks directly to residents' mailboxes for free.
 
I also asked if they would be interested in printing an article on FeLV testing, diagnosis, treatment, and maintenance and they said that they would as long as I cite sources or run it past a veterinarian for accuracy.
 
I think that if I have time, I would like to do something like that. I'm glad the kittens will be able to get some exposure.
 
Think "get adopted!" thoughts.

A good explanation of discordant test results

From The University of Glasgow: Companion Animal Diagnostics
(http://www.gla.ac.uk/companion/felv.htm#felvdiscordant)
 
"FeLV discordant test results
In veterinary practice, screening tests for FeLV use either an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or a rapid immunomigration (RIM) technology, both of which detect FeLV capsid (p27) antigen in the plasma. Most responsible professional authorities recommend that when a cat is found to be FeLV-positive by either of these methods, the diagnosis should be confirmed by a second, different type of test. This is particularly important for healthy cats that are found to be antigen-positive. In our laboratory we use immunofluorescence or virus isolation as confirmatory tests, which demonstrate the presence of infectious virus, not just antigen, in the sample.In most cases FeLV diagnosis is straightforward, particularly in sick cats. However, in a proportion of samples, the screening test will give a positive result for FeLV antigen but the result of the confirmatory test for virus will be negative.
 
Why should we find a blood sample to be antigen-positive but virus-negative? A crucial fact is that the antigen that is found in the plasma is not obtained from the virus particles themselves, but from free antigen that is secreted by FeLV-infected cells. There are three possible reasons.
 
The first reason is that there may be a technical problem with the in-practice test, or the laboratory ELISA. This might be overcome by repeating the test. However, the result may be a false positive. In-practice tests have a specificity of around 98-99%. While this is high, in a situation where the prevalence of FeLV is only 1%, more than half of the positive results obtained with these tests will be false.
 
A second reason for this state may be that the cat is in the early stages of infection, either at the beginning of an infection or in the course of recovery. In either of these phases there may be sufficient antigen in the blood to be detected but insufficient virus. In this case the discordant state is transient and on re-testing 4-12 weeks later, the cat will usually be found to be negative by both tests.
 
A third reason may be that following apparent recovery from FeLV infection, the virus is sequestered in a particular tissue in the body from which only antigen, but not virus, is released into the blood. A well-documented example of this situation was the localisation of virus to the mammary gland in a lactating queen. In this case, a cat may remain in a discordant state for many months or even years. The danger in this situation is that at any time the virus may be reactivated and the cat may become viraemic, so that it excretes virus and has a high risk of subsequently developing a serious FeLV-related disease.
 
Recommendations·
Cats found to be positive for FeLV antigen in a screening test should be re-tested by a confirmatory test, such as immunofluorescence or virus isolation in our laboratory.· As a precaution, the discordant cat should be kept in isolation from other cats and a further blood sample should be taken 4 weeks after the initial sample and sent to us for testing. This, and further samples are tested free of charge.· If this second sample is found to be negative for both antigen and virus, the cat is likely to be virus-free. To confirm the result, a third sample should be taken after a further period of 8 weeks.· If the second sample is found still to be discordant, a sample should be tested after a further 8 weeks to establish whether this is likely to be a permanent state.
 
Our research shows that more than half of cats that are found to be discordant on a first test become negative for antigen, and remain negative for virus, after 12 weeks."

Thinking about the future

Well, I supposed worrying about the future is probably more apt. I am worried about placing these guys. I can't keep them forever. So far, I haven't had a single bite. I am worried that I won't get any bites.
 
These guys are sweet, beautiful, but they are "tainted." It's frustrating but understandable--it's hard enough going into a relationship knowing one partner will die long before the other. It's even harder knowing that that time may be even shorter when you are dealing with an animal with special needs. These guys might not survive a year...or they could live 15! The uncertainty is the achilles heel. There are no guarantees that these guys will live long healthy lives and people don't want to get attached to that which they will lose young.
 
I'm feeling sad and scared tonight. It doesn't help that a fellow fosterer just lost five of her fosters to feline distemper. What a tragedy.
 
lunasmom

Vet appointment is set for retesting

I am so nervous thinking about it. These guys have their appointment for retesting set for Friday, July 23, 2004 at 4:15 pm. I plan to have the in-house ELISA test repeated and the IFA out-of-house test performed. There is a laboratory in Franklin Lakes, NJ who will perform the test for $10 per cat for the IFA--I just hope my veterinarian agrees to send the samples there.

I have mixed feelings about the local veterinarian I have been using. He is not my regular vet--the prices at my regular vet are quite prohibitive for 5 cats, so on one hand this vet has been very kind in discounting services for me. But, on the other hand, I don't feel like I have gotten much support in my efforts. I definitely get the feeling that I am annoying him and that he feels like it's a waste of time to work with these guys and that they should just be euthanized.

In general, I feel like I have received a lot of support from the pet community, but from the community at large there seems to be a stigma attached to these poor kittens and a general unspoken consensus that I should not bother trying to rehome them but have them euthanized instead.

A few years ago, I might have done just that. I have found a community of people, though, who have opened my mind to the possibility that frailty isn't a death sentence and that these cats can make wonderful lifetime companions, for whatever the span of their lives. They may live 15 years, they may live 2. No one knows but the universe how long they are slated for this world, but in the mean time, they are in my care and I plan to do all that is possible to get them the care that I would provide for my own pet.

Bedamn the rolled eyes of any who think I am wasting my time.

Alright! Petfinder listing up and running!

Alrighty! The kittens are now listed on Petfinder.org thanks to the generosity of For our Friends, Inc. a rescue located in Long Island, NY. I adopted my dog, Luna, from them in 2003 and they have graciously provided this courtesy listing for the kittens.

These guys are available for adoption. For more information, please email me at lunasmom@luna-fish.com or post a comment on this blog. Please include contact information and best time to contact you.

Woohoo!

Salsa is a confirmable MALE

So in inspecting the kittens last night, I decided to try and do a little gender check. The vet told me that there were two likely boys and three likely girls. Of course, I was completely unable to keep straight which kitten was which so no idea which kitten is which gender. Plus there were difficult to sex, so there may not be as many boys as thought. I was beginning to wonder if any of them were actually boys.

But Salsa is definitely a boy.

I see spay/neuter in their near future.

Petfinder mix up

So the kittens are on Petfinder now through the For Our Friends site ). Unfortunately, there was a mixup about what information should be provided so they were listed as "all healthy." I am in the middle of writing a blurb of what it should really read and trying to setup the retesting appointment with the vet. I may ask the FoF people to hold off on listing the kittens until I have them retested and I am hoping to have them retested late next week. This way, we can definitely determine how to list them on the site.
They are available for adoption! Please consider a special needs pet!

Well, one bell is already missing

I would say that I don't know how they did it, but judging by the level of ping pong activity that goes on in there, I have a feeling I know exactly how it happened.

One blue collared kitty is officially missing his bell.

That's right, they've had the collars less than a week and they're already destroying them. I have no idea where the bell is. I can only hope it is not down anyone's gullet. No one is in distress, however, so if it did, then I imagine it will make a reappearance in the litterbox.

The bell disappears and in it's place...a mystery tile. A tile. Like, a shower wall tile except that it's not from the shower. I have been utterly unable to figure out from where on earth they pried this tile loose. It has grout on it so at some point it was adhered to something. But no longer. I see no telltale tileless spots in my bathroom.

Ah. A mystery.

Red X Image problem--resolved?

If anyone is still having problems seeing the images on this site, please email me at lunasmom@luna-fish.com. Thank

lunasmom

The swamy rules.

Profile on the kittens

Salsa is a feisty gal who is the first to pounce on a new toy and tirelessly chase it around the room, into the sink, across the bathtub, over the carrier, and off the laundry sorter. She will launch herself at the sink, or scale the hamper in no time flat for the opportunity to move in for the kill. This girl is definitely not mild.

Chili is one of the most chill of the kittens, recently only surpassed in friendliness by the Growler. But, it didn't take anything special to win over this little one. Chili is Kitten number 1, the intrepid explorer who first discovered my terrace and venture to meow for shelter and food.

Zest is a hissy little thing who was also probably the sickliest of them all. I suspect her vulnerability in this respect is what causes her to be more cautious with me. She enjoys sitting in your lap for a long session of grooming because it takes her a little while to settle. But once she does, you feel guilty for having to move. She startles easily.

Dijon is your middle of the road kitty. She enjoys a good grooming, can be a little skittish but also realizes when she's caught that good things are coming her way. She's a feisty go-getter with a toy, and enjoys her catnaps as much as the next kitten. You are most likely to find her behind the laundry sorter.

Growler...well, you know all about the Growler by now. Fesity and affectionate, his new love is a good scratch under his chin. He is most likely to be found on the fringe, doing his own independent thing, or sleeping in the laundry sorter.

This is the Swamy, a definite crowd pleaser. No wallflowers when the swamy comes out to play!

Blue collar: Zest

Pink collar: Dijon

The sport of champions: laundry diving. Zest is caught here demonstrating the form of a champion.

Zest is my new special case. Out of all the kittens, she is by far the most fearful right now. She will settle down when being pet, but resists being caught and even hissed in my face yesterday. She is getting some extra special attention and O hope she turns around the way the Growler is beginning to turn around.

Group shot. Salsa was laundry diving and missed her photo op.

Teal collar: The Growler

Red collar: Salsa

Purple Collar: Chili

New collars are here!

I bought five collars in varying colors so as to be able to tell these little guys apart more easily.

Someone expressed concern about kittens this age wearing collars. First, the collars are a little on the large side right now so they have plenty of room to go. They are also safety collars that stretch so the kitten can slip out of it in the event it is caught on something.

The collars came complete with bells so they make neat and interesting toys. They chase themselves all over the bathroom now trying to catch the bell. A good time is being had by all.

I ordered these online but probably could have had them for a similar price, given the shipping, and sooner, given the shipping, if I had gone to my local Pet Goods store.

http://www.petgoods.com

I like them; it is where I get all my pet supplies.

lunasmom

Little kittens=BIG MESS

For Pete's sake...how can such little critters make such an awful mess? Little poopy footprints all over EVERYTHING...who stepped in the poo? Gotta check every set of paws, and search every innocent "Who me? Not I." face. There was no damage control.

So I spent this morning evacuating the whole lot by carrier into the office, fending off curious dogs and shooing away my regular cat who I do not want to infect. Then return to the bathroom with the big guns--disinfectant, scrub brush, handi-towels, swiffer and mop, broom and dustpan...you name it, I probably had it in there with me. It took me more than 2 hours to set it all to rights. I washed and disinfected the crate, no longer needed, and returned it to my ever vigilant dog, Luna. I thought she would be happy, but she appeared crestfallen that it wasn't crawling with kittens. New litter in both pans, washed the cuddler bed in hot water, clean water and food dishes with fresh water and food, cleaned the toys as best I could and reset them. Then a nice relaxing grooming session for all kitties, introductions to the new placement of their stuff, and left them be to explore. Pretty soon I expect hear the telltale ping pong noises to begin wafting their way from the kitten habitat as they volley their toys around the more efficient space.

All is now well in kitten land, I just heard the skittering noise of a ping pong ball in the habitat. I wonder which team is winning today in the Kitten Cup.

What I learned this morning:

If you put the litter boxes inside a crate to keep them away from kitten sleeping and eating quarters, you can expect at least one kitten to manage to lock the whole group out of the crate.

No, kittens won't wait for you to wake up and notice that they are locked out of their litter boxes. They will not wish to bother you and will use the next most convenient feature of their habitat.

They will then track poo all over the entire room, necessitating a full-scale scrub of the entire quarters and of course of each kitten.

Kittens will act as though they have no idea how their habitat came to be a complete and total shambles.

No one will know what happened to the missing blue mouse.

That is all for now!

Yes, yes I will pet you!

My kittens here are starting to get a little bolder. They are beginning to associate me with pleasant things like warmth and good pets and ear scratches, as well as food. They are enjoying sleeping in my laundry sorter where my laundry smells like me, even though they have their own bed. When I came in for the last visit of the night, no one scattered but I noticed the growler was separate from his siblings, laying in the crate on the other end of the room. So I picked him up to pet him. Then I brought him over to his sibs and set him in the laundry sorter and started gathering the kittens on the floor and putting them on the laundry too so I could pet them all together.

I was holding a kitten and giving everyone pets, but the Growler was being very persistent and following my hand around to push his head under it. He went so far as to place his paws on me and reach for the kitten I was holding and tug at her...I guess he wanted up! So when I put the other kitten down, I picked him up and he seemed nice and content laying next to my chest, being held and pet. He followed me with his eyes when I left.

Good kitties!

The Growler was the toughest kitten to catch, but taming him has been very worthwhile. Half the size of his siblings, he is beginning to gain in size as his diet improves. His is becoming nice and glossy. Good job, Growler!

Taming Progress

My little Growler is becoming the little love muffin I always new he could be. The growler is the runt of the litter--half the size of his sisters and brother, s/he (vet said he but they were difficult to sex so it's possible it is a she; for the sake of this message we will say he) is the only one who ventured beyond a hiss to full-fledged growling at me. He was also the last kitten to be caught and a veritable mama's kitty. I predicted that once I cracked the veneer of fear, the growler would be a little love monkey. Now, I have proof.

Today during our regularly scheduled grooming session, I reached for another kitten to pet. The growler was sitting nearby and reached his/her head towards me and gently bumped my hand with his head. So I pet him a little then went back to the other kitten, but no! Growler says, me, me, oh pick me! more hand butting. It was a breakthrough! The growler is still wary of me when I enter the room, but he has gotten much bolder and is generally the last kitten to scatter if he scatters at all. Now he is asking for pets. Next, he will be lap cat extraordinaire!

Yay Growler!

The natural beauty of kittens is readily apparent in these five feisty beasties. They are currently about 9 weeks old.

Feral kittens require socialization at an early age to tame their fear of humans. Frequent gentle handling by different persons is ideal and the younger the handling begins, the better. These guys still run and some hiss, but they are making progress. Being able to separate them (divide and conquer) would be ideal but limited space does not allow for that method at this time.

Holding pattern--the research continues

Until we retest the kittens, there isn't much that can be done except to continue to research the disease and begin the process of looking for a place they can call home. I have put in calls to a rescue from where I adopted my dog Luna and requested a courtesy listing be placed on their website. They have been terrific in helping me with information and leads for helping to find these guys a more permanent situation.

For Our Friends, Inc.

They will be holding an adoption event on July 24th, please check out their web page for more details and if you can help, please do!

I have upgraded the kitten habitat, adding a new cuddler bed, a new litterbox, kitten proofing the bathroom so they can have full unrestricted access to romp and play. They have a slew of new toys, an automatic waterer and feeder so they can free feed and be sure to get enough water. I repurposed a muffin tin so they can each get an equal ration of wet food and the vitamin mixture, and I purchased a kitten sized curry comb for their grooming needs.

At this point they are groomed at every meal as I administer medications and generally check them over to make sure that they are in good condition. I am setting up an appointment soon to have the deworm repeated, have them rechecked for the URI they each seemed to display sypmtoms of (and which seems to have continued with runny eyes), and to have their skin checked as they seem to have some dry patchiness on the ear tips which is of some concern.

My meager financial resources have been so far up to the task, but the next round of vetting promises to be brutal just in testing. We haven't even reached vaccination or spay/neuter yet. I am trying to contact a rescue that handles FeLV positive cats in the hopes that they can find a more permanent situation while the search for adoptive homes continues, but in the meantime I am doing my best to take good care of these guys with the limited space and resources that I have. I am hoping to at least split the litter so they are less inclined to go native and wild.

Unfortunately, I live in an apartment and I cannot keep these guys, and certainly I cannot keep five of them in the bathroom indefinitely. As they grow they are filling up the space and it won't be fair, in time, to keep them secluded. I am also concerned that they are not receiving the special amount of socialization required for full taming because they must be kept isolated from my household due to my healthy FeLV negative existing cat who is 7 years old. If I cannot get them into a specialized rescue then I will continue to care for them but will have to make some drastic changes that I don't want to do if not absolutely necessary.

In the meantime, we are playing the waiting game and making plans for varying outcomes.

These guys are doing well on their improved diet, as evidenced by their shiny coats.

Kittens in captivity. Due to my resident FeLV negative cat, these little guys remain in quarantine, though they have their own room. They are still on the feral side but are beginning to tame up.

Care and maintenance of FeLV+ kittens

I returned home with my charges and tried to swallow my discouragement. I began my research into this disease to try and find out what I could do to help encourage these kittens to expel the virus. I joined several support groups online and received recommendations on adjusting diet and supplements. The kittens are now fed a combination of Natural Balance cat food, both kibble and canned wet food. Added to their diet is a daily dose of a custom vita-mixx recommended to me. I will also be sending them to the homeopathic vet soon and may add any supplements that she recommends. They have been absolutely terrific, I totally recommend Bev at the Vet at the Barn

The Vet at the Barn in NY

Local veterinarian and vet tech examine the first kitten and blood test volunteer. The results are not encouraging (and the subjects less than cooperative)....

The Growler

The vet visit

The first step in the rescue operation was getting the kittens inside. I repurposed the crate of one of my dogs and quarantined the kittens in my bathroom. Then I made an appointment with the local veterinarian to have all of the kittens checked. If all went well, they were to be vaccinated.

Unfortunately, all did not go well.

The kittens, approximately 7 weeks old, tested positive for Feline Leukemia Virus, or FeLV. This illness is contagious to other cats, is incurable, and is very serious. Kittens who contract the virus this young have a generally poor prognosis in terms of lifespan.

The vet postponed the vaccinations and recommended retesting 4 weeks later. I immediately called my regular vet and was told that there is a possibility that due to their age the test may have produced a false positive, mistaking antibodies from their mother for infection. There is also a possibility that they were infected but can throw off the virus and test negative later both for active infection and shedding the virus, but the window for that to happen is approximately 90 days from exposure.

Some info on the tests used to determine FeLV status:
The ELISA can detect the first stage of infection - the primary, or transient, viremia stage, before bone marrow is infected. At this stage, the cat's immune system may still ward off the virus. So a cat may have been infected and test positive on the ELISA, but still be in this first stage and be able to throw off the virus. Once it has thrown it off, it will test negative. This usually happens within 8 weeks of exposure, but may take up to 90 days. The ELISA test can also detect the virus when it has passed the first stage and entered the second stage, or persistent viremia stage. At this stage the virus invades the bone marrow and normally isn't going to go away.

The ELISA is almost 100% reliable on negative results - i.e. if a cat tests negative on an ELISA test, you can rely on it being negative (one of my vets explained that it is almost impossible for an operator to mess up a negative result) UNLESS you are testing within 90 days of exposure.It can take up to that long for the virus to be circulating in the blood and show up on ANY test. This is why you should never rely on just one test - you may be missing a positive if you do. If, after at least 90 days with no intermediate exposure the cat then tests negative again on an ELISA, it can be assumed to be negative.

The IFA test must be sent to a diagnostic lab, whereas the ELISA is normally done in the vet's office. The IFA detects circulating virus primarily during the second stage (persistent viremia) - in other words, after the "point of no return," which is why if the cat is positive on both the ELISA and the IFA one should treat it as positive and accept that it probably will not revert to negative, and in all likelihood will remain positive for life.

If the IFA test is negative, the cat may still be in the first stage (transient viremia) and still be fighting the virus off, and occasionally you get "discrepant" results: e.g. negative ELISA, positive IFA. With these you need to follow the AAFP's guidelines for retesting. Some may progress to persistent viremia; some test negative but later develop lymphoma later.

So the kittens are going to be retested in two weeks and I plan to have the vet administer two tests, the in-house test that he originally performed (the ELISA) and the one that needs to be sent out to a lab (the IFA). If they test positive on the IFA, then they should be considered FeLV+ for sure and I will adapt accordingly. If they test negative on the IFA but positive on the ELISA, then they may still be able to shed the virus and will need to be retested at the 90 day mark--if they test negative on both tests at that point, then they can be considered negative. If they test negative on both, they will still need to be retested at 90 days but if that test is also negative for both, they can be considered negative.

Or so sayeth my research to this point, after consulting with two allopathic veterinarians, one homeopathic veterinarian, and various rescue and support groups. I apologize if any my logic or conclusions are flawed and NOTHING HERE SHOULD BE TAKEN IN LIEU OF PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. I make no warranty as to the accuracy of the statements or conclusions above. DISCLAIM DISCLAIM DISCLAIM.

The kittens have been returned to quarantine in the meantime.

Discovery and capture

These kittens began as a strange noise I heard as I sat at my computer typing. When I investigated the noise it turned up a single black kitten stretched out on my terrace, mewling wretchedly. When I opened my door to let him in, he bolted confirming my suspicion that he was feral. I set out food and lo, one black kitten turned into two black kittens, neither willing to be caught.

Setting out more food, two kittens turned into a family as they returned with mama cat, another black cat who seemed very young. My less than clever attempts to lure them into the house had failed thus far. I decided that my tactics were entirely wrong and these feral cats wouldn't come around and suddenly walk into my open arms. So I rigged a trap using an x-pen, a large cat carrier, and some food. I was able to catch the two kittens but mama fled the scene.

I continue to set out food, with the intention of keeping mama around long enough to rent a humane trap and catch her--she was obviously to agile and wily for my setup, she needed the real thing. As I hear scrabbling out on my terrace, I sneak a peek through the door--and there is mama...with three more kittens! The plot thickens as I open the door and am able to catch two more kittens. The last kitten flees with mama.

I am worried at this point that mama will begin avoiding my terrace as the spot where her family is slowly but surely disappearing. But as I set out food, she continues to return. At last I am able to catch the fifth, and final, kitten. But no mama.

For my friends

I have started this blog to keep my friends informed and up-to-date on the ongoing adventure of five kittens I rescued during a severe NJ thunderstorm.

My heartfelt thanks go out to the many benefactors who have contributed to the ongoing upkeep of these little guys and lent their support through the tough times.