About Your Pet: Feline leukemia changes lives

Published in the Home News Tribune 8/04/03

My cat was just diagnosed with feline leukemia. Can you tell me more
about this disease and how it will affect her quality of life?

A. Feline leukemia virus is a retrovirus that is spread from cat to
cat through saliva, urine, tears, milk, and the placenta.
A blood sample must be done to test for this disease. The test should
be repeated in a few months to prove the positive result.
The virus can infect the bones causing bone marrow suppression.
Marrow is the source of all blood cells. If it is affected, abnormal
amounts of white blood cells (leukemia) or absent red blood cells
(anemia) can make the cat weak and more prone to infections.
It can cause tumors such as lymphosarcoma or osteochondromas. The
kidneys,the eyes, the spleen and the reproductive organs may also be
affected.
It is hard to predict which part of the body will be affected by the
virus.
If a cat shows severe signs of illness such as not eating, laziness,
nasal discharge, paleness of gums, etc., he can die from this viral
infection.
Some cats can be positive and carriers of the virus and may never get
sick.
Some cats may eventually fight the infection and show negative on a
blood test.
There is a vaccine for feline leukemia. This vaccine should only be
given to cats that test negative to the virus. Although the vaccine
works well, it is not 100 percent effective. A leukemia positive cat
could theoretically still spread the disease to a vaccinated cat.
Typically, leukemia positive cats are either euthanized so as not to
spread the disease any further or are kept isolated from other cats.
Any cat with leukemia must be watched closely for any future illness
and treated accordingly by your veterinarian if a problem develops.
The quality of life for a feline leukemia cat depends on what signs
of sickness develop and how severe the illness is.

This column addresses new developments in animal care as well as
issues that New Jersey veterinarians encounter in their practices.
The information is prepared as a public service by the New Jersey
Veterinary Medical Association. For more information, visit
http://www.njvma.org. Questions may be submitted to All Things
Animal, 66 Morris Ave., Suite 2A, Springfield, NJ 07081.

http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,780965,00.html

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Aug. 5, 2003