Should I get Feline Leukemia testing done for Joey

Joey, has been exposed to Feline Leukemia cat. This was my grandmas cat and she would bring him down quite often but he was diagnosed with Feline Leukemia and in the last while they shared litterbox and shared food dishes and at times he would clean him but he got agressive with him because I guess he had that problem. The vet told my mom to bring him 6 months but she never made an appointment. It has been awhile since Ditter has been gone. Do you think Joey is ok? Should I be worried that he might have the virus. How do cats catch the virus? I would to know how simple are test and what kind of thest do they do. Would I get the result the same day. Will he have to spend time at the vet. I am bit worry about getting this test down. Thanks!! Please reply.

 

Yes, definitely get the test.

FeLV is spread through body fluids (it's a lot like AIDS in humans). It doesn't survive very long outside the body so sharing a litter box or food isn't a major risk factor (although there is still a chance it could spread that way), but mutual grooming & fighting could easily spread it.

Has Joey been vaccinated against it (before being around the other cat)?

There's a few different types of tests. Some use saliva or tears, but your vet will most likely do a blood test. Getting the blood isn't a really major proceedure and it shoudn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes (depending on how good your vet is at drawing blood). There's also two different types of blood tests. One is called a SNAP/ELISA test. It can be done there in the office and generally takes around 15 minutes. The other one is an IFA which has to be sent to a lab so it could take a day or so to get the results. I'm willing to bet your vet will do the SNAP/ELISA one, though.

If he comes back negative, I would wait a couple of months and have him re-tested again just to make sure he's truely a negative becaue it can take a while from the time a cat is exposed to the time they actually test as positive.

If he comes back positive, I'd have a 2nd test done (maybe wait a week to give him a chance to relax) to double check because false positives can happen.

-Chelle

 

No he didn't have feline leukemia needle but wa a stray kitten before we got him. I don't know how long he was outside.

 

Then yes, you definitely need to get him tested.

-Chelle

 

Eeek! Yes yes get him tested. This is AIDS for Cats. Dont mess around with this stuff :shock: