My Siamese Male Cat Was Diagnosed With Feline Leukemia

THe Veterinarian | Nov 14, 2014 | Yosemitest

[Yosemitest]

"Sam" was 8 years old, and he had become quite a grouchy, old cat.
He was still gentle and wanted petting, feeding and watering, but he acted like he had a tooth ache and he had bad breath.
The vet said there was no known cure for the virus infection, Feline Leukemia and that it was VERY infectious to other animals.
Her said that he probably got it in a fight with another infected cat, or that it could be caught by drinking or eating from the same water bowl or feed bowl that another infected animal used.
I buried him by the rose bush he liked to spray, and I hated it.
But I didn't want the other pets to catch it, and I didn't want to see Sam, my favorite cat, slowly get worse and worse.

[anton]

My deepest condolences. But, for the rest of us, another good reason for our cats to be 100% indoor cats.

[patriot08]

I’m so sorry, Slings. God bless.

[doorgunner69]

I lost a little buddy to this.

Very hard to see them go downhill and not be able to help them.

You will see him again.

[beef]

I lost my little friend Pumpkin to old age yesterday. I had 2 from 1997 and 3 from 1998. Just one left now, and I am not sure how long he will hold out. It is sad to see them get old. It reminds us of our own mortality.

[yorkiemom]

I’m so sorry.

Please let us know how the others are doing.

[Veto!]

So sad, Yosemitest, Sam sounded like a very great cat and I know you will miss him.

I get worried that my large male cat refuses to go outdoors, but maybe he knows something I don’t know...

[TheOldLady]

We lost our tabby cat, Slinker at 8 years of lymphoma. No one could figure out
how he got it. We have his ashes sitting next to his best buddy’s, who passed at
the age of 16 on October 21, 2014. RIP, Lucas, reunited with Slinker at last.

They were both adopted as kittens, and Lucas never got over Slinker’s demise.
And I’m struggling with losing Lucas.

[Nowhere Man]

My condolences, I know what it is like to lost our furry feline friends and it is very hard. I have two cats,Spunky, she is 14 and Rascal, he is 7. We took Spunky in with three kittens she had in 2001 and all the kittens have passed from illness but I still have Mom left.

[Yosemitest]

Wilco.
I'm on a budget and testing has to be done 2 cats at a time each month.

[yorkiemom]

Are any of your others showing symptoms?

[Yosemitest]

The ones I worry about the most are the 2 yard cats.
Both are males, and tomcats are known to fight.
The only symptoms the one that had to be put down was showing was a sensitive mouth and he slept a little more than usual.
At the first checkup, the vet thought he just needed a teeth cleaning, and he did that.
But at the follow up, "Sam" still had gum sores and was still grouchy.
The vet did a blood test for several items, and he found a blue result from the Feline Leukemia test, about half as bright as the chart's positive result.
The vet said he didn't see this problem very often, and that when he did, it was very sporadic and localized.
So the vet told us the options we had and with other pets at risk, we just couldn't take the risk of other cats getting it.
Plus the long time and expense of fighting the virus and blood disease, with out tight budget, just didn't leave us much choice.
"Sam's" old age was a small factor, also.

[yorkiemom]

Wow, that is very few symptoms for feline leukemia, I think. Hopefully he wasn’t very infectious then!

I will be praying your other furbabies are ok.

I understand about the tight budget. We will be quitting ‘feeding the beast’ next year - will be living a simple life, paying hardly anything in taxes if we can help it, and will wait for it all the collapse about our ears. Doing a budget to see how much income we need really opened my eyes to how much I am spending on my pets, between health care and premium food (2 cats have digestive issues). We will get down to one-two pets, through attrition. Anything more is just too costly.

[freekitty]

I am so sorry. My male Siamese cat died of it when it first came out years ago. He and an outside cat I think exchanged mouth fluids through a screen window. It is a horrible disease. He died in my arms shortly at the vets and there was nothing I could do and my cats were not outside cats. I have made sure since they have no contact with any cat but the ones on the inside.

You did the right thing because it would have been a horrible death. We just didn’t know what it was at that time. The vet had his suspicions; but until he did an autopsy; even he wasn’t for sure.

[Yosemitest]

I can't help but wonder if he caught if from a possum.
They come around at night and try to eat up the outside cat's feed, and if the possum was infected and slobbered into the feed bowl onto some feed he didn't eat, because he was run off by another animal....
I just can't help but wonder.

[Yosemitest]

Thanks.

[yorkiemom]

That’s a scary thought. Because you’ll never know if it happens again. We had a possum in our backyard for a while, eating the cat food and avocados. The same thing could have happened.

[yorkiemom]

In a wee bit of Goodling, I don’t pick up that possums can get feline leukemia. I’m sure others here would know more...

[yorkiemom]

Just found this:

“FeLV is specific to members of the cat family and does not pose a risk to other species of animals or people.”
On
http://www.vcahospitals.com/main/pet-health-information/article/animal-health/feline-leukemia-virus-disease-complex/106

Please don’t agitate yourself. You’re doing exactly what I would do, try to figure out how I could’ve prevented it. You’ve had enough heartache and are doing what you can to protect your other cats. Try to pray and find some peace in the calm moments ;)

[Yosemitest]

Source:

Possums are very unique wild animals.
They are the only marsupial in the U.S., they can clean up dead animals [For instance ... DEAD CATS] without passing any disease on to other animals or people.
We would be worse off if we didn't have possums.
Their body temperature is too low to incubate the rabies virus,
they can catch feline leukemia and forms of cancer, but pass very FEW diseases [they can pass SOME diseases} to other animals.

It's possible.

[Skooz]

I’m so sorry to hear of your loss.

In the 1980s I had a cat named Skooz, who was my best buddy. One Friday in September, he crawled into the closet (where he used to go when he was sick or was recovering from a fight — in spite of his smallish size, Skooz was a fighter).

I knew something was wrong when he refused to come out and had trouble breathing. Monday morning, I took him to the vet to see what was up.

That evening, I buried him in the backyard.

It was Feline Leukemia. It hit hard and fast. I mourned more than anyone should mourn over the passing of a cat.

I chose my screen name after him.