FeLV

Cats should be tested early for feline leukaemia.

As HIV does in people, the feline leukaemia virus inserts a copy of its DNA into a cat's cells. These cells may later be transformed into cancer cells or cells that no longer function normally.

Dr. Kenneth Harkin, associate professor of clinical sciences at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, says any cat can be affected, but chances decrease as the cat grows older. "If they are less than 8 weeks old and get exposed to the virus, the chances of contracting it are close to 100 percent," Harkin says. "Under 1 year in age, cats have a 70 percent chance of contracting the virus if exposed. In adult cats, the risk drops to less than 20 percent if exposed. Generally, cats have become better at developing an immune response at this age."

Some symptoms of the feline leukaemia virus, or FeLV, can include weakness and/or difficulty eating or breathing. The infection may be characterized by large lymph nodes and a "scraggly" coat.

Three major disease categories associated with FeLV are lymphosarcoma, the leukaemias and a variety of non-cancerous diseases.

Lymphosarcoma is the most common. Cats with the feline leukaemia virus have approximately a 60-fold higher risk of developing this cancer compared to uninfected cats. Lymphosarcoma is a cancer that begins in lymphoid tissue, such as a lymph node. Almost any tissue can be affected by the cancer. Organs commonly affected include lymph nodes, intestinal tract, kidneys, liver, spinal cord, brain, bone marrow and blood.

The leukaemias are cancers of the white blood cells. Leukaemia was the first cancer linked with FeLV.

Other non-cancerous diseases vary. Anemia and immune suppression are examples. When the immune system is suppressed, mild diseases can become potentially fatal.

A cat can be exposed to feline leukaemia in one of two ways - from mother cat to kitten, or from cat to cat.

If a mother cat is infected, her kittens can be infected while in the womb or through milk after birth. The odds are that most kittens will be infected if the mother cat is infected.

It is more difficult for cats to contract the virus from cat to cat. The most common way the virus passes from cat to cat is through saliva in feeding dishes.

The most important step an owner can take to prevent a cat being infected with the feline leukaemia virus is to test the cat before bringing it into his or her household.

"You need to know the FeLV status of a new cat before you introduce it to your other cats. There is no reason to vaccinate a cat that lives indoors by itself or with other FeLV-negative cats," Harkin says. Vaccination is not 100 percent effective and can result in vaccine-induced sarcoma, or a type of cancer, although the chance is relatively low. There is no chance for infection with the virus if your cat is in a closed-colony environment where it could not possibly come into contact with infected cats.

If the cat tests negative but will be moving into an open-colony household - a household where cats go inside and outside - the cat should be vaccinated.

Treatments for the feline leukaemia virus vary depending on the disease. However, even with treatment, the survival times for cats infected with FeLV are short.

If your cat is infected with FeLV, be sure it doesn't come into contact with other cats. "The best thing is to keep it exclusively indoors and isolate it from other cats in your household. Letting an infected cat go outdoors increases the risk of it contracting other infectious diseases that may be fatal," Harkin says. "The infected cat has the best chance of long-term survival indoors. We also want to minimize the potential spread of FeLV to other cats."

Bookmark with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• reddit
• StumbleUpon

Don’t know what this is?

Read the 50connect Guide To Social Bookmarking.