Leukemia and FIV?
Why or why not? Does it depends on where you live? I assume there are areas where it’s (much) more prevalent than others.
If you vaccinate, the cat tests positive, so if the kitty runs off and someone tests, they “have it” and would be treated as such. Does that weigh into your decision?
No on FIV. My vet says it is not very effective? And the “false positive” worries me.
Some of you may remember my FIV stray from last summer. I finally placed him (to a family member) but it was exceptionally difficult to find him a home, took me six months – and he was an awesome cat, just a lovebug who would have been easy to place in a few days if he were negative. A false positive can be a real death sentence. The “FIV sanctuaries” are all full. He’s lucky he was so nice and was able to live in harmony with my 3 cats while I searched high and low for a new home for him. I was only able to place him at all because his new owner came to visit for a few days and fell in love.
I can’t recall whether I vaccinated for leukemia or just have them tested every year…I think I do because I thought there was less of a false positive risk there…
My kitties are only outdoor when they escape, but one is a little Houdini who likes to kill rabbits and birds when he slips out so I treat them like I/O cats for vaccine purposes.
I don’t have barn cats anymore (just totally indoor ones now) but when I did, I did not vaccinate them for the same reasons fordtraktor gives. I haven’t really lived in an area where it was common though, so if I did that might change my opinion–I’d have to do a lot more research. I was going on my vet’s recommendation to skip the vaccination for the barn cats due to low risk of contracting the disease in my area and the concerns about a false positive.
I do not vaccinate my indoor girls for Felv or FVRCP just yearly rabies they are both 11 and got vaccinated yearly till about 7.
The outdoor kitties get the whole sha-bang. Fvrcp felv , rabies.
As for FIV anything that is spayed/neutered has such a low % of contacting FIV I don’t see a reason to vaccinate. The general percentage of un vaccinated un altered infectious rate in the US is like 2% . I don’t see a reason to bother.
The biggest spreaders of FIV are intact Tom’s both because of the sexual nature of their lives and primarily the fighting/bite wounds.
Cool, thanks for the replies and reasons. I had that talk with my vet today and he says they simply don’t even suggest vaccinating for FIV because 1) it’s just so rare around here (they haven’t had an incident in his 7 years at the clinic) and 2) that false positive issue.
I’m debating now the FeLV - my outdoor kitties don’t go far, 1 of them is purely a house perimeter kitty, everyone is spayed/neutered, and I rarely even see evidence of any neighbor kitties who wander. But my vet said even that one is just so rare where we are.
I have 5 cats. 4 outdoor only (indoor when bad weather hits or they sneak inside) and 1 indoor only cat.
All of my cats get yearly rabies, RCP, and FeLV. Even the 15yr old indoor only cat. FeLV is contagious, and very very difficult to kill in the environment and since the outdoor cats roam (and I have no idea who they come in contact with), yes they are all fixed, I give them all of the above but unadjuvented vaccines.
most vets don’t recomment un needed vaccines, they usually have a set protocol based on the environment the animal is in.
I have lost many cats to leukemia and FIV and others I can not name.
I vaccinated for the classic distemper and the others listed in the multiple vaccination shots. We have such a terrible feral cat problem here they are the reservois of disease that is contageous to all. My vet told me the same thing about the effectiveness of the various F diseases. At the prices and the 50% effectiveness I have chosen to keep my girls inside as much as possible.
My young female is infected but she is healthy otherwise. The Vet said it is contageous mostly by cat-bites. She is doing good and is not aggressive so I hope she will live a good life as long as she can. She is spayed so it will not be passed on that way.
It is a tradgedy these diseases are so prevalent in the feral population. We just can’t fight it if the general population of humans do not choose to spay or neuter their cats. Unvaccinated cats will spread these dieases fast before they die of it.
too bad for all of us. sadlmakr
Outdoor cat gets rabies/distemper/FeLeu. (It might be a regional thing but neither the vet down here nor my parents’ vet has ever brought up FIV.) Indoor get rabies/distemper only as my indoor cats are STRICTLY indoor.)
Having nursed a cat that I got from someone who let her our unvaccinated, through the final stages of feline leukemia (blindness, barely able to eat, unable to walk), I would never let a cat out the door without that vaccine. FIV is less effective and the cat will test positive later. I have a cat who can’t be vaccinated due to a severe reaction, and he doesn’t go out, and neither do my others. Then again, I very strongly believe that pet cats should never be let out anyway. They come to tragic ends all too often.
I grew up with I/O cats, and many of them died tragic deaths because of it 
All the cats I’ve had since graduating college, ie MY cats, have been indoors. I did not want any of them living outside.
However, THEY sometimes have other plans LOL The indoor kitties were fine until the boy-cat adopted us, and then he just took a liking to tormenting my cali-cat. She became more and more miserable inside, and looked to escape into the garage. That turned into venturing outside, coming into the house/garage when we left, sleeping in at night. However, that turned into staying out all day, into the house at night, which turned into the garage at night, and she officially announced herself Barn Kitty. That’s how she’s been very, very happy the last couple of years. We’ve tried to bring her back inside, but she is paranoid and terrified and immediately climbs at the door. So, she lives out, and she’s quite happy 
We’re on 10 acres, towards the end of a short, dead-end road with only 2 houses at/past us. She wanders our property and a little of each neighbors, and that’s about it. She runs from any and all vehicles, including ours, so she’s not going to get run over
It’s not my first choice, at all. But the alternatives were giving her away (wasn’t going to happen), or having her absolutely miserable inside. It works for her
The other 3 escape and escape, and finally we just started not worrying about it. They stay around the house.
The 2 kittens we have are still inside and will be that way for quite a while. At some point they may get supervised time out.
None of them would be outside kitties if we lived in a typical neighborhood, or an area were small creatures “disappeared” all the time. Heck, my Dad/stepmom worry more about their smaller kitty being taken by a hawk or one of the bald eagles that live at the lake 1 house behind them, and they’re in a subdivision LOL
Yes I vaccinate for both. At times we’ve had toms adopt part of the farm as their own, and those toms (thank goodness they always move on, just at the point when I think the situation requires a final solution) have bitten my cats on more than one occasion. Toms will attack spayed females and neutered males. While the efficacy of the FIV vaccine isn’t great, it does offer some protection.
Yes for FeLV no for FIV. As others have stated the FIV vaccine is not reported to be particularly effective. Always for FVRCP and can tell you that having rescued several from a local shelter who all succumbed to Panleukopenia, it is a VERY, VERY nasty and heartbreaking disease. I’ve had two FIV infected cats now and wouldn’t hesitate to have another. Both were tomcats I took in and had neutered and were just the best boys. FeLV is trickier because it is so contagious. I do not vaccinate every year now though as I do think we are over vaccinating our pets. I also do not vaccinate the elderly. Just my personal choice and your mileage may vary.
No. I have mostly i/o cats, and they are vaccinated every three years for rabies and FVRCP. I would never vaccinate for FIV, and as far as the FELV vaccine, it isn’t entirely effective and is one of the vaccines heavily implicated in fibrosarcoma, so no to that one too.
Gack, I didn’t realize it had such a link to fibrosarcoma I’ll have to investigate that some more. I’ve dealt with too much cancer - don’t want to go there again
I breed cats and do not let them outside. No for FIV because it is not useful.
ALWAYS for leukemia. I find it reprehensible when anyone does not do that.
I know what I’m talking about and have done a lot of research, and my best friend from childhood is a vet who specializes in cats with whom I cosult all of the time.
There are too many people, especially cat breeders, who do not give leukemia on the pretense there are incidences of sarcoma. That’s BS. They are lazy and greedy because the 3 or 4 in 1 shot costs $3 to give, and the leukemia about $10 alone. And you have to keep kittens until 12 weeks minimum so they are fully protected, so they lose money.
The leukemia vaccine that did have episodes of sarcoma were a 1 in 10,000 chance about 10 YEARS down the line. They don’t even make that vaccine any more. Even if you do feel that’s an issue, you can give the vaccine in the leg (so it can be removed, versus a neck.)
If you have any clue what it was like before the leukemia vaccine, it was horrid. So many infected cats passing it along, and horrible deaths. It’s like these horrid people who don’t vaccinate their children and then put whole populations at risk.
Good replies, but a couple points to add…
If your cat is microchipped and is found as a stray, it should be scanned for a MC before FeLV/FIV testing would be done.
Also- where I work we use the VetJet FeLV vaccine- much lower risk of sarcoma. Also give it low on the leg, in the rare case that amputation became necessary.
FWIW, I do vaccinate my indoor only cats for FeLV, as they have snuck out a few times. It only takes once.
Beenthere, thanks for finding me reprehensible :rolleyes:
And yes, I HAVE experience leukemia in a cat, when I was in high school. Large neighborhood, lots of cats, lots of TOMS, my parents said cats should be outside at night, you get the picture.
In looking up more information, I found this
“Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To determine prevalence of FeLV infection and serum antibodies against feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) in unowned free-roaming cats.
DESIGN:
Cross-sectional serologic survey.
ANIMALS:
733 unowned free-roaming cats in Raleigh, NC, and 1,143 unowned free-roaming cats in Gainesville, Fla.
RESULTS:
In Raleigh, overall prevalence of FeLV infection was 5.3%, and overall seroprevalence for FIV was 2.3%. In Gainesville, overall prevalence of FeLV infection was 3.7%, and overall seroprevalence for FIV was 4.3%. Overall, FeLV prevalence was 4.3%, and seroprevalence for FIV was 3.5%. Prevalence of FeLV infection was not significantly different between males (4.9%) and females (3.8%), although seroprevalence for FIV was significantly higher in male cats (6.3%) than in female cats (1.5%).
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
Prevalence of FeLV infection and seroprevalence for FIV in unowned free-roaming cats in Raleigh and Gainesville are similar to prevalence rates reported for owned cats in the United States. Male cats are at increased risk for exposure to FIV, compared with female cats.”
TheOtherHorse, thanks for the info in VetJet - I will ask my vet about that one
I don’t vaccinate for fiv. I boarded my cats once, where the vet gave them rabies, but said if I wanted fiv, he would only vaccinate in the tail, so that when they got cancer there it could be cut off :eek:
Btw, my first cat did get cancer, of which she died, right where she got her combined rabies,
and something else, shot .
The current rabies vaccination protocol is to give it in the hind leg so it can be amputated if a fibrosaroma develops at the injection site. An option is to give Purevax rabies, which has less risk but has to be given annually.
You can at least now give the FVRCP intranasally/mucous membranes (corner of eyes) but I FeLV still must be given IM, same with rabies.
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