Hi everyone, very longtime lurker here. I always thought if I posed a question on COTH, it would be about my horses, but I have a cat conundrum and would really appreciate some guidance.
I have a 3-year old cat that I inherited last summer (with two other young cats) from an elderly relative who had to go into a memory care facility. He had been found as a stray kitten by my relative, and had been combo tested negative and vaccinated with recommended shots and boosters in spring/summer of 2014, 2015, and 2016 (including leukemia). When these three new cats came into my possession, I had everyone combo retested, as they had been inside/outside cats at my relative’s house (everyone tested negative). I have my own cats (all 8+ years and fully vaccinated, negative, and strictly indoor) and wanted the newbies to get cleared before integrating them.
Turns out, they were never integrated with my other cats; my initial trial period of having them separated on a different floor of the house became permanent, since the young ones romp and play constantly, and my older cats are set in their ways and get along fine in their own little group (the young cats have approximately 1200 sq. feet to themselves, plus many cat perches in windows, etc. so they are perfectly happy). My home office is on the young cats’ floor, so they get plenty of loving during the day. These young cats have never touched noses with my older cats, or shared food dishes/litterboxes.
Here’s the conundrum: The 3-year old cat was due for his 2017 vaccinations, so I made him an appointment at my regular vet. He was just going for a wellness visit and whatever vaccinations they deemed he needed; he’s been in good health this year as far as I can tell.
Long story short, I had him re-combo tested at my vet because I could not find all his paperwork from 2016 (I did have the rabies tag) and could not get a hold of the prior vet for them to fax records to new vet in time for the appointment). So I thought: Well, I’m out $50 for the combo test, but that’s my own fault for not having my ducks in a row with the paperwork. It was the rapid combo test in the vet’s office that takes about 20 minutes to run, with the test strip.
I was completely shocked when his combo test came back positive for leukemia, FIV, and a third test having to do with heartworm. They thought it may have been a bad test, so repeated it on the spot with the exact same result (positive for everything). They took blood to send it out to a lab for a more thorough test. My (somewhat frantic) internet searching after coming home indicates this may be an IFA test, although I’m not sure. They should have results Monday.
They did get a hold of the prior vet while I was there and confirmed his initial negative combo test in 2014, his annual vaccinations since, and my negative combo retest last summer. All parties were as stumped as I was.
In the meantime, I brought him home and isolated him in a separate room on the same floor with his two young kitty pals. I gave them new food bowls/litter boxes. He’s not happy to be by himself and they’re not happy, because they can hear each other through the closed door and he’s basically their mother/father/best buddy.
Obviously, if he turns out to truly be positive, I’ll have those other two young cats tested ASAP and talk to my vet about my other (older) cats that are kept on a different floor. As I mentioned, the latter group’s chance of exposure is very slight, but I certainly don’t want to take any risks. And I’m much more concerned about the leukemia than the FIV result, because I know FIV is spread much more rarely/differently and cats can live full lives with FIV if you carefully manage them indoors; from the little I know about leukemia, it is so much more risky to keep a cat with the known condition, and the quality of life/life expectancy is poor.
I guess I’m just racking my brain on where/how he could have been exposed, if indeed he’s confirmed to be positive for all these things. I know there can be false positive tests (more common than false negatives). I can absolutely guarantee he’s never escaped the house or come into contact with one of my cats (who are all negative and vaccinated). Maybe one of his prior vaccines was no good and he became exposed at some point? If that was the case, why would he have tested negative last summer? Ugh. I love this little guy, he’s such a sweetheart.
My questions are:
If the lab blood test is positive, is this the end of the road as far as confirming he definitely has one or more of these conditions? What are the chances of a false positive with this lab test? If positive, do I retest after a certain amount of time (with safety precautions in the meantime) or should I be making some hard decisions sooner than later?
Can a batch of these rapid combo tests possibly just be bad? It just seems so strange that he would test positive for everything, including some kind of heartworm indicator; he’s been on monthly Revolution since kittenhood.
Could these things have been latent and just cropping up now? My internet searches indicated no, but I am most definitely not an expert.
Am I right to keep him separated from his two young cat friends until Monday? They’re a year younger, but had the same regimen as him – tested twice, negative twice and have had annual leukemia vaccinations. These three have been grooming each other/sharing food and litter bowls for nearly a year, so is there any point in keeping them separate until I find out the results of the test on Monday?
I’m very sorry for the absolute tome I have written. I’m just pretty confused and wondered if anyone had run into a similar situation and what the outcome was.
