Diagnosing and Testing for FeLV

The experts say that the feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is "responsible for more cat diseases than any other infectious agent". It directly or indirectly kills more cats than any other virus. About 1-2 percent of healthy free roaming cats are infected and up to 40% of ill free roaming cats have FeLV.

Chart showing how FeLV affects cats
Feel free to use it but link back to this page please

At the time of this post there are two diagnostic tests for an infection of the feline leukemia virus in your cat.

ELISA TEST

The ELISA test detects virus antigen (an antigen is a substance that causes an immune response) in the cat's whole blood, serum, saliva and tears. It detects early and transient infections.

There is a home test kit for this, which I think is useful to reassure cat keepers especially those with multi-cat households where up to 30 percent of cats can be infected. It is expensive but so is going to the veterinarian. And they will probably try and sell you something else.




IFA TEST

This test is carried out by laboratories. It "detects virus antigen in infected white blood cells". If present the cat's bone marrow is infected. This indicates a persistent viremic state. In turn this means the infected cat is shedding the virus making him or her infective to other cats. A positive IFA test indicates that the cat will remain viremic (virus in the blood) for life.

Screening is carried out by the ELISA test and if positive it is followed by with the IFA test.

Reference: Cat Owners Home Veterinary Handbook - ISBN 978-0-470-09530-0



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Health Screening for Domestic Cats

Health screening for domestic cats is quite an important area of scientific medicine. Genetic research in relation to people is becoming a major force in medicine. Cats lag behind as would be expected.

Screening for diseases is especially important for cat breeders. Naturally, responsible breeders should "cull" (remove from the breeding line or programme) cats that carry genes that produce health defects in offspring. Arguably not enough is done in this regard.

Here is a list compiled from the best cat health book: Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook, that sets out the cat health screening available as at the date of this post. Obviously as advances are made this list becomes increasingly redundant.





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Swimming Cats

Despite the widespread idea that the domestic cat dislikes water and cannot swim, it is almost certain that all domestic cats can swim well if they had to. I would speculate that they are natural born swimmers but just don't know it.

This is because their wild cat ancestors are good swimmers. Some wild cats are exceptional swimmers. I am thinking of the leopard cat, the wildcat parent of the Bengal cat, the fishing cat and the tiger, to name three. Even the lion living on the savanna plains can traverse a wide river without a problem. The tiger can swim in the open sea for several miles if called upon to do that.

Wild cats need to like water because their prey is likely to be at or around water. The fishing cat has semi-webbed feet! This shows how proficient and adapted for water this cat is.

An example is in the news (mid September 2011). A black domestic cat called "Tootsie" living in Hereford, England, was almost killed by a car. His right leg was shattered. It was decided that the best way to rehabilitate him was in a hydrotherapy pool. These are swimming pools designed for medical use as swimming is good exercise without being weight bearing.

The pool built for dogs is at Canine Hydrocare. Tootsie swam naturally as soon as he was placed in the water for the first time wearing a safety harness. After six weeks Tootsie could swim around for 20 minutes at a time.

I wouldn't suggest that anyone test out my theory but I think that your lazy purebred Persian cat could manage a decent swim nicely. Provided his extra long hair didn't weigh him down too much.

End the Trade in Generic Tigers

This is about the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) proposal to rescind (meaning remove in this instance) the exemption from the requirement of registration - the permit and reporting requirements that normally apply to endangered species - of so called generic tigers in the USA.

Generic tigers are, if you like, non-purebred tigers. They are not one of the subspecies of tiger. They are hybrids. However there are large numbers of them in the USA in private hands and that is astonishing to Europeans.

USFWS don't really know how many there are and whether the tigers feed the insatiable demand for tiger body parts that is fed from tiger farms in China. It is possible that tigers are being killed in the USA and exported to China.

To remove the exemption to register would allow the authorities to monitor the situation, to have a handle on it and thereby help tiger conservation.

This is because farming tigers feeds the tiger body part trade. This promotes that trade which is highly detrimental to the tiger's survival in wild.

At the moment the USFWS are going through a consultation process before making a decision to change the regulations.

They invite correspondence from around the world. If you want to help the tiger and inject some control over ad hoc private captive tigers facilities, about which we know very little on the ground, then please go the USFWS website and complete the form. It may help make this important change. It is overdue.

The Feline Conservation Federation (FCF) is fighting to leave things as they are. I find this shocking to be honest because the FCF as their title implies is about conservation and the proposed change can only assist in conservation and in addition it will probably release many captive tigers from miserable lives in cages in the USA.

There are an estimated 5,000 captive tigers in Texas alone. This is far more than all the wild tigers put together! An astonishing fact and very sad for people who care about nature. However it is said that this estimate is highly exaggerated and in fact there are far less. We are not sure.

Here is a link to the page to have your say:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FWS-R9-IA-2011-0027-0001

I understand that you have to do this before 21st September 2011. If you like you can write:

Public Comments Processing
Attn: FWS-R9-IA-2011-0027
Division of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, MS 2042-PDM
Arlington, VA 22203


But act fast please.

Siamese Cat Health Screening

Here is a list of health screening tests on various cat health problems and in respect of various cat breeds with specific health problems including the Siamese cat:



The organisations carrying out the screening usually provide certificates. Sometimes genetic testing is specific to the breed as different genes cause the same problem in different breeds.

The source of the information is the Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook. If you buy one cat book, buy this one!