Feline Leukemia

Since it was first recognized as a disease in 1964, feline leukemia has replaced panleukopenia—better known as feline distemper—as the principal scourge of cats. FeLV attacks a cat's white blood cells and renders those cells ineffective. Because white blood cells foster the healthy body's immune response to disease, their demise renders the body defenseless against even the most benign illness.

In other words, as FeLV attacks the white blood cells, the cat's ability to resist other infections diminishes. Eventually Kitty gets a serious secondary disease that it cannot fight off: Most cats actively infected with FeLV ultimately die. In fact, statistics show that 83% of infected healthy cats die within three and a half years of the time the virus is detected in their body.

Does all this sound to you much like the human disease AIDS? Well, the two are similar, but they are not the same (although some folks have taken to calling the feline syndrome FAIDS feline autoimmune disease syndrome, because its components are so similar to AIDS). The similarity between the two involves the way each virus attacks the immune systems of the body, making those systems unable to respond to other diseases. The difference is that the virus that attacks cats is quite distinct from the one that is seen in human AIDS. To date there is no scientific proof that FeLV is capable of causing any disease in humans.

Symptoms

As FeLV is working its wrath on a cat's immune system, the animal becomes more and more susceptible to a host of diseases. Pussy may have severe intestinal trouble—diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps. You may notice some lymph node swelling, especially around the neck and lower jaw.

Any number of other symptoms may appear, too-infertility or spontaneous abortion, skin problems, poorly healing wounds, mouth ulcers, coughing or a persistent runny nose, for example. Or, the cat may not seem to be itself; it may lie around and act as though there isn't an ounce of energy in its body. Some cats simply up and die without much warning.

Fortunately, not all cats are susceptible to the scourge of FeLV. Some cats—perhaps half of all pet cats-develop a resistance to the virus.

However, the virus has yet another little quirk that doesn't exactly make it an endearing little pathogen. In about 30% of the cats exposed to F FeLV , the virus becomes latent. That is, it doesn't cause any disease in the host cat, but it does remain alive and well in the animal—ready to pass its leukemic syndrome on to other felines.

The Cure

It would surely be nice if I could tell you that we have a "magic bullet" cure for FeLV, the cat owner's number one menace. But there's no such thing. In most cases the best I can do for clients with a leukemic cat is to offer solace. In fact, if you were to come to me with an FeLV-infected kitty, I'd be obligated to inform you of the possible dire consequences of keeping the infected pet around the house. Remember that it's nigh on impossible to prevent a sick cat from passing on FeLV to another cat, no matter how healthy. All it takes for one cat to infect another is moist contact—the saliva from one cat licking another is enough.

In fact, one of the best ways to avoid the potential destructiveness of FeLV is to minimize contact between cats. You'd do well to consider having only one cat in the house, and to keep that cat indoors away from other cats as much as possible.

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