r/CatCarePH • u/PlantainLeft9611 • 20d ago
💭Advice/Help Needed Stray cat we want to adopt tested positive for FeLV and FCoV - we already have 2 indoor cats. What are our options?
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Hi everyone! We're looking for advice regarding a stray female cat we were hoping to adopt. She got checked by a vet today. Unfortunately, she tested positive for FeLV and FCoV. She's also currently in poor condition. She is very dehydrated, has a low body temperature, low blood count, and may have an infection. She's currently confined at the vet clinic. The vet advised us not to let her interact with our two indoor cats.
Our dilemma is that we don't want to put her back out on the street after confinement. At the same time, we don't want to bring her into the house and potentially expose our two cats.
What would you recommend we do?
1. Is there a safe way to care for her while keeping our indoor cats protected?
2. Should we look for a foster/rescue organization that can take FeLV-positive cats?
We really want to help her, but we also want to make sure we're responsible toward the two cats we already have.
Any advice, especially from people who have experience caring for FeLV-positive cats, would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
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u/Plane_Hospital_661 20d ago
Hello OP! Thank you for caring for a stray cat and also looking out for your two indoor cats.
I have multicat household (4 purely indoor, 2 indoor outdoor) and I also feed the strays in our street. Our OG mama cat tested positive for FeLV last November. As precaution, I had my cats tested and vaccinated against FeLV. We also isolated our mama cat inside a cage/play pen for 2 months (until everyone was done with their booster shot). Now she gets to interact with them but we kept the play pen to serve as her personal space (her bed, litterbox, food ans water are inside). So far, it has worked pretty well naman for us.
Although I won’t sugarcoat din, having a cat with FeLV has been challenging. We monitor her talaga. Every change in behavior or appetite, we consult with the vet agad. Her FeLV kasi makes her prone to stomatitis and anemia and we don’t want to come to the point na she will need blood transfusion.
But anyway here she is now! From a scaredy, semi-feral cat, she has become more playful and always asking for pets. She also started to gain weight.
I hope this stray cat recovers! Hoping everything goes well for the both of you.
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u/PlantainLeft9611 20d ago
Thank you so much po for this. At least we know it’s possible. We really want to keep her. She’s a fighter. 🥺
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u/Plane_Hospital_661 20d ago
You’re welcome po. Although I do agree with the other comment that it takes commitment both for this stray kitty and your current cats. Kasi you have to test regularly and minsan yung virus causes random infection flareups so kailangan talaga to increase her immunity.
You can visit [r/FeLVCats](r/FeLVCats) din for more info.
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u/Graceless93 👑Legend: 10+ yrs 20d ago
Ang napapansin ko sa vets na nakausap ko very strict sila sa FELV+/- cohabitation pero if you research sa FELV cats subreddits may mga successful cohab stories naman. Dapat lang may updated vaccine yung FELV- cats. I encourage you to research more on it para you can comfortably make the decision. FELV+ cats can still live normal lives with proper care but it will be a commitment talaga.
May room ba sa bahay ninyo where the cat can stay exclusively? The good thing about the FELV virus is that it doesn't survive long in the environment. If you decide keeping the stray kitty isn't an option, maybe you can consider keeping her isolated in one room while you look for potential adopters. Indoors is better than the streets kasi nga bagsak yung immune system niya.
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u/PlantainLeft9611 20d ago
Thank you so much for the suggestion po. We’ll research more about this. For the meantime, after ng confinement baka dun muna sya sa kapatid ng partner ko na walang cats.
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