There are a few occasions when your vet may recommend feline leukemia tests for your cat.
1. If your cat is ill and she suspects that feline leukemia may be involved, she may recommend testing him. The early symptoms of the disease 
are very non specific, so a blood test is needed to confirm infection.
2. If you have adopted a cat, it’s important to know if he’s infected before you introduce him to your other cat. You’ll need to keep a new cat isolated until he’s had two negative blood tests 3 months apart.
3. If you own several cats and one has just been diagnosed with the disease, you need to know if he has spread it to any of your other cats. This means testing all the other cats in your household.
4. If you have an adult cat and you plan to start a feline leukemia vaccination program, you do need to test him before vaccinating.
Feline leukemia tests involve taking blood from your cat, and checking it for viral antigens. These are substances on the leukemia virus that cause an animal’s immune system to react. The chemicals in the tests also react to these antigens, and a color change usually indicates that the antigens are in the blood being tested.
The initial testing can be performed in your vet’s office, and you’ll have a result almost straight away. If the test result is positive, she’ll often send the blood to a laboratory to confirm the result.
No test is completely accurate. There is a small possibility that feline leukemia tests are positive, but the cat actually isn’t infected with the virus. However, a positive result usually means that a cat will be persistently infected, and won’t fight off the infection. He will develop either a latent infection, where he shows no signs of illness, or he’ll start to show symptoms of the disease. Because cats can clear the virus from their system, a positive test should be repeated in 3 months to see if the cat is still infected.
Negative feline leukemia tests can occur if the cat has very low levels of virus in his blood. A feline leukemia positive cat may also test negative if it has fought the infection. If a cat tests negative, and you feel there’s a good chance he’s been exposed to the disease, he should be retested in 30 days to see if infection has occurred.
Feline leukemia tests are the most important part of preventing the spread of this disease. Confirming infection can help you start treatment for your ill cat sooner rather than later, and knowing the status of new cats in your household can stop the spread to your other four legged friends.
Thanks for visiting. Your comments are always welcome!
Comments on this entry are closed.