Conference misery::feline_v1

    I am so sorry about Ollie.  I got his picture from you just a short
    while ago, and placed it in my FELINE album next to his friend Smaug.
    What a lovely kitty Ollie was.  I am sure Smaug will miss him as
    much as his human family.  Possibly if you take Ollie's body into
    the vet's he could tell you what had happened;  I have never heard
    of symptoms like this myself.  When my Pussycat died of Leukemia,
    he had no noticeable symptoms until a week before he died, and I
    had no idea when I took him into the vet how sick he was (he was
    euthanized at that appointment, and clearly had to be -- the xrays
    of his chest were very very bad), so please don't blame yourself,
    it is really hard to tell sometimes if something is serious.
    
    Sweetie, Holly, and I are very sorry.
    

    I am sorry to hear about Oliver.  Fourteen years of happiness
    he gave to a family, and now they have lots of nice memories.
    (Pictures to I hope.)
    
    Could the lack stuff coming from Olivers mouth have been "old"
    blood he could not digest? I would think it would be good also
    o let the vet take a look at the cats remains. Maybe it would
    give you an idea on what happened.
    
    Barbara

    I too am sorry to hear about Oliver.  I do wonder if vets could
    try a little bit harder to find out what is wrong with animals...if
    that black stuff were coming out of a humans mouth the Doctor would
    send you straight to a hospital consultant.
    
    I had a rabbit once that was being treated for 4 weeks by a vet
    with liquid parafin (which would normally un-bung anything) for
    constipation.  She got so bad one new years eve that at about 11:00pm
    we called an emergancy vet out (not the same vet) and he immediatly
    diagnosed cancer of the stomach.  He put her straight down and didn't
    charge us because it was his colleague that had made the mistake!!
    
    It might ease your concience (sp?) a bit if you did take the body
    back for a P.M.
    
    Sharon, Dillan and Sammie in UK
    

    
    About two years ago, my cat, also had the same symptoms as was
    discribed. Within one week, he got very sick, and one day he couldn't
    even manage to get his hind legs up to walk. He also suffered from
    the same mouth trouble. Tests after he died, was that of Leukemia.
    

    
    
    	Did the Vet prescribe medicine WITHOUT seeing the cat?  My
    first thoughts are that he prescribed antibotic without even
    an examine - which I feel is wrong.  There might have been
    nothing anyone could do since the cat was 14 yrs old, but a
    visit might have ruled out some things.  When you know something
    is definately wrong with your pet - INSIST on seeing the Vet.
    You know your "kids" better than anyone.  It could mean their
    life.
    

    
    
    My father-inlaw did not wish the vet to examine ollies bodie.
    I tried to talk him into it to no avail. 
    If it is possible he died of leukemia he must have had it for some
    time. It seems he has been excessively skinny since last year.
    The vet simply said he was getting old. Is it possible he died simply
    of old age. As for his age I sincearly believed he was 14 it turns
    out he was 18 years old.
    My cat smaug has been ollies friend for a long time the have eaten
    out of the same bowl and drank each others water yet smaug is still
    the friskiest little thing. 
    How long is the incubation period for leukemia.
    
    
    				Joe Lore

    I can understand your father-in-law's feelings;  it is hard to decide
    between an autopsy that might or might not produce information and
    having the cat's body undisturbed.  I am glad I had an autopsy on
    Pussycat, though, so I know for sure what was wrong.
    
    About Smaug, there is probably good news:  First of all, we don't
    know for sure that Ollie had leukemia.  Even if he did, Smaug
    may be like lots of cats who naturally have an immunity to leukemia.
    This seems very likely since he is acting fine.  I remember when I
    adopted Sweetie and I asked the vet if he might have leukemia;  the vet
    looked at him and said "No way.  I will test him if you want me
    to, but this is a healthy cat."  So, I would go to the vet and have
    Smaug tested for leukemia, but not worry too much between now and then.
    If Smaug tests negative, you might want to consider the leukemia
    vaccine;  there is a note posted today or yesterday about the pros
    and cons of this vaccine.  If Smaug does test positive, he could still
    have quite a long time left to be with you;  I believe some cats
    live for several years in relative comfort.       
    

    I'm also very sorry about Ollie.  I lost a 13 year old kittie to
    leukemia.  I didn't notice anything wrong with her until one day
    she seemed very weak and didn't have much of an appitite.  The next
    day, she wouldn't eat at all and didn't have enough strength to
    jump onto my lap.  She was a real lap kittie.  I rushed her to the
    vet but it was too late.  He had to put her down right then because
    she was in the very last stages.  This was before the shots were
    available, about 5 years ago.  Our other cat, Alex, is still healthy
    and shows no signs of leukemia.  They used the same litter box,
    ate out of the same dish, etc.  The vet suggested I disinfect the
    dishes and box and have Alex tested.  The first thing I did was
    clean and disinfect everything.  Alex tested negative and is now
    a 14 year old healthy kittie.  I hope this helps lessen your worry about
    Smaug.  It is very possible that he didn't catch the leukemia (if
    that's what it was) from Ollie.  May you have many more happy years
    with Smaug and lots of happy memories of Ollie.
      

    
    If Ollie did die of Leukemia you should definitely have all other
    cats that came in contact with him tested.....A cat can live for
    quite a long time before showing any signs of sickness (which at
    this point it's too late to do anything about it).
    
    I know this 1st hand as my mother had put to sleep all 4 of her
    cats (ages: 4-12) after one contracted it and spread it to the others. 
    (this was before the vaccine of course).   
    
    Although ALL looked and acted perfectly healthy, my mother couldn't 
    find any vet to tell her that humans couldn't contract some type of 
    virus from this and spread it.  Now I know you think I must be nuts, 
    but allow me to explain what these vets told my mother...(since FeLV 
    was so unknown 5-6 years ago, my mother called several vet
    universities to get information).
    
    They all told her......"It IS a possibility that if you have another
    cat owner in your home and your infected cat sneezes, licks, caughs,
    etc on your friend that she can take this back to her/his own animal."
    Both stressed this was possible (again, the disease was not well
    know at this point) and to be especially careful of pregnant friends
    visiting your home.   Since my mother (and others) were unexperienced
    with this disease, my mother decided that it was in everyones best
    interest to put all the cats to sleep.   Can you imagine packing
    up your whole family (who all appeared to be healthy) and taking
    them to the vet to have the put to sleep.....what a sad day it was.
    
    A HAPPY ENDING.....this was 5 years ago, and my mother has since
    started her family again (she has 3 chocolate point siamese) who
    are all very health cats.   (the others were all seal-point).
    
    Sorry for making this so long, but I think it's important to know
    that ANYONE that has put down a cat with Leukemia and has other cats
    that were in contact with the infectous one, should get them checked
    on a regular basis as the virus could show up and you wouldn't know
    it until it was too late.
                                    
    BC