Expert: Ali - 6/17/2009

Question
My kitten tested negative for feline leukemia when he was 2 months old.  He is being treated now for an eye infection, swollen lymph nodes and sneezing.  My vet says if he is not better in the next 10 days we should have him retested.  Why would he be tested negative then positive afterwards?


Answer
Jane,

Depending on where you got your kitten it's possible that he was exposed to feline leukemia quite close to the time of his first blood test and sometimes it won't show up until some time has passed and the antibodies have a chance to develop in the cat's system. Feline leukemia is somewhat similar to HIV/AIDS in people (don't worry it can't be passed from kitty to person), some cats will go a lifetime without showing any symptoms of the infection while others can become quite sick. The fact that your kitten most likely received vaccines against a combination of things at least twice at this point and he's probably gotten his rabies shot at the same time as one of the combination vaccines is important from a holistic standpoint because you may actually be seeing an exaggerated response from your kitten's immune system since the vaccines have introduced several different infections (sometimes a killed vaccine is used other times the vaccine contains a small amount of the live infection) into his system with the hope he'll develop antibodies to them. Your kitten may simply be having a significant reaction to the vaccines he's received and there is a good homeopathic treatment that may help him to improve, it's called Thuya and you'll want to give him the 30C strength. Since your kitten is acutely ill I think it would be best to consult a holistic or homeopathic veterinarian about how often this remedy should be given and for how long. With these homeopathic remedies it's very important that you don't handle them with your hand if at all possible because the remedy is essentially on the outside of a small sugar pellet and you want your kitty to get the full benefit of the remedy so that he can get better. If your kitty will lap the remedy dissolved in a tablespoon or so of spring water up voluntarily then that's great, if he won't then you can draw the remedy up into a syringe and give it by mouth that way - your holistic vet can show you how to do this if you haven't administered medication to a kitty before.

It's important to realize that if your kitten has feline leukemia conventional medical treatments aren't the only way to help him - a holistic veterinarian might be able to offer more effective treatments so I would encourage you to consider looking into finding a good holistic vet. Holistic vets are trained in conventional medicine as well as one or more alternative therapies which might include homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine or massage to name a few options. My family vet is a holistic veterinarian and I've seen some pretty amazing things happen when the right remedy is administered at the appropriate time. In homeopathic medicine the worst that will happen if you administer the wrong remedy is absolutely nothing, if the wrong drug is administered in conventional medicine there can be serious and even potentially life threatening reactions in some cases. I can provide you with more information about holistic health care for your kitten if you're interested.