Accepted Answer

Hi,
Before I would get too excited about whether or not the kitten is leukemia positive, I would have the blood test done. While feline leukemia is not a great disease to have, it doesn't mean you immediately need to euthanize a positive kitten. Only about 15% or less of kittens test positive and some of those positive kittens will end up clearing the disease (this is particularly true of Feline AIDS as they can pick up antibodies from their mother, but not actually have the disease themselves). A positive test means that the kitten should be retested around 6 months of age.

I would continue to keep her confined, away from the other cats, until she has been tested. She is certainly old enough to give up a few drops of blood and the test takes only 10 minutes (if your vet has an in-house test). I would also get her first upper respiratory vaccine at that time, if the test is negative.

The virus is passed through saliva, generally through a cat bite. So washing your hands is precaution enough.

Hope that helps!
Dr. Scarlett

Expert:	Dr. Scarlett
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Accepts:
Answered:	9/7/2009

Cat Veterinarian

I am a practicing small animal veterinarian with 13 years experience.