Veterinary question: feline leukemia/fiv test and feline leukemia vaccine?
The animal hospital i go to says they need to test cats for feline leukemia and can do a combo test testing for leukemia and feline fiv. then they can give the feline leukemia vaccine once negative. however on some cats they just give the feline leukemia vaccine without the test so i am confused. can someone explain this to me?
We recommend that all cats get tested for FIV/FeLV prior to being vaccinated with ANYTHING. For outdoor cats we also recommend testing every other year, even if vaccinated for FeLV. It is important to know this status because it can change the way the animal develops immunity.
Some of the clients at the animal hospital may decline the test, against the medical advice of the vet, and still opt for the vaccine. It is not like heartworm disease where if a dog is positive, starting HWP may kill it.
We do not give the FIV vaccine at our clinic because it cross reacts with the test for the disease and if the cat gets tested at a later date, someone might think it is positive rather than a false positive from a vaccine cross reaction.
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A vet tech… also require to test felv/fiv before vaccintaing against it. if the cat was tested when it was a kitten then they will not need to be tested again, so that why they probably didnt test some of them. you really only need the felv vaccine if the cat goes outiside…