Vet Question Of The Day
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questions and answers asked by various people in the past. There will be a different question and answer featured daily. A big thank you to all of the customers who have utilized the services of ask the vet. I have thoroughly enjoyed providing this service and getting to know like minded people who adore their pets.
Question
My cat of old died a month ago from Feline Leukemia. The wife and I are thinking of getting a new kitten soon. How long should we wait before getting one? We don't want the kitten to get it too. We've steamcleaned the carpets and cleaned the house as much as we could. Is there anything else we should be doing?
Answer
The Feline Leukemia virus is usually transmitted by blood, urine, saliva, mucus or feces. It does not survive long outside of the cat - warm, dry environments deactivate the virus and common disinfectants will eliminate it. So the primary mode of infection is generally from one infected cat grooming another, sneezing on the other or biting the other. It isn't a very stable virus outside of the cat so once it's out there, it dies out quite rapidly if it doesn't get onto another cat. I think the general rule is to wait at least a week (although the virus would probably die out in a day in the open) if only to allow the proper grieving for the loss of your previous cat.
Steam cleaning will certainly kill the virus on your carpet. Having said all that, these are general scenarios and it's always better to be safe than sorry. I think the cat trees, bedding, food bowls, litter trays and any old toys should be thoroughly cleaned and where possible disinfected. If you can afford to replace them, that's even better. But the general rule seems that if you do all that and wait a month before introducing your new cats, that the procedures should be sufficient to eliminate the FeLV virus from the environment. There is an FeLV vaccine available and you can vaccinate your new cats if you want to be absolutely sure.
You're quite sure it's the Leukemia virus she had and not the FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus)? Anyway, the above precautions still would apply. The FIV virus is even more unstable than the FeLV virus and will generally die out in a matter of hours or days outside the animal. It is usually transmitted through biting. I believe they is also a vaccine being trialled now for FIV - it's not routine but you can ask your vet about it.
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