Understanding Feline Leukemia

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Dr. Adrienne Mulligan and I am the owner of Camp Verde Veterinary Clinic and I am here on behalf of Expert Village.com to talk to you today about caring for kittens. There are some diseases that little kittens can get from their mother and from their father and in some cases are deadly and in some cases, they are going to have for the rest of their life. There are things that you should be aware of. The worst fear of kitten breeders is feline leukemia. Feline Leukemia is actually not leukemia. It’s a little bit misnamed but it is affects the bone marrow as well as many other organs. It does something similar to what Aids does to people but in the end about 30 percent of cats will go ahead and live a full life and do fine but they might still give it to other cats and another 30 percent will develop symptoms at some point down their life and some little kittens will just never do well. They will just fade over their first few weeks of life. There is a test for it. You can take your kitten to the vet and have a test. It is something that I always recommend so that you at least know the status of your kitty especially if it is sick. If it is wild, you can still keep it indoors, protect it and it may live a long life anyway. "