Question
# 1985 |
I am a veterinarian that works for several high volume spay/neuter clinics. At one clinic, the veterinarians reuse scapel blades for cat neuters. What they do is, they put a scapel blade in a cold tray with Nolvasan, then do one neuter, wipe off the blood, stick it in the cold tray, and then almost immediately take it out to neuter another cat. It doesn\'t seem like the blade is in the solution long enough to \"kill anything\" to me. How long do instruments, etc., need to be in a cold tray to \"cold sterilize\"? Does Nolvasan kill FeLV/FIV? |
|
Date question was answered: 0000-00-00 |
|
Answer |
I always refer to the The Association of Shelter Veterinarians veterinary medical care guidelines for spay-neuter programs
published in JAVMA in July '08. "Separate sterile instruments are required for each patient.Instruments must be cleaned prior to sterilization. Surgical packs may be sterilized by steam, gas, or plasma." We (the task force) felt that it is very economical and reasonable to select options other than cold sterile.
Regards,
Karla Brestle, DVM
Medical Director, NSNRT
Humane Alliance
25 Heritage Drive
Asheville, NC 28806
www.humanealliance.org
|
| |
Question
# 1978 |
I am a board member of a small shelter. We would like to ask a question concerning the relationship of numerous blockages in male cats and neutering at a young age. Are there any studies or statistics addressing this issue? |
|
Date question was answered: 0000-00-00 |
|
Answer |
It is a common perception that neutering young cats increases their risk of urethral blockage. Several scientific studies have been conducted to investigate this issue. In a retrospective survey published in 2001, cats castrated before 24 weeks of age had no greater incidence of obstructive urinary tract disease than cats castrated over 24 weeks of age. (Howe 2001) Two separate studies have shown that urethral diameter was not demonstrated to vary between cats castrated at 7 weeks or 7 months of age and cats left intact. (Stubbs 1996 and Root 1996)
I have attached the information about these studies below under references for your review should you be interested in the details of each study. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Best regards,
Laura Andersen, DVM
Shelter Medicine Resident
University of Florida
References:
1. Howe LM, Slater MR, Boothe HW, et al. Long-term outcome of gonadectomy performed at an early age or traditional in cats. J Amer Vet Med Assoc
217:1661-1665, 2001.
2. Stubbs WP, Bloomberg MS, Scruggs SL, et al. Effect of prepubertal gonadectomy on physical and behavioral development in cats. JAVMA 209: 1864-1871, 1996.
3. Root MV, Johnston SD, Johnston GR, et al. The effect of prepuberal and postpuberal gonadectomy on penile extrusion and urethral diameter in the domestic cat. Vet Rad US 37:363-366, 1996. |
| |
Question
# 1975 |
We are an outdoor shelter, and very underfunded. We only have 3 vets in town, and are having the most difficult time getting our animals in for appts. to be spayed and neutered. I fear that a lot of people around here will not get them sterilized if adopted without the surgery, adding to the overpopulation problem here in this town. I wonder if there is a list of vets in the surrounding area (which I haven't been able to find) that might be able to pick up the slack or if there was a way to get a mobile spay/neuter vehicle from another town to come here to do some of the surgeries. Please help me, if you have any information. Thanks so much |
|
Date question was answered: 2010-05-11 |
|
Answer |
ASPCA Professional maintains a searchable Spay/Neuter Database to help you find low-cost spay/neuter programs in your community.
Regards,
Mike
|
| |
Question
# 1898 |
I work with a group that uses foster homes and adopts out of PetSmart adoption centers. We are taking cats from other facilities now (ie City/County Animal Control.)
Some cats only spend 5 days at those facilities (that is when the Euth deadline is) and others after 2 weeks after they get a second MLV vaccine. In asympomatic cats, should they still have a holding period between leaving the animal control facility and going into the adoption center. |
|
Date question was answered: 0000-00-00 |
|
Answer |
Glad to hear your organization is expanding to be able to help relieve some of the burden from animal control! In general, we don't recommend holding animals for a quarantine period in a shelter. There are a number of reasons for this:
- it's usually impossible to maintain an effective quarantine barrier
- if we try to hold them for the duration of the incubation period of even the most common diseases, the shelter can quickly become crowded.
- By holding for quarantine we automatically add (usually 2 weeks) on to that animal's time in the shelter system -- and we know that the duration of time spent in the shelter is directly related to the development of both physical illnesses and declines in the welfare of that individual animal.
Of course, these recommendations would change if you were dealing with a disease outbreak (See the new Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters text by Miller and Hurley for more info on dealing with specific infectious diseases as well as outbreak management).
If the animals are healthy when you receive them and strays have already been held for the reclaim period, move them up and get them out!
Brian A. DiGangi, DVM
Shelter Medicine Resident
University of Florida
www.UFShelterMedicine.com |
| |
Question
# 1895 |
We are building puppy kennels soon, and would like to know how many puppies can be housed together maximum, and what space should we have as a minimum. Currently we have a room of about 5m x5m for 6 puppies, with a yard of about 10m x 10m. Is this enough? |
|
Date question was answered: 2010-04-13 |
|
Answer |
I think it is great that you are working on updating the housing for puppies in your shelter. The optimal housing of animals is a critical, yet often overlooked, component of animal husbandry. A puppy, just like any other animal, should be housed in an environment that provides the animal with enough room to express normal behaviors (like standing, stretching and walking) as well as maintaining areas to sleep, eat, and urinate / defecate. In addition, multiple littermates are often housed together, which can add up to a messy situation if they don't have enough room. Based on the information that you provided, a 5m x 5m room is large enough for 6 co-housed puppies to express their normal behaviors.
When animals are co-housed, especially young animals, it is extremely important for the staff to intensely monitor the health and welfare of each animal. The behavior / attitude, appetite and bowel movements of each puppy should be observed and recorded, because young puppies can rapidly decline when they are sick. Monitoring individual animals within a large litter of puppies can be challenging, because it can be difficult to easily identify and observe the behavior of each animal. Large litters can be divided into several smaller housing groups to facilitate good monitoring.
Puppies should be co-housed with their siblings; however, the age of the puppies, the size of the litter and the number and size of cages that are available may limit how many animals you can appropriately house together. As co-housed puppies age, their housing situation should be reassessed and modified as needed. For example, older puppies may need more room to express their normal behaviors, or they may need to be separated from each other if bullying becomes an issue. If singleton puppies come into your shelter, they can be housed with another singleton of a similar age for socialization purposes. Otherwise, you should not mix puppies from different litters together because the risk of infectious disease is too high.
Neonates have different housing requirements than weaned juvenile puppies. Neonates are less mobile and unable to thermoregulate; therefore, they should be housed in a more confined space that is warm and draft free. Neonates with mothers should have housing available to accommodate her and a whelping box. Juvenile animals require more room to accommodate their increasing mobility and playfulness.
Animal housing should always be constructed of non-porous materials that are easily cleaned and sanitized and cannot be easily damaged by scratching or chewing. Double-sided runs with guillotine door dividers are an excellent housing option, because the divider allows the kennel staff to clean the kennel without having to remove the animal from the enclosure. This is especially beneficial for puppies because it allows your staff to keep the puppies in their run during cleaning away from other dogs and potentially infectious diseases. Ideally, each run should have an individual drain. If the runs have a common drain then it should be covered so the dogs do not have exposure to it.
The design of your cages or kennels will depend upon the ages of the puppies that you typically house. As puppies mature, their mental and physical needs will change so variations in you cage or kennel designs would allow you more flexibility.
You can determine the number of housing units needed by determining a few important metrics. You can calculate your "adoption-driven capacity" to determine how many housing units you should have for puppies in the adoption ward. This is determined by the average number of adoptions and the length of stay in the adoption ward. Because shelters are hazardous places for puppies to linger, adoption strategies should focus on minimizing the number of days puppies stay in the facility. (Please see the following handout on population management http://www.sheltermedicine.com/documents/newbury_navc_2009_2.pdf for help on calculating adoption-driven capacity). If your puppy adoption numbers are currently limited by your current cage availability, then you may want to add additional cages in order to supply that anticipated demand. If you house puppies in holding areas, similar calculations can be made to determine "required holding capacity." It's always a good idea to plan for a few extra units above capacity to allow for spikes in intake, to provide for flexibility during cleaning time, and to separate a puppy if needed for observation. It's also important to calculate required staffing to properly care for all these puppies. The National Animal Control Association recommends an average of 15 minutes per animal per day just for feeding and cleaning. You can find the calculation to determine your minimum kennel staffing needs on The National Animal Control Association website (http://www.nacanet.org/kennelstaffing.html).
Based on what you describe, the yard (10m x 10m) is an appropriate size for 6 puppies to exercise in. If puppies are going to have access to a yard, it should be constructed of non-porous materials that are easily cleaned and sanitized. When the animals are in the yard, they should not be able to have contact with other animals (e.g., nose to nose contact through a chain link fence). Puppies should also be protected on the trip from the kennel to the yard by carrying them instead of allowing them to walk on the ground.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Catherine McManus VMD, MPH, DACVPM
Shelter Medicine Resident
Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Florida
mcmanusc@vetmed.ufl.edu
www.UFShelterMedicine.com |
| |
Question
# 1894 |
I need to write an emergency disaster plan for my small (~1000 intakes/year with 1 day/week public S/N clinic) shelter. This is not our response to disasters (IE increased intakes, etc.). But, our response if something happens to the shelter (tornado, flood, power outage,fire, etc.). Thought I would see what others have or try and find templates. |
|
Date question was answered: 2010-03-29 |
|
Answer |
Thank you for your question regarding emergency/disaster response planning. You are wise to prepare for emergencies before they happen. There are several very good resources available on the internet:
HSUS Disaster Manuals
State Animal Response Teams (SART) www.ncsart.org
- Additionally try your own local and state SART organization websites for both example templates and resources to include in your plan.
I also recommend the textbook Veterinary Disaster Response edited by Wayne Wingfield and Sally Palmer and published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2009.
If you are not already a member of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (http://www.sheltervet.org), I strongly recommend joining. In the short term, you would be able to post a request to other members for copies of their templates or actual plans. In the long term, you will have continued access to this resource. The association has over 600 members and the cost of membership is very reasonable especially considering the benefits.
Lastly, your shelter director may want to consider joining SAWA (http://www.sawanetwork.org) if they are not already a member. This is a great resource for shelter administrators to trade protocols. I hope you find these resources helpful.
Laura Andersen, DVM
Shelter Medicine Resident
Maddie's Shelter Medicine
University of Florida |
| |
Question
# 1888 |
We recently had to euthanize two female cats who had stopped eating. One was exhibiting symptoms of liver disease. Both were severely depressed. In a small understaffed animal control facility, how can we keep track of who's not eating, stimulate their appetite, and insure that they receive proper nutrition? How do we determine when to stop injecting fluids and force-feeding and euthanize? Most importantly, how can we best prevent this situation? |
|
Date question was answered: 2010-03-04 |
|
Answer |
I'm sorry to hear about the two cats that you had to euthanize, but am glad you are trying to take the proactive approach and identify those cats that may not be doing well in the shelter before it comes to that point! Do you have a veterinarian on staff or that you consult with? They may be able to help you develop a plan that is the most feasible for your shelter and help you make some of those decisions about treatment.
Cats may lose their appetite or refuse to eat due to illness (such as respiratory infections) or simply due to stress. When this happens, they risk the development of severe complications. Small kittens (especially those less than 4 months of age) can experience a drop in blood sugar when they do not eat frequently, resulting in weakness and even death. As you experienced, adult cats that do not eat at least half of their daily energy requirements for several days or more risk developing severe liver disease which can become life-threatening without aggressive veterinary care. (Overweight cats are especially prone to developing these problems - so that may be one thing that can help you identify cats that are at greater risk for severe disease). So how much should they be eating? The amount will depend on the specific food you're feeding, but as a guideline, an average adult cat (9 lbs.) requires about 2 of the 5.5 ounce cans of cat food or about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of dry cat food per day. Young kittens require the same volume of food as adults or more --even though they are smaller, their metabolism is much higher.
One thing you could institute is a daily monitoring sheet (See an example at: http://www.sheltermedicine.com/documents/daily_med_beh_form_cats.doc). This is a real simple way to keep track of everything that's happening with an animal - someone is there to clean and feed that animal every day and so it will only take a few seconds longer to check off the appropriate box to indicate how that animal is doing. Of course, you will have to be sure that someone is responsible for monitoring those sheets and acting on any problems that are identified. Current recommendations call for evaluation and action if an animal stops eating for more than 1 or 2 days (See Chapter 2 on Wellness in the new Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters textbook).One other simple thing that you can do is to be sure all the animals are weighed at the time they receive their intake examination. This will you give you a good baseline against which you can compare any future changes. If you notice that an animal's weight is trending downward, then it needs to be evaluated and some action taken to address the problem. Current recommendations for this recommend recording body weight weekly for the first month of an animal's stay in the shelter.
I think if you are able to institute those two things, you will be able to identify animals that may not be handling the stress of shelter life well before it results in serious physical consequences. As soon as you do, it is important that the needs of those animals be addressed immediately - some animals just cannot cope with shelter life and finding an alternative for them such as moving them out to a foster home or humanely euthanizing them may be the best course of action to protect their welfare.
One final suggestion--be sure the staff understands how to recognize and reduce stress in cats. Providing hiding boxes, covering the cage front with a towel, housing stressed cats in quiet areas of the shelter and offering meals of canned food with quiet time alone to eat can all be helpful at managing stress and increasing a cat's appetite. Below is a link to an article on managing stress in cats, which is important for welfare as well as helping to minimize the risk of illness.
http://www.animalsheltering.org/resource_library/magazine_articles/jan_feb_2007/behavior_uri_challenge.pdf
Brian A. DiGangi, DVM
Shelter Medicine Resident
University of Florida
www.UFShelterMedicine.com |
| |
Question
# 1887 |
Is it best to clean the animals who have already passed their 2 week quarantine period and are in the "healthy animal" areas first and clean the new arrival quarantine animals second? Or should you clean and care for the new arrivals who are in quarantine first? We vaccinate all incoming animals the day of intake but I know that even in the best of situations it can take 5-7 days for the vaccines to become effective. Is there more of a risk for our vaccinated healthy dogs to catch something from our new arrivals (via fomites etc) or should we clean and care for the new arrivals first so that we do not carry any fomites or other diseases to our new arrivals that our "healthy" animals may have passed onto our clothes.
We also do isolation of known sick animals last, but there has been some confusions as to if we should take care of healthy animals first or the new arrivals first. |
|
Date question was answered: 2010-04-12 |
|
Answer |
Thank you for submitting your question about cleaning order. Cleaning areas in the proper sequence can be a powerful tool in minimizing spread of disease in your shelter. Cleaning should always start with the more vulnerable animals, such as young, healthy puppies and kittens then move toward the older, less vulnerable animals. Areas known to be dirty or highly infectious, such as the isolation ward with sick animals, should be cleaned last. It is important for staff to change protective garments between areas, especially for puppies and kittens and also have different garments for working with the sick animals. For example, when the staff are cleaning the isolation areas, they should wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE-such as scrubs or coveralls that can be washed in hot water and bleach and rubber boots that can be more easily disinfected than regular tennis shoes or street shoes) to minimize their risk of becoming a walking fomite. I suggest clean garments and PPE be provided for staff to help insure their use. A good flow order for cleaning is adoptable puppies and kittens, then stray healthy puppies and kittens, adoptable adult animals, stray healthy adults, and finally the quarantine then isolation areas. Given the scenario you provided then, the animals that have already passed through their quarantine period and have been placed in your healthy animal areas should be cleaned before the animals in your quarantine area but remember to consider your vulnerable groups within those populations and clean the younger animals before the adults. Additionally, animals that have arrived in the previous 3-5 days are potentially more vulnerable since they may still be responding to their intake vaccinations. Thus you may want to arrange your order of cleaning such that these animals are cleaned before the animals that have been at your facility longer. How are you using your quarantine area? True quarantine is achieved when all the animals enter the holding area at the same time, remain for the length of the quarantine (which is typically the incubation period for diseases of concern in your population) and then leave together assuming none showed clinical signs of disease during the quarantine period. If new animals are added to the quarantine/holding area each day, this is not a true quarantine. Depending on your shelter's mission and design, a two-week quarantine for all incoming animals may or may not be advisable. For example, for a limited admission facility that only takes in animals from other shelters once a week with separate wards for housing intakes that come in on the same date and can house them together for two-weeks without adding more animals during that time, this type of quarantine may be a good option. However, for an open admission shelter with only one holding area for all incoming animals (strays, owner surrendered, legal cases, etc.) in which animals are added to the holding area daily, a two-week quarantine is not feasible. In this scenario, it may be more advisable to move clinically healthy and adoptable strays to the adoption area as soon as their legal hold period is up as they are more likely to be exposed to infectious diseases during a two-week quarantine since new animals are added to their population regularly. I have provided some resources below for further information. Please feel free to contact us if you have further questions. Thank you. Resources: • Maddie's Infection Control Manual for Animal Shelters for Veterinary Personnel : • Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff edited by Lila MillerLaura Andersen, DVM Shelter Medicine Resident Maddie's Shelter Medicine University of Florida |
| |
Question
# 1886 |
At our shelter we want to have organized play groups for the dogs that have completed their holding period and that have passed a standard behavior evaluation. My question is what specific guidelines would you recommend for this to be successful behaviorally and medically, with kennel cough in mind.
Should dogs be fully vaccinated, as in 2 boosters for adult dogs, 3 for puppies? Keeping in mind that 21 days apart for vaccines is a long time for stress levels to go up in dogs and socialization to decrease, also our dog runs are only big enough to house one dog. If post-kennel cough how many days until a dog could return to a play group?
Our shelter is in WA state and the dog kennels are all inside, but play yards are outside. I have come from CA where we had outdoor runs and kennel cough was virtually non-existent. At this shelter it is heavy even though runs are cleaned daily and we currently use kennelsol. The vet seems to think kennel cough is not air-born, right or wrong? |
|
Date question was answered: 2010-04-27 |
|
Answer |
Thank you for your questions. In order for me to best answer your questions, I have divided your questions into three sections: playgroups, vaccine protocols, and canine infectious respiratory disease complex.
Playgroups:
I am happy to hear that you are taking steps to enrich the lives of the dogs in your care.
Playgroups that are planned and executed properly can positively impact the lives of the dogs in your care. In this situation, it seems like the risk of kennel cough is not going to be significantly increased by having asymptomatic dogs interact in playgroups compared to the risk of the dogs being housed within an indoor shelter facility. Of course, dogs chosen for the playgroups should be healthy, free of internal and external parasites, and have been vaccinated with a modified live DAPP vaccine (distemper virus/ adenovirus-2/ parvovirus / parainfluenza) or a recombinant distemper vaccine at least seven days prior to joining a playgroup. It is unlikely that an adequate immune response can occur earlier than 3-5 days after the first vaccination, so waiting a week before direct contact with other dogs should provide the animal enough time to begin to respond.
We do not recommend dogs under 6 months of age being in a playgroup with unrelated puppies in a shelter environment because the risk of diseases such as parvo and distemper outweighs the socialization benefits that the puppies will receive from the playgroups. Puppies can and should be able to interact and play with their own littermates.
When playgroups are established the groups should be divided by: age, size, energy level, and play style. The adult and juvenile dogs that are chosen for the playgroups should have even temperaments and be well socialized or fluent in communicating with other dogs. I would avoid placing dogs that are overly excited or not well socialized into any playgroup. The playgroups should be constantly monitored by a staff member or senior volunteer who is fluent in the language of dogs and feels comfortable handling dogs that may become too excited or cannot appropriately disengage from play. I would also limit the size of the playgroups to two dogs. This means that you will have more playgroups, but it will make it easier for the dogs to interact with each other and for the staff to assess the compatibility of the dogs. If the dogs are not compatible with each other, then a different pairing should be tried.
Ideally, your playgroups would be held in an environment that can be cleaned and disinfected between the different groups of dogs. This may not be possible. If you cannot disinfect the environment, it is still important to keep the environment clean by removing feces promptly and not sharing toys or water bowls between groups of dogs.
Vaccine protocols:
Puppies in a shelter environment should be vaccinated with the modified live DAPP vaccine or recombinant distemper vaccine that is given subcutaneously every 2 weeks until at least 4 months old because we do not know when maternal immunity will wane enough for the immune systems of these animals will respond to the vaccine. Puppies can also be vaccinated once with modified live respiratory disease (Bordetella bronchiseptica, parainfleunza, adenovirus-2) vaccine that is given intranasally after 6 weeks of age. Puppies should be routinely de-wormed
throughout their vaccine series.
The vaccines that we recommend for dogs greater than 6 months of age in a shelter environment are a modified live respiratory disease vaccine and a modified live DAPP vaccine or a recombinant distemper vaccine. These vaccines should be given to every dog prior to or immediately upon presentation at the shelter. Both juvenile (6 months+) and adult dogs should receive a second DAPP vaccine at a minimum of 2 weeks after the initial vaccine was given.
Canine infectious respiratory disease:
Multiple pathogens can cause respiratory disease in dogs or the clinical syndrome called "kennel cough". Unfortunately, a dog that is infected with any of these pathogens will often shed infectious material prior to showing any signs of illness.
Depending upon the pathogen(s)
involved, an infected dog may also be contagious to other dogs for weeks to months after recovering from his own illness. If you are able to perform diagnostic testing and determine the source of the infection you can adjust your isolation and quarantine protocols accordingly. Without a definitive diagnosis, a dog with a respiratory disease should be isolated from the general population for a minimum period of 2 to 3 weeks Isolating sick animals, quarantining exposed animals, maintaining excellent hand hygiene and sound cleaning and disinfection protocols are instrumental in keeping your population healthy. Respiratory diseases can be transmitted in the air by coughing and sneezing dogs. A dog's cough can spread infectious aerosol droplets over 20 feet. Unfortunately, these pathogens are also easily spread by fomites such as people, bedding and toys. Fortunately, the cleaning product that you are using is an effective disinfecting agent for upper respiratory disease pathogens.
Please see the following webpage for more information on canine infectious respiratory disease complex.
http://www.sheltermedicine.com/portal/is_infectious_tracheobronchitis_canine.shtml
http://www.sheltermedicine.com/portal/is_infectious_tracheobronchitis_canine.shtml
I hope this helps. Enjoy play time!
Catherine McManus VMD, MPH, DACVPM
Shelter Medicine Resident
Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Florida |
| |
Question
# 1878 |
Many rescuers and rescue groups test the mom cat for FIV/FeLV and assume that the results are applicable to the kittens. However, we've seen enough instances where the mom tests one way and the kittens another, or even where one kitten tests negative and another positive. In order for us to formulate an informed policy not only about who to test but also when, and whether and when to re-test, we would like information on the following issues. Also, each issue needs to be addressed for FIV AND FeLV, to the extent that there is any difference in the answers:
- If a mom cat tests positive, what is the story with the kittens? Can they indeed "shed" the virus? Can some end up negative and others positive? If the mom tests negative, can the kittens be positive nonetheless, such as through the father, or otherwise?
- If a cat has been with another cat who is positive (such as siblings or cagemates), and one tests negative and the other positive, should the negative kitten be isolated and re-tested at a later date and, if so, how long after this last "exposure"?
- Which tests are definitive for FeLV? Should the ELISA test be used, the IFA test?
- How long after "exposure" should a cat be re-tested?
Here's an example: 3 kittens all test light FeLV+ on a snap test, then two are tested at the vet's using the ELISA test, and they test negative, but the third tests positive. Should a different test be done on all? Is the negative kitten nonetheless at risk because of exposure and, if so, should that kitten be removed from its siblings and re-tested at a later date? If so, how much later? Or is the ELISA test itself conclusive?
Thank you for any direction you can provide. |
|
Date question was answered: |
|
Answer |
Thank you for the great questions. I have provided a lot of information in response to your questions. I have provided this information as a tool to help you create your protocols. The manner in which you evaluate and manage the risk of these diseases in your populations will depend upon your resources (time, space, funding. It can be difficult for many shelters to follow and apply all recommended guidelines for kittens that test positive for FeLV or FIV. The Association of Shelter Veterinarians recognizes this and in their policy statement on Management of Cats Who Test Positive for FeLV and FIV in an Animal Shelter, they state that the logistics and cost of holding and retesting unowned cats may be an ineffective use of resources. Marianne, your organization will need to review all of the medical facts for yourself and carefully deliberate as to how you will handle these cases within your mission and resources. I will provide you with a summary of the medical facts and guidelines below in answer to your questions. I hope this will provide the information you need to establish written policies and protocols regarding FeLV and FIV for your organization.
Ideally, I would recommend:
• Testing each cat, including littermates and kittens born to a negative queen
• Consider cats exposed to either disease to be high risk for infection until prooven otherwise
• Test cats that have been potentially exposed to an infected cat 60 to 90 days after the exposure
• Accurately record and report the testing that is performed
The explanations for the above summary statements are included in the following information.
It is important to remember that the FeLV is highly infectious and relatively easy to transmit between cats. Kittens born to a FeLV positive mother cat and littermates of a FeLV positive kitten are at relatively high risk (though by no means guaranteed) of being infected because neonates and kittens are the most susceptible to the virus. Nursing from a FeLV positive mother is a significant source of infection for kittens, which is why the status of a lactating queen should be determined before fostering kittens with her. It is important to note that some of the kittens that have been infected by their mother may not test positive for weeks to months after birth, so it is possible that kittens may develop positive results later on. Testing kittens can be a little tricky to manage; therefore, I would test the kittens born to a FeLV positive mother as soon as possible and then repeat the test two months later. If a kitten is initially tested 3 months following removal from a positive mother, I would not expect that result to change unless that kitten has some of new exposure.
A mother cat's test status is not a guarantee that her kittens will test the same. It is certainly possible for kittens to be FeLV-infected even if the mother has a negative test result. This is quite uncommon, but it is possible because infected mothers that test negative on a blood test can still be shedding virus in their milk, or the kittens can unknowingly have been exposed to some other FeLV-infected cat. This is why I recommend testing the mother as well as the kittens individually.
In comparison to FeLV, FIV is not easily spread from cat to cat unless biting is frequently occurring. Most kittens under 5-6 months of age that test positive on the SNAP® test only have the FIV antibodies (from their infected or vaccinated mother) not the actual virus. Kittens that have been exposed to FIV antibodies will usually become FIV antibody negative, and test negative, by 12 weeks. Occasionally, this seroconversion can take up to 5 or 6 months. That is why some people choose to not test for FIV before 6 months of age. A kitten, under 6 months of age, that tests positive for FIV should be re-tested 4-6 weeks later. A kitten over 6 months of age that tests positive for FIV should be considered infected. As I mention later, you many choose to confirm this result with a more sensitive test.
If a cat is exposed to a FIV or FeLV positive cat, including a littermate, then I would recommend that you test every animal that was exposed to the positive cat and if practical all of the positive animal's littermates. This is also the recommendation in the 2008 American Association of Feline Practitioners' (AAFP) feline retrovirus management guidelines. Testing should be carried out immediately and, if negative, should be repeated after a minimum of 30 days for FeLV and after a minimum of 60 days for FIV. When the type of possible viral exposure is unknown, retesting for both viruses after 60 days is most practical. If you have adopted out cats that may have been exposed it is best to contact the new owners. I realize that this is going to drain some resources and that you risk upsetting some of the owners, but the situation could be even more upsetting if any of these cats test positive on a FeLV or FIV test at their regular veterinarian without you informing them, or worse yet, the infection is spread within the new household.
It is important to note that cats and kittens, even littermates, should be tested individually. "Pooling" or mixing blood samples from more than one cat/kitten for one test is not recommended as it could significantly decrease test accuracy.
The SNAP® test for FeLV is more reliable when serum or plasma is tested instead of whole blood. Antigen tests on tears or saliva seem to be more prone to errors and not recommended.
The SNAP® test for FIV is highly accurate as well. If a low risk and asymptomatic adult cat tests positive on this test, confirmatory testing, such as PCR, is recommended. Unfortunately, we still cannot reliably distinguish if a cat is positive because it is infected with FIV or it has been vaccinated for FIV.
I know that is this a lot to think about and it may seem overwhelming. There are a lot of things to consider when you create a protocol that will work for you and your agency. Some of the questions that you may want to consider when creating your protocols are: Do you have the finances to test and possibly re-test cats and kittens? Do you have the staff to do this testing? Do you have foster homes or space to hold kittens while they are waiting to be re-tested? Do you have potential adopters for all the kittens that you admit or are kittens euthanized for a lack of space? Will staff and foster parents understand the emotional risk that may be involved in caring for animals that may be euthanized if they test positive?
You can read more about recommendations for FeLV and FIV management in shelters in the new book Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters or see the 2008 AAFP Guidelines
Catherine McManus VMD, MPH, DACVPM
Shelter Medicine Resident
Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Florida
www.UFShelterMedicine.com |
| |
