One of the topics at the cp Shelter medicine event was FIV/FELV testing.
It was stated that the FELV tests are only 98% accurate and give false positives.
Because the prevalence of FELV is low this means that out of 100 tests, an average od 3 will show up positive but two of these will be false positives! CP also insist on an external test for a positive FELV as diagnosis of this is curtains for the cat.
I also made note of some FIV stats they have done with the following.... routine testing done at 12 cp cat shelters during 1997/8
Healthly female 1%
Health male 2.9 % (They said it didn't seem to matter whether the males were neutered or not which ! is curious)
Feral Female 3
Sick Female 4.1
Feral Male 8.8
Sick male 11.9
Sick feral female 12.4
Sick Feral Male 36.1
+ve fiv testa are generably reliabe but negatives can be incorrect.
little info on felv figures, but typically higher in rescue cats but in a survey of nearly 5000 cp cats only .56% were positive. (this figure may not be accurate as there was some discussion about there is a bias as cats are often only tested if there is a suspicion of something wrong).
The chap presenting this (prof. tim gruffydd-jones bristol uni and dep. chairman of cp with a host of other honours and credits!) said that there were somtimes large descrepancies with vets results that they picked up, the main causes being
tests are refrigerated for keeping but need to be at room temp when used
test results must be read after the right time has elapsed as when they are left too long spurulous bands appear.
often whole blood is used rather than plasma or serum.
David Yates from the RSPCA gave an interesting talk about early neutering and what knock out formulas he uses. he now routinely neuters at booster time and has done so from 300g (
)
there was a summary of CP vet policies - interesting.
a talk on squitty kitties (waiting for presentation notes - but almost the general rule seemed to be they will get over it!). And also an awareness of tritrichomonas foetus which vets tend to forget about but can be seen under a microscope and thrive on steroids. also testing on cats in shelters showed up to 45% of them carried the canine Parvo virus! and that some parvo was crossing the animal boudaries (was parvo originally from cats then spread to dogs and may be looping around again?)
Anyway very good stuff! . Got to hear of it via the association of dogs and cats homes of which we are affiliate members.
Met Sara from Haworth Cat Resue. Their vet routinely neuters at 10 weeks and they say that over the last 15 years they have only lost 3 kittens (3000 neuters).
