Cat owners often hear of FeLV and FIV but aren’t too sure exactly what they are and how they may affect their beloved fact. We’ve put together this blog to help explain and break down what each of these viruses are and how they can cause great damage to our pets and our lives.
Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) is usually transmitted through grooming and social behaviors – sharing water dishes, food bowls, litterboxes etc. Kittens become infected during either development in mom or when mom starts to groom and nurse her kittens. Saliva and nasal discharge is how this virus is transferred among cats. Cat’s often do not primarily pass away due to FeLV, but they instead acquire an infection or cold that their body cannot fight off and pass away from the infection they acquired, due to their body being unable to fight it off because of FeLV.
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) transmission is usually associated with cats that fight over territory and roam outdoors. As the name implies, FIV is similar to the human form of HIV, where the virus primarily attacks the immune system – therefore these cats generally present to the veterinary hospital with signs not directly associated with the virus. Like FeLV, the cat typically acquires an infection or wound that will not heal which leads to the cat’s death.
Both of these feline viral diseases are preventable. While neither of which have a “cure”, cats with these diseases can live relatively normal lives until they become clinically sick and show signs of illness. Usually secondary illnesses are what “unmask” their underlying condition (you may notice your cat sneezing, you bring him or her into the veterinarian and after some blood work is done, it is learned that while your cat is sick [sneezing], the bigger issue is that he or she also suffers from FeLV or FIV).
Approximately 5% of cats can be infected with both FIV and FeLV. Cancer risks increases 6x with FIV, 60x with FeLV and 80x with FeLV and FIV infections. In the United States approximately 2 – 3% of cats are infected with the leukemia virus. Infection rates increase when cats are very young and sick, or have increased exposure to viruses. The age groups commonly affected are cats between 1 to 6 years of age with a median age of 3 years.
Prevention: keeping cats indoors is one way to prevent your cat from exposure. When introducing new cats to the household, temporary segregation is always recommended to reduce residents from becoming exposed to bacterial and viral disease present at shelters. Vaccines are also available to prevent both of these viruses to be picked up by your cat (please continue reading for more information).
Disinfection: both viruses are easily killed by household detergents and do not last in the environment.
Vaccination: Generally FeLV vaccination can be administered to kittens at 8 – 9 weeks of age with a second booster 3 – 4 weeks later. Vaccine booster is administered once yearly. A vaccine is available for FIV cats, however this particular vaccine will yield a positive result on routine testing. Therefore, young kittens that test positive are generally retested at 6 months of age.
In conclusion, these viruses are not a death sentence for your cat and you can prevent your cat from obtaining these viruses. Annual blood work, exams and indoor only cats will help your cat stay healthy, virus free and alive! If you would like to discuss your cat’s health, please schedule an appointment with Dr. Jill Christofferson, Dr. Blythe Jurewicz or Dr. Wendi Aengus today: (925) 937-5000
Caroline Li, DVM
At Encina Veterinary Hospital in Walnut Creek, an intern typically starts his or her day by waking up early in the morning for a very busy and productive day at work. The morning of the work day begins with daily rounds at about 7:00am regarding the cases that are currently in the hospital with the overnight, attending emergency clinician and the internal medicine specialists. After the daily morning hospital rounds, some mornings are filled with topic rounds given by the various specialist and general practitioners. These topics can range from general veterinary medicine to emergency medicine to specialized topics. The interns are challenged during these topic rounds to answer questions about the subject in order to ensure they understand important points about the covered topic. 
Fleas and ticks! Those pesky critters that love to feed on our beloved pets. Spring and summer is the time for play dates in the park, a hike on a mountain, or a stroll along the trail. These are favorite areas for fleas and ticks to live. They are hiding in the grass, behind the wood log, and on the dog or cat that just passed by to said hello. These culprits are everywhere and can cause itchy skin and other diseases including paralysis. Disease is the number one reason why veterinarians recommend flea and tick preventative medication every month.
You may question: why can’t I buy the flea and tick products that are sold in stores or even online? In today’s economy, online pricing may be very appealing to clients. The convenience of at-home shopping also gives online suppliers an edge. There may be flea and tick preventative medications that your veterinarian does not carry which you may prefer.
As soon as the flea bites, the allergic response can begin. Ticks, on the other hand, are vectors for disease. The most common ticks in the East Bay area are American dog tick, Pacific coast tick, Western black leg tick.
Trifexis is our current recommendation for oral preventative medication that treats fleas, intestinal parasites, and heartworm. This is an excellent option for dogs that love to swim or sneak a lap around the pool right after the topical medication is administered. Intestinal parasites are a cause for spread of human disease. For flea and tick preventative topically, our current recommendation is Parastar plus. Revolution is currently our recommended as the topical medication that treats fleas, intestinal parasites, heartworm, and ear mites. The current recommendation for only flea and tick preventative in cats is Easy Spot topical. Trifexis and Revolution medications are recommended because they not only prevent external parasites but internal parasites as well.
When a human undergoes chemotherapy, they seem to suffer a lot (nausea, lethargic, etc); do our pets suffer this same way when they undergo treatments?
The exact cause or root of IBD is still not known; it is thought to be caused by a variety of triggers. These include intolerance to certain diets, gastrointestinal parasites and bacteria, and an individual’s genetic predisposition. Unfortunately, the exact trigger is usually not found, so the cause is labeled as “idiopathic” or unknown. 
As a chronic illness, pets diagnosed with IBD will require regular rechecks with your veterinarian as well as emotional and financial investment in order to manage. Treatments for this condition may be life long, treatments are aimed at making your dog or cat feel better, and treatments are usually performed in a step-wise fashion. Your veterinarian may first recommend starting oral antibiotics and dewormers, as well as starting a strict prescription diet for several weeks to rule out bacterial, parasitic, and dietary triggers. In the rare case, your pet may feel better with these treatments alone. Most cases require additional treatments with anti-inflammatories. Starting these anti-inflammatories can actually hinder the diagnosis of IBD and is usually not recommended until biopsies are collected or your veterinarian has a very strong suspicion that IBD is present. Your veterinarian will work with you to help find the right combination of medications and treatments that will make your pet feel better. 
Arthritis not only affects people, but our beloved furry friends too. In fact, arthritis affects one in every five adult dogs in the U.S. and is one of the most common sources of chronic pain that veterinarians treat. Although not as common, arthritis also affects our feline friends. 
Why do we perform blood work or an ultrasound prior to anesthesia at Encina Veterinary Hospital and how does this influence our anesthetic plan for your pet? Blood work and sometimes ultrasound aids us in looking for abnormalities within your pet’s organ systems. Some blood abnormalities we look for are low red cell counts (anemia), elevated kidney or liver levels, electrolyte abnormalities (electrolytes are things like potassium, sodium, chloride etc) or decreased protein levels in the blood. In addition, ultrasound helps us diagnose the severity of heart disease if your pet has a murmur or a mass/tumor in the body. These are just a few of the abnormalities that will help us determine your pet’s anesthetic plan. The medical history (previous medical problems or history of hospitalization) of your pet also aids in determining our anesthetic protocol. Anesthesia is NOT a one size fits all. We will choose the anesthetic drugs for your pet depending on its blood work, ultrasound results and medical history. Species and breed type can also influence our anesthetic plan. Sight hounds (Greyhounds, Whippets etc), brachycephalics (Pugs, English Bulldogs, Boxers etc) and cats, in general, can have different reactions to certain anesthetic drugs that differ from the majority of the pet population. Pets that are overweight, old (usually 9yrs or older) or very young (4 months or younger) also have anesthetic issues that can alter their anesthetic plans. All of this is taken into account when deciding on what anesthetic drugs will be safest for your pet. 
After your pet’s surgical or dental procedure is finished at Encina Veterinary Hospital, they will usually receive another dose of pain medication upon recovery. Again, this pain medication is chosen depending on their medical history. If you know that your pet has had a certain anesthetic or pain drug in the past and has not done well on it let the doctor or staff know so we can chose another drug. There are many newer anesthetic and pain drugs that are available to us. Your pet will recover in our ICU or preoperative area depending on the severity of their medical condition or surgical procedure. Patients that recover in ICU have many things that need to be monitored post operatively by our ICU nurses such as IV fluids or constant pain medications. Patients with moderate to severe organ disease will also be placed in ICU along with older healthy patients. Younger and healthier patients will recover in the preoperative area where they are watched by our surgical staff. 
I enjoy seeing the bright lights of the July 4 fireworks, but I also can’t help but think about all the dogs that are panicking due to the loud noises accompanying the beautiful display. I really enjoy helping these dogs develop a more positive emotional response to scary noises because I know with some hard work these dogs don’t have to continue to panic every year.) Some common triggers for noise phobia include fireworks, cars backfiring, gun shots, smoke alarms, and clicking noises (such as the heater or air conditioning turning on)…..and yes, parrots are very good at mimicking these noises, even when you are not home! Dogs with noise phobia may pant, pace, shake, hide, salivate, follow their owners, and even harm themselves trying to escape from their house/yard. However, don’t be fooled by dogs that are abnormally still and quiet during these events as dogs that exhibit “non-behavior” may also be anxious.
As it is difficult to modify problem behaviors when the noise trigger cannot be avoided it is best to start behavior modification well before unavoidable noises occur (such as in May rather than the end of June in preparation for July 4). When noise triggers cannot be avoided we use anti-anxiety medication. These medications consist of short-acting medications to relieve anxiety during unavoidable noises and/or long-term anti-anxiety medication to facilitate behavior modification and for noises that are unavoidable on a more regular basis. Sedative are not usually an appropriate first choice medication as they do not actually treat anxiety and in some cases people report that they are more noise sensitive while taking certain sedatives. Essentially, the pet is sedated and does not display anxiety on the outside, but is extremely anxious on the inside. Before medications are used it is always recommended to have blood work checked as these medications are by and large metabolized through the liver and excreted through the kidneys.
After a trip to your primary care veterinarian to rule out any medical problems that could be making the pet more sensitive to noises (and I have seen dogs react more intensely to noises when in pain), the treatment for noise phobia consists of several steps. The first is avoiding noise triggers as much as possible so that the pet does not continue to experience the fear/panic emotional response. Often, a command-response-reward program (commonly referred to as “Nothing in Life is Free”, “No Free Lunch” or “Learn to Earn”) is recommended to decrease any attention-seeking component of the behavior, create more structure and predictability for the pet and increase the pet’s responsiveness to commands. The “meat and potatoes” of the plan consists of systematic desensitization and counter-conditioning (DS/CC), the primary technique we use to change the pet’s emotional response to scary noises. Desensitization consists of introducing the pet to the noise trigger at elicits fear at so low of a level (volume) that the pet is calm and relaxed. Over time the noise is made louder, all the while staying below the dog’s threshold for fear and panic. Counter-conditioning is changing the pet’s emotional response to the noise trigger by associating it with something positive, such as a favorite treat or activity (ie playing fetch with a tennis ball). A head collar, such as a Gentle Leader ®, may be suggested for better control of the pet during DS/CC. Focus commands including eye contact and hand target commands may also be taught in preparation for DS/CC. 
Christina Sutu is our lead blogger here at EncinaVet.com. When Christina isn't blogging for Encina, you can find her doing miscellaneous administrative work for the hospital as the hospital's Administrative Assistant while working closely with our Hospital Administrator, Angela Linvill. Christina enjoys all things social media and actually also manages our 
Christian is a 7 year old Tuxedo cat who has been coming to Encina since 2011. Christian is a member of our "Platinum Paw Club" which means his owners have not only enrolled him in one of our wellness plans, but also in 
