Latest / The Hissing Feline / Retroviruses in kittens: What every cat parent should know
Transcript
- 0:01SPEAKER_04: Monitoring the health of kittens is crucial, including being aware of viruses.
- 0:06SPEAKER_04: This episode of the Hissing Feline gives you important information about retroviruses in kittens, what they are, detection, treatments, and management.
- 0:16SPEAKER_04: If you have kittens or work with them, you won't want to miss this episode.
- 0:20SPEAKER_04: Coming up next.
- 0:23SPEAKER_04: Hi, I'm Clark Greer, retired communications professor, a full-time cat dad, and host of the Hissing Feline, a podcast that is about everything cats.
- 0:34SPEAKER_04: Each week, cat specialists share their expertise in everything from feline health, training, and adoption to fostering community cats and kittens.
- 0:45SPEAKER_04: Now let's get started with today's show.
- 0:51SPEAKER_04: Returning to the show is Dr.
- 0:53SPEAKER_04: Emily Coleman.
- 0:54SPEAKER_04: She's a veterinarian and the executive director of the National Kitten Coalition.
- 0:58SPEAKER_04: Dr.
- 0:58SPEAKER_04: Coleman, it's really good to have you back on the show.
- 1:01SPEAKER_01: Hi, Clark.
- 1:02SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
- 1:03SPEAKER_01: It's great to be back.
- 1:04SPEAKER_04: We're talking today about feline retroviruses, particularly focusing on conditions in kittens, which can be very serious for the little ones.
- 1:14SPEAKER_04: Let's first start by talking about the people who will most benefit for our podcast today.
- 1:19SPEAKER_01: I think that this podcast will benefit pretty much anybody because I think this is a topic that isn't readily discussed in shelters and even in veterinary communities.
- 1:33SPEAKER_01: We we have all of the testing and all that capability, but I really just don't think that it is discussed as far as kitten health as frequently as things such as vaccines.
- 1:43SPEAKER_01: So I think this podcast is good for pretty much anybody who wants to learn about a little more about retroviruses.
- 1:49SPEAKER_01: You know, Jeff, definitely the general public, someone that's adopted a new kitten, but then shelter and rescue organizations as well.
- 1:58SPEAKER_04: It's a really important topic.
- 2:00SPEAKER_04: And again, this is not something a lot of people are familiar with, but they really need to be because kittens are very vulnerable.
- 2:08SPEAKER_04: Why understanding viruses is essential for anyone who works with kittens?
- 2:13SPEAKER_01: I think that it is essential because prevention is one of the most important things you can do.
- 2:20SPEAKER_01: And so if you are educated on what these viruses are and how they're spread and how they affect the kitten and then the adult cat, then you can take steps to prevent the spread of this disease, make sure that you are up to date on your testing protocols, and then really just have a better understanding of what these retroviruses are, because they are a little different from our normal brand of viruses that we see.
- 2:49SPEAKER_04: Let's start with some real basic things first.
- 2:52SPEAKER_04: What constitutes in general a retrovirus?
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: A typical virus, not to get too far into the biology, but a typical virus has the DNA, RNA, the information for the cell.
- 3:06SPEAKER_01: And so retroviruses actually they work their way backwards.
- 3:10SPEAKER_01: So they work into the body instead of just affecting the body, they actually work their way into the body so that they are inserted into the body's information, into their DNA.
- 3:21SPEAKER_01: And that makes it really difficult to diagnose.
- 3:25SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have the normal, oh, I caught a virus and now I have a cold for a week and now it's gone.
- 3:31SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of implications because a retrovirus is very different from just your typical virus.
- 3:38SPEAKER_04: Let's talk about the two types of retroviruses in kittens.
- 3:42SPEAKER_04: One is FIV and the other one is F E L V.
- 3:46SPEAKER_04: Would you define those?
- 3:48SPEAKER_04: Tell us what those particular viruses are defined as, and then uh how they work.
- 3:53SPEAKER_01: Sure.
- 3:54SPEAKER_01: So we'll start with FIV or feline immunodeficiency virus.
- 3:58SPEAKER_01: So this one is mainly spread by bite wounds.
- 4:04SPEAKER_01: And so we see this a lot in unneutered male cats.
- 4:08SPEAKER_01: But the queen or the mother cat can actually rarely spread this to kittens if she is positive.
- 4:15SPEAKER_01: So that virus is something that is, again, seen most commonly in unneutered male cats, but it can be seen in other parts of the feline population.
- 4:26SPEAKER_01: And then FELV is known as feline leukemia virus, and this is the one that there is a vaccine for.
- 4:35SPEAKER_01: And this one is most commonly spread among cats that live together.
- 4:39SPEAKER_01: So we call this one as you know friendly um interactions, grooming, um, sharing food and water bowls, and and fighting can be too, but usually this is the one that you worry about that can spread between households and can spread a little more rapidly, just because it is easily spread among those that live together.
- 5:01SPEAKER_04: If somebody is concerned about like community cats, I'm guessing that could be an issue with the kittens, that there might be that chance that they're gonna pick up a retrovirus.
- 5:11SPEAKER_01: It is possible, yes.
- 5:12SPEAKER_01: And there are there are actually current recommendations that for community cats, you don't necessarily need to use your resources to test them.
- 5:21SPEAKER_01: But of course, any kittens that are being pulled from a community cat situation, you want to make sure that you are testing them, which we'll go into a little more later.
- 5:30SPEAKER_04: And it sounds like there could be a possibility if somebody adopts a kitten and they really don't know the background of it.
- 5:37SPEAKER_04: Maybe it's not through like a shelter where they could bring a kitten to the household, where is it possible that the kitten could infect other cats or is that a pretty low percentage?
- 5:47SPEAKER_01: It's a low percentage, but it's definitely there.
- 5:50SPEAKER_01: And the feline veterinary medical association does recommend that you know the status of all of your cats and kittens.
- 5:58SPEAKER_01: So if you're bringing another kitten into the household, you quarantine them already because you worry about fleas and worms and things like that.
- 6:07SPEAKER_01: But the other thing you need to worry about is you should be having them tested for this FELV FIV prior to interacting with cats in your house, just as a safety standpoint.
- 6:19SPEAKER_01: It is a low percentage, but it's still a possibility.
- 6:22SPEAKER_04: What type of knowledge or awareness of retroviruses in kittens should cat owners know?
- 6:29SPEAKER_01: So I think the best recommendation is to monitor your kittens closely.
- 6:35SPEAKER_01: So you want to watch out for any signs of a fever, like loss of appetite, or maybe they're not gaining weight if they have um maybe diarrhea, or there's they're showing signs of illness that isn't maybe specific.
- 6:52SPEAKER_01: You don't necessarily know exactly what's going on.
- 6:55SPEAKER_01: One of the things it's recommended is to go ahead and test these kittens to make sure that FELV and FIV are not making these symptoms show up in these guys.
- 7:05SPEAKER_04: Is there an estimated number of kittens that contract a retrovirus?
- 7:09SPEAKER_01: The only numbers that I've ever been able to come across are just general in the population, not separated out as far as kittens.
- 7:16SPEAKER_01: Um, FELV is about 4% in the cat population and in the United States, in North America.
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: And then FIV is a little bit higher at 5%, but if you start testing sick cats, it actually jumps up to about 15%.
- 7:32SPEAKER_04: Oh, what is physically happening to a kitten if they if they have a retrovirus?
- 7:37SPEAKER_01: FELV and FIV are actually very different.
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: I'll start with FIV.
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: Um, FIV, when they contract this, there's actually three phases.
- 7:45SPEAKER_01: So you might catch a kitten with the acute phase, which is what I was describing, that fever, the the lethargy, um, the lack of appetite.
- 7:54SPEAKER_01: But then in FIV, they can go into an asymptomatic phase, which means for months to years, you may have no idea.
- 8:03SPEAKER_01: And they might test positive, but they don't act like there's anything wrong.
- 8:08SPEAKER_01: And then it's not until years later where they have this progressive phase that is where they're the immunocompromised state, which is the the similar is in in humans from you know, HIV to AIDS is the best way to explain it.
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: So everybody that has HIV is not showing symptoms, and that's the same with the FIV.
- 8:27SPEAKER_01: Um, FELV is a little different in that it typically, once it affects the the kitten, it might come and go, but it'll become more and more severe over the first year or two of life.
- 8:41SPEAKER_01: And so it actually can be fatal, and it it often is.
- 8:45SPEAKER_01: Um, so that is something that's very different.
- 8:47SPEAKER_01: Those two diseases are very different.
- 8:49SPEAKER_01: And so FELV being the one that you can share among your friends, and so a household of, you know, multiple cats, and you bring a new kitten in, you know, that's why you need to make sure you test it, because that kitten could easily spread it, even if it never fights with another cat, just by sharing bulls and grooming each other, they can spread it.
- 9:09SPEAKER_01: So that's why that's important.
- 9:10SPEAKER_01: And those are two very different um disease processes.
- 9:14SPEAKER_04: Is there a range of virus levels?
- 9:17SPEAKER_04: I know some things are considered minor and you get into really serious, and you were just talking about over time there could be more serious effects because of FELV.
- 9:27SPEAKER_04: Are there ranges on both of those virus types?
- 9:31SPEAKER_01: We don't usually quantify it.
- 9:33SPEAKER_01: So there aren't usually ranges that that are something that we we test originally.
- 9:39SPEAKER_01: So if we're testing, we it's one of those little in-house tests that show a blue dot, yes or no.
- 9:46SPEAKER_01: And then we can send off and get a little more information from an outside lab to get some ranges.
- 9:51SPEAKER_01: But it's difficult to correlate the virus load and the actual disease process just because these viruses are so complicated.
- 10:01SPEAKER_04: Like an initial test might be one type of thing is to say yes or no, and then the next one would be more detailed as far as which of the viruses if they if they have something like that, then.
- 10:12SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 10:12SPEAKER_01: So the the tests, we have this nice little test similar if people have dogs and they do the little heartworm tests when they're at the vet's office, the same little technology, and there's a dot for FIV and there's a dot for FELV.
- 10:24SPEAKER_01: It looks like a pregnancy test that pops up on which one, but it doesn't really give you any idea of the load of the virus, just that it's present.
- 10:32SPEAKER_04: Uh is there is there a difference between the two types of viruses as far as uh prognosis?
- 10:38SPEAKER_01: Prognosis, FIV, the prognosis is we call in veterinary medicine, we'll say that's guarded because they do have this disease process, but that one is they can live with that for years and not have any symptoms or show anything that there's any any issue at all.
- 10:57SPEAKER_01: Um the FELV, if they get that as a kitten, then that is pretty poor prognosis because then they usually will succumb to that virus or complications from that virus when they have that, when they contract it when they're kittens.
- 11:13SPEAKER_01: Which is why we consider for kittens getting the FELV vaccine, part of our core vaccines.
- 11:21SPEAKER_01: So you get a series of two is a kitten, and then again at one year old or a year later, I should say.
- 11:28SPEAKER_01: And that is supposed to protect them from contracting this at when they're the most vulnerable.
- 11:34SPEAKER_04: Early detection would be important then versus late detection.
- 11:40SPEAKER_04: What type of implications do we have early versus maybe somebody catches it a little bit later a few months down the road in their kitten?
- 11:48SPEAKER_01: So I think that the most important thing is trying not to spread it to the other cats in the household and catching it and knowing that it's present is something that will help with that.
- 11:59SPEAKER_01: But sometimes because they're complicated, they they can might test negative and then test positive later.
- 12:05SPEAKER_01: It can be a very inaccurate isn't the right word, but it's a difficult test to just say, yes, we've got it, or yes, we don't.
- 12:13SPEAKER_01: So um I think that the early versus late detection, it really depends on the population health the most.
- 12:20SPEAKER_01: Knowing that a cat has FIV is important because they sometimes in an unpredictable time frame can no longer fight off other infections as easily.
- 12:31SPEAKER_01: And so I've had patients over the years that we have no idea how long they've had it, but once we do know, we treat them a little more carefully, and a little scratch that might be something that can heal on its own becomes something that needs antibiotics in a cat with FIV because they just don't necessarily have that immune system working properly, depending on where they are in the stage of the disease.
- 12:56SPEAKER_04: What makes kittens so susceptible?
- 12:58SPEAKER_04: They're pretty delicate little uh creatures.
- 13:01SPEAKER_04: And so what is physiologically happening with them where they can just pick these things up?
- 13:07SPEAKER_01: So one of the main reasons that they can pick it up is that if their mother is positive for leukemia, then she can very easily spread that to them through grooming and and all of the interactions that they have on a daily basis.
- 13:21SPEAKER_01: Um FIV can actually can be spread from kittens to their mother, but FIV usually shows up.
- 13:30SPEAKER_01: You see that a lot when they start, when they age out or they're moving, or they're they're in a community where there's fighting happening or lack of resources and and situations like that.
- 13:42SPEAKER_01: So the kittens are are susceptible more so to leukemia when they're younger because mom has the ability to pass it on.
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: And that's the major thing because then that queen, that mom has passed it on before you even see that kitten when it you know comes out of its nest and you rescue it at five, six, seven weeks old.
- 14:01SPEAKER_04: How do veterinarians test for the viruses and then treat them if they're found in the kitten?
- 14:07SPEAKER_01: So testing is pretty simple these days, even though sometimes interpretation of the results are not simple.
- 14:13SPEAKER_01: But the test is just three drops of blood.
- 14:17SPEAKER_01: So we take a very small blood sample and we mix it with a solution that then goes into a little test that looks similar to a pregnancy test.
- 14:26SPEAKER_01: It takes about 10 minutes to run, depending on the brand, and then it gives you a dot or no dot, and you can interpret that as positive or negative.
- 14:36SPEAKER_01: Um, once that test has been run, then if there is a positive, like we spoke about before, you do have to run some confirmation tests.
- 14:46SPEAKER_01: We don't ever recommend saying, oh, they have it just based off of this, you know, first test.
- 14:51SPEAKER_01: But then one other thing that happens that we need to consider is sometimes the kitten, if it's under six months of age, it can actually have a false positive test where mom shared some of her we call them antibodies.
- 15:08SPEAKER_01: And so shared she mom has the disease, so she shared it with the kittens, but it's not actually the disease, it's the reaction to the disease in her blood that we're testing for.
- 15:18SPEAKER_01: And so it's important to know with FIV, then sometimes kittens are falsely positive, but then they'll actually test negative if you test them after six months.
- 15:28SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so it sounds like there's a lot of details with this.
- 15:31SPEAKER_04: And the interpretation is important to really make sure that you understand whether or not they have the virus.
- 15:37SPEAKER_01: Correct.
- 15:38SPEAKER_04: One of the questions that I can just hear my listeners asking, especially if they're parents of kittens or if they work with kittens a lot, is how can I reduce the incident and spread of retroviruses if I have kittens?
- 15:53SPEAKER_01: I think that uh proper quarantine while you're fostering and um disinfection after you have a litter is the best way because a lot of times rescues a or or if you take in a kitten, you know, you don't get it, you can't get it tested immediately.
- 16:12SPEAKER_01: So you just want to keep your kittens in an area that's easy to to clean and disinfect after.
- 16:18SPEAKER_01: The nice thing is that there's a very low risk of you transferring the retrovirus like on your person to the next litter of kittens.
- 16:29SPEAKER_01: And it's very low, they don't the retroviruses cannot live in the environment and they're very easily killed with our common bleach or accelerated hydrogen peroxide, all of those cleaning products do kill retroviruses.
- 16:43SPEAKER_01: So it's low risk that if you have a litter, say you take a litter in, you keep them for two weeks, they go back to be tested and have their spay neuter, and you clean your room and you put another litter in there, then you're really you're really doing the best thing and keeping that chance of spread low.
- 17:02SPEAKER_01: If it's possible, we don't recommend mixing kittens of different litters or from different households until they've been tested.
- 17:13SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's just a basic recommendation to try to keep everybody as healthy as possible.
- 17:18SPEAKER_01: And then fortunately, that works for all the other things that we're trying to keep kittens away from too, um, parasites and other viruses.
- 17:27SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I've heard uh guessed, and you may have said that before, is if you're gonna if you're gonna foster kittens or adopt kittens, it's probably better to know where they came from so that you have commonality at least of a background of a kitten.
- 17:42SPEAKER_01: And and you know, with the rescue world and and financial situation that it is, it's not all rescues can afford to have them tested.
- 17:49SPEAKER_01: But as long as you know and you're adopting, then okay, I need to just take it to my, you know, this kitten to my veterinarian and and get it tested before it goes in with my other cats.
- 17:58SPEAKER_01: It's just something that sometimes falls on the the adopter, the expense, but that just helps the rescues, especially if they're financially constricted.
- 18:09SPEAKER_04: How about if if a kitten has a virus?
- 18:12SPEAKER_04: Is there a way to manage it uh to deal with that situation?
- 18:16SPEAKER_01: So the the main thing is if they do test positive for that virus, we used to, this is gonna horrify everybody, but we used to just euthanize them because you know, way back in the day, we just it was one of those things where it was like, we don't want to have this kitten, but that's not the way it is anymore.
- 18:33SPEAKER_01: And so what we do now is you just want to provide them with the very best nutrition, good um care, such as going to the veterinarian and and being dewormed and being vaccinated for everything else so that we don't catch something else on top, making sure that their litter box stays clean and that they have fresh drinking water and they're just in a low stress environment.
- 18:56SPEAKER_01: And people will adopt FELV or FIV positive kittens and cats, and they can integrate them depending on what their living situation is.
- 19:07SPEAKER_01: And they, you know, like I said, FELV tends to be more severe and their life is shortened from that, but it it's still they they're pretty happy-go-lucky kittens for you know years potentially.
- 19:19SPEAKER_04: Could you recommend some additional resources where my listeners can learn more about kitten retroviruses and uh FELV and FIV, and including your you can go to your website.
- 19:31SPEAKER_01: Yes, so beyond our website, kittencoalition.org, uh, one that I recommend is catvetes.com, which that is the feline veterinary medical association.
- 19:45SPEAKER_01: And they have a brochure on FELV and FIV that is for clients and for cat owners.
- 19:54SPEAKER_01: And then they also have all of their guidelines.
- 19:57SPEAKER_01: It's a pretty extensive document that they edited in 2020 that has all the different guidelines for every scenario you could think of from finding a kitten outside to shelter medicine to um just you know veterinary practice.
- 20:11SPEAKER_04: Recently you held a uh webinar about retroviruses.
- 20:16SPEAKER_04: Uh, is that video still available?
- 20:18SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is.
- 20:19SPEAKER_01: You can find that.
- 20:20SPEAKER_01: The recording of that webinar is in our e-learning center, which you can get to from our main website.
- 20:26SPEAKER_04: This edition of the Hissing Feline has focused on understanding retroviruses in kittens, and we've considered knowledge and awareness of the viruses, factors that lead to the spread of retroviruses, detection, treatment, and management.
- 20:40SPEAKER_04: I think we've really covered a lot in today's show in a really short amount of time.
- 20:45SPEAKER_04: So I know I know that people, if people are saying, well, I'd like more information on that, you can uh watch Dr.
- 20:51SPEAKER_04: Coleman's uh recommendations.
- 20:53SPEAKER_04: You can watch that uh video on uh National Kittencoalition.org.
- 20:59SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 20:59SPEAKER_04: Dr.
- 21:00SPEAKER_04: Emily Coleman has been my guest on this edition of the Hissing Feline.
- 21:04SPEAKER_04: She's executive director of the National Kitten Coalition.
- 21:08SPEAKER_04: Dr.
- 21:09SPEAKER_04: Coleman, thank you very much for talking to us about a crucial topic for anyone who has kittens or works with the little ones.
- 21:15SPEAKER_01: You're welcome, Clark.
- 21:16SPEAKER_01: Thanks again for inviting me.
- 21:18SPEAKER_04: Next week on the Hissing Feline, join me for a preview of the Cat Riders Association annual conference with Dusty Rainbow.
- 21:27SPEAKER_04: She is past president of the Cat Writers Association and is the 2026 conference co-chair.
- 21:35SPEAKER_04: If you are a shelter worker or part of the cat writing community, you'll want to hear all about this year's CWA conference taking place November 6 and 7 in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport area.
- 21:48SPEAKER_04: Be sure to follow this podcast and share it with other cat lovers.
- 21:52SPEAKER_04: Inspirational Cat Stories is next.
- 21:56SPEAKER_04: Remember to keep hurrying.
- 22:04SPEAKER_03: This is Inspirational Cat Stories.
- 22:07SPEAKER_03: Tales about the joys and quirks of cat ownership.
- 22:10SPEAKER_02: Hi everyone, here's a story about my cat Cameo.
- 22:14SPEAKER_02: Cameo was my mother's cat and lived with my mother for oh probably I'd say maybe eight or nine years as an only cat.
- 22:25SPEAKER_02: We would visit periodically with my guide dog, but she paid very little attention to the dog, wasn't afraid of the dog, but she was a pretty shy kitty.
- 22:36SPEAKER_02: It was sad when my mother was dying, and she said, Well, at least Cameo will get to move to California because I won't.
- 22:45SPEAKER_02: And it was just really a sad thought.
- 22:47SPEAKER_02: But Cameo came to live with my husband and me.
- 22:52SPEAKER_02: I had three guide dogs at the time.
- 22:55SPEAKER_02: I had my retired dog, my current guide dog, and my husband's dog, and we had a number of cats.
- 23:01SPEAKER_02: And Cameo fit into the household very nicely.
- 23:05SPEAKER_02: She was a very sweet girl, liked to be petted, but pretty much kept to herself.
- 23:10SPEAKER_02: She wasn't afraid of people.
- 23:13SPEAKER_02: But, you know, if they came to her, she would be petted and she would be very happy with that.
- 23:18SPEAKER_02: So we were very pleased with her, and I truly do not remember how old she was, but the day that it was necessary to euthanize my 12-year-old guide dog, who had gone blind a number of years before and had been retired, called the vet.
- 23:35SPEAKER_02: The vet was coming to the home and was obviously crying and very sad, and Cameo went under the table to be with Ivy, which was very unusual for her.
- 23:46SPEAKER_02: She sort of sat with Ivy and purred a little bit, and we were so pleased.
- 23:52SPEAKER_02: And then Cameo got into a chair and went to sleep, and the veterinarian came to the house, and a couple of friends were with us.
- 24:00SPEAKER_02: So we were sitting on the floor in a big circle around Ivy for the euthanasia.
- 24:06SPEAKER_02: And Cameo sort of suddenly woke up and went, I've got a job to do.
- 24:11SPEAKER_02: And she jumped down and went over to Ivy, as I mentioned, who was totally blind, and she put her paws on Ivy's paws and just purred as loud as she could purr.
- 24:22SPEAKER_02: And I said, Wow, she's purring her into death.
- 24:26SPEAKER_02: It was an incredible, incredible moment.
- 24:30SPEAKER_03: You've been listening to Inspirational Cat Stories, a weekly feature of the Hissing Feline podcast.
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