We had four beautiful, loving cats in our family. There was Ducky (tabby), Charlie (Norwegon forest cat), Ozzy (mix), and Stuppy (Siamese,Calico). We loved them with all our hearts. Spoiled rotten! All of our cats are rescue cats, and Ducky was new to the family. We accepted Ducky into the family because I had thought I found a home for him (they changed their mind), but we were unaware that he was infected with a cancerous disease.

4 months later, within less than a week, he lost a pound, stopped eating, starting drinking excessively, wasn’t going to the bathroom. I work at an animal hospital, so I have gained some knowledge of diseases and illnesses. I noticed he was midly dehydrated and was anemic. I took him in for a test. We thought he had a UTI, but we were wrong. He was infected long before we even accepted him into our home. He has BOTH FeLV/FIV and it was long term, so it developed a cancer among that and it was killing him. He didn’t have a few days to live. We put him down that very day.

He passed it on to our cat Ozzy, which has possibly passed it on to Stuppy and Charlie. Now, we are treating Ozzy with “Interferon” which is used to ‘boost’ the immune system. He isn’t showing symptoms, and he has a weak positive. We have to retest Stuppy and Charlie in 90 days. They showed up negative in their tests, so we vaccinated them, and have to give them an annual “booster” vaccination is 3 weeks. But that doesnt’ mean they don’t have it. The virus has to “work” it’s way through the blood and into the bone marrow before we really know if they are positive. I advise everybody, to please, get your cats tested and vaccinated. We have a risk of losing ALL our cats..and this has all happened within a couple months. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Our hearts are heartbroken.