AK THE VET: TESTS DETECT FELINE LEUKEMIA

Question: How can I tell if my cat has leukemia? Does leukemia always cause cancer?

Answer: The symptoms you are most likely to recognize are: weight loss, weakness, loss of appetite, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, mouth ulcers, and chronic infections.

Leukemia virus in cats can cause cancerous tumors to grow in any organ in your cat's body. The virus also can cause leukemias, which are cancerous blood cells circulating in the blood stream. Tumors and leukemia account for only a small percentage of the deaths caused by this virus. The virus infects the bone marrow and severely depresses the immune system. Due to this depression the body can not fight infection as it did before. As a result, more cats die from noncancerous conditions such as anemia and infections than from tumors and leukemias.

In some ways the action of the virus is similar to the virus that causes AIDS in humans. Infections can effect the respiratory system, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal system, lymph nodes, reproductive system, nervous system, skin, and eyes. Feline leukemia is a devastating disease and is almost always fatal. There are treatments which may prolong the cat's life, make it more comfortable, and on rare occasion seem to effect a cure.

An ideal way to combat leukemia is to have all newly adopted cats checked for the disease. There are tests which can detect leukemia virus in the blood stream. If the cat is negative, vaccines are available to protect your pet. The vaccines are not perfect, but they do safely protect the vast majority of felines receiving them.