Feline Leukemia Vaccine
Feline Leukemia virus causes disease in the lymph nodes and the bone marrow of infected cats. There is no cure for Feline Leukemia. Eighty-five percent of cats who contract Feline Leukemia will die within 3 years. Cats which go outdoors, or may come into contact with unknown cats are most at risk for contracting Feline Leukemia through cat-bites and saliva contamination of the eye, mouth or nose, even through heavy grooming. Feline Leukemia can also be passed from the mother cat to her kittens during pregnancy. In order to ensure the safety of your cat, we strongly recommend testing for Feline Leukemia before administering any vaccines or performing any surgeries to your cat. Some kittens which test positive for Feline Leukemia may test negative a few months later, as cats and kittens that test negative but have a known exposure to an infected cat may test positive as late as 90 days after exposure. For these reasons retesting of positive kittens and negative exposed cats may necessary. Vaccination for Feline Leukemia is recommended only for the high-risk cats which may come in contact with infected cats.
Our protocol at Wise Road Animal Hospital is to administer Feline Leukemia vaccine (and one booster) for kittens and cats aged 9 weeks old and older. After the age of 2 years we only recommend giving Feline Leukemia vaccine to cats in the high-risk category.
