at what age are the FelV and FIV tests accurate?

Doing a web search I come up with everything from they can be tested at any time to it's not accurate till 6 mos. At what age do you usually test kittens?

There are about 5 doctors at the veterinary practice I take my cats to. The vet I usually deal with told me (last fall) he couldn't test kittens until they were at least 12 wks. old. When I took the most recent litter up to be checked (when they had diarrhea and weren't eating) I saw a different (younger) vet who told me she could test them then (they were 2-3 wks old). She did and the results were negative. She warned that there could be a false positive at that age but if it was negative then they were negative. The rescue group we're fostering for told me I shouldn't trust the results because they were so young. So now I'm confused.

The kittens are now 7 weeks old and are itchy to get out of the cat play pen I'm keeping them in. I don't want them interacting with my resident cats unless I'm pretty sure they aren't positive. So do I need to get them re-tested? Are they old enough yet?

Thanks

Just so you know your cat never had it, he tested positive because he was showing exposure to it but managed to fight it off and never got the virus which is why he is now negative. There is no cure for Felv so he could never have had the virus.

As for when to test you can't really test kittens until their veins are big enough to get blood out of with a needle which is usually 6 weeks. To test before then you have to use a different test not a blood test which some vets don't think is as accurate.

While its true that a cat can test positive and later negative because they have been exposed to the virus and fought it off, it is also true they can test negative and then turn positive if the test is done to quickly after exposure. All this makes it very confusing but its an extremely small percentage that will come down with felv after a negative test.

On testing kittens and having experamented with tests I have never yet found a kitten less then 12 weeks to be positive where the kittens mother has been negative and I've also never seen a positive mother who didn't also have positive kittens. It might be a bit of a waste of money having to test all the kittens and put them through that where its possible to test the mother.

It totally depends on the situation. An exclusive relationship between mother and kittens I would tend to agree with you, but if there is any mingling of families, it happens. (aka a shelter environment or a large feral colony)

I would suggest you read the book The Very Healthy Cat Book: A Vitamin and Mineral Program for Optimal Feline Cat by Wendell O. Belfield and/or check out http://www.wholisticanimal.com/fip.html

There are a lot of studies on the effectiveness of Vitamin C and its ability to fight off a varity of devistating illnesses in cats.

Jack tested positive for Felv twice, six weeks apart after a known exposure to an felv / fip positive cat (long story). All five of my cats had high 'FIP titers' Now all five are negative. I'll never not give vitamin c to any cats I own.

Id also like to know how you think that he could be exposed to a virus, and make antibodies to it, but not actually 'have' it. He was exposed to it, it was in his system, but he did not get sick from it. it happens all the