Hello,
i just want to share my experience. Few months back, my cat is dignose with FIV. The doctor use the"Snap" test, something like pregnancy test kit to determine the present of FIV antibody in my cat's blood. We tried it twice. It was really heartbroken because i know that FIV is not curable.
I've learnt that the FIV antibody exist due to the present of FIV virus in the blood. Antibody fights viruses.
So i made some research about it and i found out that " false positive" does exist. Means that the snap test is not that realiable.
If FIv is found in the kitten who got the virus from the mother, it means that it might be infected or it is an antibody inherited by the mother, but will go after the kitten more than 6 months old.
But my cat is 2 years old at the time, so that is not the case.
The snap test shows a very faint line on the test kit, which the vet still presume it as positive.
So, the internet says it is better if we send the blood/serum for lab test.
So i've called the goverment vet dept and ask if we have such facilities in malaysia to perform western blot or immunofluorescence test as the references test. Unfortunately, we dont have it here.
So i was devastated and kind of heartbroken.
At the same time, my sister suggest to send my cat's serum to this lab in edinburgh scotland called as biobest. You can google it online.
So i contacted them and they confirmed that they can performed the ref test above. So i've sent the serum there. it cost me a lot, but it was satisfactory.
I had to go to the nearest vet, the drawn some blood from my cat, then went to the vet dept in shah alam , to process the blood into serum, and also apply for export permit, then went to DHL to post it cost me RM288 ringgit just for the postage, but worth it because it arrive at the lab in 3 days!!
After waiting for 3 more days, the results is here! it was FIV NEGATIVE!!...
so, all the troble that i went, it was really worth it.
So, to all FIV cat owner ( determine by the snap test), i urged you to try the lab test , it is not expensive , the test only cost me less than 30 pound. you can use post laju, much more cheaper. who know, it might be false positive.
Fiv
