Animal Welfare Professionals

Have any large, open intake shelters moved away from pre-emptively testing all cats for FeLV/FIV and instead offered it as a “service” be willing to share their anecdotal experiences? 

We test all cats for FeLV upon intake, no exceptions. Once our cats are cleared for adoption, they are allowed to intermingle with other cats in our shelter and the risk of not testing for FeLV is too great.

Neither large, nor open-intake.  As we intermingle cats and place them in foster care, it is necessary for us to test all for FeLV.  FIV is less of a worry.  I have read the literature (heavily promoted by IDEXX) that indicates that SNAP ELISA tests are less likely to indicate false positives than lateral flow ELISA kits, which are less expensive.  At our relatively small numbers, it hasn't been an issue.  The one cat we have had test positive on ANY ELISA for FeLV was a kitten who was symptomatic, at least to my eye, with a rough coat and some thriftiness issues.  He was adopted out to a family who understood his lifetime was probably limited and that he couldn't be around other cats.

Similarly, using combo tests, we have had two kittens in recent memory test positive for FIV.  One was about 8 weeks and resolved to negative at 5.5 months.  One is a recent acquisition and we hope she too will resolve to negative, but if not, we feel confident that FIV+ kittens and cats are not significantly higher risk adoptions, even to multi-cat households.

We are a "big"ger shelter. We complete around 6000 adoptions per year. We do test all felines upon Intake. Luckily for our kitties here, the results aren't a death sentences. We will place FIV/FeLV positive felines up for adoption assuming they aren't symptomatic. They may take a little longer to get adopt but it sure beats the alternative.

Lauren