This retrospective cohort study aimed to estimate survival times and evaluate select predictor factors on survival in cats that tested positive for FIV antibodies and/or FeLV antigen. Of the 816 cats tested, 117 (14.3%) tested positive for infection, of which 60 were FIV positive, 46 were FeLV positive, and 11 were both FIV and FeLV positive. Seroprevalence rates for FIV, FeLV, and FIV–and-FeLV–coinfected cats were thus 7.4%, 5.6%, and 1.4%, respectively.
Survival data agreed with previous studies.2,3,5-9 Survival time for FIV-infected cats was not statistically different as compared with retrovirus-negative cats. Median survival times for FeLV-infected and FIV–and-FeLV–coinfected cats were significantly shorter (714 days and 77 days, respectively) as compared with retrovirus-negative and FIV-infected cats (3960 days and 2040 days, respectively). Median age at diagnosis for FIV-infected cats (5 years) was higher than for FeLV- infected cats (2 years), and median age of coinfected cats was 7 years. Despite shorter survival times, some cats with FeLV and cats with FIV and FeLV lived much longer than their respective median survival times (as long as 8.5 years and 4.9 years, respectively). The wide survival time distribution highlights that FeLV infection is not necessarily suggestive of an immediate death, and clinicians should assess FeLV-infected and coinfected cats case by case. Only reduced RBC count was shown to correlate negatively with median survival time in all retroviral-infected cats.