FeLV - don't know much about this, does anyone?

[LanguidLobster]

Lost very loved little cat recently and it appears she had leukaemia (she didn't have blood tests as vet said she was too ill: diarrhoea, floppiness, nodules, weight loss, no resistance to fleas). Eating ok though.

Is this really common? It's something I've not heard of before with cats although ironically I lost a person dear to me through leukaemia

It's nothing at all like human leukaemia. It's infectious for a start. It's fairly rare, but we come across pockets of it. So all/most of stray/feral cats in a particular area (a block of gardens or streets) will have it for example. It is very, very infectious and any cats in our care that have it will have to have full infection control protocol and be completely isolated.

Those that have it, but have no symptoms, are likely to fall ill and die within a couple of years.

There is a vaccine against it, but for some reason that is generally only offered to young cats. I think that older cats are less likely to catch it, but that's a bit of it that I don't really understand.

Does that help?

It does a bit, thank you - it's not confirmed that mine had it but I'm confused still about what went wrong so quickly and seems symptoms match and why vets said instantly she had to go.

Actually that does help thanks, if I ever got a cat again I'd look into all vaccines and educate myself more

When they do succumb to it it takes them very quickly. From no symptoms to death in a few days is common.