First thing, if your cats have been tested positive for feline leukemia it is always important that another test be done to confirm this. No test is 100% accurate and for something as serious as feline leukemia, you want to be sure you have correct test results. Many cats can be infected and not show signs of illness. In some cases, this will remain the case and in others the virus will start to cause disease.
Your question about vaccines and your kitten being infected is a complicated one but I'll try to answer it as simply as I can. First, I hope each of your cats was tested before they received the vaccines. If they were not tested before vaccination, you cannot necessarily say the vaccines have failed, as they could have been positive before. This is why it is recommended ALL cats be tested for Feline Leukemia. And again, it is important to confirm that your cat and kitten are both truly positive for the virus. Back to vaccines, there are many reasons why a vaccine may not work. First of all, no vaccine is 100% effective. The vaccine could have been handled or stored inappropriately; it could have been administered inappropriately (too late, wrong manner, not boostered at the beginning of the series, etc.). In the case of your kitten, one possible cause of vaccine failure is interference from antibodies she received from her mother. If she still had antibodies from her mother’s milk, the vaccine is less likely to work (this is why we do repeated vaccines, weeks apart for our kittens).
I would talk to your veterinarian further about confirming your cat's leukemia status and if they are indeed positive, what options you have to keep them as healthy as possible. I hope all will go well for you and your cats.
Source: http://www.catchow.com
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