Fiv

[alexgirl73]

I so know where you are coming from Elaine. It's just so damn sad.

[Elaine]

Just another thought....

As we know that the in-house test is not accurate, would it not be more cost effective for rescues to simply by-pass the in-house test all together? Rather than going for it then having to have it confirmed anyway.
Do all rescues have it confirmed or do they trust the in-house test?

[alexgirl73]

Tbh I'm not sure. I think when it is an adult cat it is more reliable (but don't quote me on that lol).

[yola]

As you probably know, I inherited an old stray tom who was FIV+. When we took him to the vet for his initial tests and we were told this, I didn't know much about the condition but after a few solid evening's online research we decided that we would and could take him on. Fifi and Balie were much younger then but were predominently indoors only and Ferdy showed no sign of agression or (and certainly after he'd been neutered) much of an inclination to wander much beyond the garden gate.

He didn't groom the others but did share food and water bowls.

My 2 old Persians are still with me and, apart from elderly puss ailments are absolutely fine. Of course, had there been a fight and one of them been bitten it might be a different story.

What I'm trying to say is that each cat needs to be assessed individually as to its personality and propensity for fighting/wandering. I understand that a cat may fight in protection rather than aggression but I would not hesitate to take on another FIV if I had the space.

Oh, and Ferdy cost us an absolute fortune and the vet and was a tatty, stinky black old thing but he was just the most loveable and precious fella and I think of him all the time.

Oh and also my silly old Mum kept on panicking about 'won't you catch it too' - especially once Dominik had been born Took a while to set her right on that one!!

Excellent and informative thread Elaine; hugely important to raise awareness of FIV+ and address its misconceptions.

[Elaine]

Originally Posted by alexgirl73

Tbh I'm not sure. I think when it is an adult cat it is more reliable (but don't quote me on that lol).

I dont think it is Alex.

Sorry for quoting you

[smudgley]

Originally Posted by alexgirl73

We've just had a 6 week old kitten handed in to us, found hiding underneath a car bless him. He's testd positive in house for FIV and we've now sent off a sample to Glasgow. He'll be fostered until he's about 16 weeks and then tested again, if he remains positive, he'll go to one of the shelters as we seem to have a better chance of rehoming him that way than we do in branch. Unfortunately though, we can't always do this, as a lot of time we simply don't have the room to keep FIV cats seperate from others and they have to be PTS

Why did they do a snap test on a 6 wk old kitten? The ELIZA type tests only tesrs for anibodies to the virus, not the virus itself, so snap testing should only be done after 13 weeks of age

[calismum]

Elaine, thanks for bringing this up and presenting all that info.

I have had two experiences with FIV.

1 - I had 3 cats, (Shanti, Pepper and Smudge) all indoor at the time. I rescued a cat (Max) that had obviously been in some type of accident, he had open wounds on his leg and side. He received vet treatment and came to live with me for only a short time, he died after 10 days. Vet phoned me to tell me he had tested positive for FIV and he suggested I should get my three tested after (I think) 6 weeks. Pepper came back positive. She was an extremely nervous cat who I had from 6 weeks old from a feral litter. She spent most of her life on the top of the cupboard worrying about things. So how she was infected from him I'll never know and I often wonder if she had had it all her life - but then, why did she not infect my other two cats who she did share food, water, litter etc with.

2 - I had Misty who was an indoor cat by her choice. Again, I rescued a lovely black cat (Sid) who had been living in our coal shed with his two daughters. (Shadow and Munchkin) He probably had been in a few fights but after he was neutered and settled down he would spent time in the house. Misty and Sid used to groom each other and often snuggled up to sleep.

After about 7 years he was getting v thin and was often sick, took him to vet - tests came back as FIV positive. Sadly he was PTS not long after that as he developed a chest infection and it just destroyed him. I asked my vet to test Misty. She was negative. How she didn't catch it I don't understand.

My point I suppose is that FIV cats may infect your non FIV animals, however, they also may not. If I had the same situation again, I'd change nothing.

[pcspik]

Excellent post information post. I was actually in the middle of doing one, but you beat me to it. So I will add a couple of things that dont seem to be covered:-

Vets

A good vet is essential when you have a FIV cat. Unfortunately not all cats are good when it comes to FIV. FIV can bring out the worst in a vet.

Beware of a vet who advocates that an FIV cat should be put to sleep. A cat should be only pts if there are other circumstances (for example severely ill or feral), not because the vet believes in the best interest. There are sadly some vets like this. I know of someone whose FIV cat frequently gets gingitivitis. Sadly each time she visited her vet he suggested it should be pts, when it was (otherwise) happy and healthy. She fortunately did not listen to him and she has now changed practices to a more friendly one. Just because a cat is FIV positive it does not mean it is entitled to a lesser standard of care. If you come across a vet (or indeed a practice) who is like that, change practices!

I have also experienced negative responses from that same practice and I have changed from them too, purely because I do think that my cats deserve better. So with that practice it is not limited to one vet or one owner.

Boarding

What Elaine said. However be aware that there are some very ignorant cattery owners about. The same person as above was going to board her FIV positive cat and they refused to take it unless she was happy it was being left in a pod for two weeks. A pod is btw, a very small space which gives very little chance for exercise (since it is about the space of a very large cardboard box). They also tried to charge her extra because "the cat would need extra care, in particular barrier nursing". (Barrier nursing is btw, when they have to cover every single area of their body, wearing an uniform over their usual clothing and protective footwear. It is usually used for infectious diseases such as ringworm.) Ironically that cattery was attached to a veterinary practice!

Fortunately she asked me what cattery I used. My local one does not charge any extra because the cat is FIV positive. Also where possible they put them in the single pen which is not surrounded immediately by any other cats which means if there is any disease going about, they are less liable to catch it. She in the end used them and was very happy with the care the cat got, and is going to use them in the future.

Also another thing, is that you not in danger from a FIV cat in regards biting and scratching. We recently had someone in our local shelter go and visit an FIV positive cat we had. Unfortunately with the recent hot weather we had it made him rather grumpy and he bit the lad who was stroking (the cat is rather gentle and does not bite very hard) him. The boy was shocked but the dad flipped out and despite several people telling him that FIV does not effect anything but other cats was completely convinced that his son was going to get something horrid! In fact he was going to get him down to the local Casualty department as soon as he left the building. (God knows what happened to him there as there was not even a mark on the boy.) It's people like that which FIV cats do not need.

My two cats are FIV positive. My last cat had to be PTS who was also FIV positive. However he died of kidney failure and not anything to do with his FIV status. I do agree with article about a cat being FIV positive living potentially for a long time, we had a 16 year old FIV cat once in our shelter. Out of our 3 current FIV cats we have at the shelter they are 8, 9 and 5 years old.

I personally strongly recommend FIV cats to anyone. In fact I have written an article about FIV cats for my local Cats Protection member newsletter. If anyone is interested in it, I can dig it out, although I will have to edit some bits out for privacy purposes.

Originally Posted by Elaine

Just another thought....

As we know that the in-house test is not accurate, would it not be more cost effective for rescues to simply by-pass the in-house test all together? Rather than going for it then having to have it confirmed anyway.
Do all rescues have it confirmed or do they trust the in-house test?

Our local shelter does the SNAPP test and then sends the blood off just to double check. Both Jack (now deceased) and Tigger (one of the two current cats I have) had SNAPP done and then ELISA. Both of course confirmed it.

Pickle as he originally came from the vets, I don't know what they did, as the RSPCA paid for his test, and not the Cats Protection. The vet practice actually lost his paperwork which stated he was actually FIV positive, so the shelter just did a SNAPP test as precaution because they knew that he was going to live with another FIV positive cat. That showed up positive, but they did not send any further blood samples off, as they felt it would be a waste of money and resources (plus it would delay me taking him home and they needed the pen badly as they had an open day two days later!).

[dandysmom]

I for one would be interested in reading that; no such thing as too much information.

[pcspik]

Ok here it is. How it actually came about is that the then media relations officer asked me to write a bit about the cat I had at the time (Jack). I adopted him in early 2007 and the article was written on the 1st April of that year.

The people who are responsible for the newsletter are actually against putting medical/cat care information. So really it is a more of a personal thing, but I would still like to include it as I think it is still interesting, even though it makes me cry when I read now.

------------

Jack is a 6-year-old male, who I adopted from the [name removed]. I have been volunteering since November 2004. In mid December 2006, my circumstances changed so I was finally able to adopt a cat of my own. However due to the fact that Christmas was impending and other circumstances, I did not start my quest until February of this year.

Jack originally came in as a stray along with another cat, which was quickly adopted. Jack unfortunately stayed nearly 6 months, as the other cat was healthy and fairly young, with no real problems. During that time I came to know him. Jack surely won the award for being the nosiest cat there; the local radio station encouraged us to “sing along” and Jack certainly took them up at their word!! Despite this, most of the time he was a lovely, friendly kitty. He had 2 failed adoptions; both people changed their minds for various reasons, and certainly nothing to do with his temperament. I guess that the fact that his FIV positive status, plus his one eye (removed due to a untreated infection) bothered people who went through the door. Plus late last year, his chronic renal deficiency was diagnosed, which everyone is not always happy to pay for his specialised diet, especially considering the cost and availability in comparison to other cat foods available from the supermarket is considered.

When it came to the time I was able to choose a cat of my own, it had to be an indoors only cat. Like I stated previously, I had been volunteering for a fair while, and invariably I had fallen in love with some previous cats. They all (bar one) turned out to be male, so my preference was for another male. Age I was not bothered about, in fact I was prepared to take a cat older than what he is. I chose Jack because he was (and still is) such a character. He was such a lovely and brilliant kitty; in fact he was popular with most of the volunteers/staff. It was only the visitors that couldn’t see “past the label”. I knew I definitely did not want a kitten. I wanted something a bit more sensible, though at times you could hardly call Jack sensible. I had gained knowledge from previous cats about the FIV situation before, and to be honest, I was not bothered about it, as I knew that any cat (especially a male), which required an indoors only home, would have it. I did, refresh my knowledge and the risks, and read more information about his kidney problem via the internet before taking him on. I know that both problems will mean that Jack’s life span will always be in question, but to me he was (and is) worth it. Besides, even on a non-FIV, non-chronic renal disease cat, there is no guarantee that it will live to an old age. I lost two cats at a young age (one due to the fact I was living by an busy road, the other to feline leukaemia) when I was a kid.

Once I managed to take Jack home, the first time he seemed to be coping quite well. When he was first let out of the carrier, he seemed quite calm, in fact all he did was walk around the room, eat some dried food, walk around the room again, and settled down into his bed. A couple of days later, he was let out of the room he was in into the majority of the flat, however his bed was soon abandoned in favour of the over £700 memory foam mattress on my bed!! From there his personality grew and he more than rules the roost!! We have daily fights over the chair (unfortunately his and my favourite chair are the same; as soon I leave it, he occupies it). He is into everything and anything, he loves to be nosey!! He enjoys his daily past time of climbing onto the windowsill and watching the world outside. He also enjoys climbing and sitting on visitors, I am currently doing a project through the people who are housing me, and he tries to bite the pen!! But the biggest fight is at mealtimes, he tries to eat whatever I am!! He stares at me (considering he has only one eye, it is unnerving how it can be), and if it is something he really wants, he will jump onto the chair and try to nick it off the plate!! Jack is a quieter cat than what he was at the shelter, although he is nosiest when he is hungry!! Jack sleeps with me every night, I do wonder if he is part human sometimes, as he likes to sleep with one duvet under him and one on top, with his head poking out!!

Despite all of this, and the fact he gets called Monkey as often as Jack, he is still a brilliant cat who I would not swap for the entire world. Jack seems more than happy here and as I write this, he is trying to help!! (i.e. biting the pen!). I recommend people wherever possible, to look beyond the FIV status, as they are truly great cats, as Jack certainly proves.